Quick Sanity Check On No Brainer Please

RedDino308

Hi Everyone,

Recently I've been trying to sort out my C.Card debts by shifting them to lower interest rates. The current situation is roughly as follows:

C.Card 1: £200 18.5%
C.Card 2: £3.8K 17.9%
C.Card 3: £8.5K 17.5%
C.Card 4: £4.5K 2.6%/year --> for 24 months
C.Card 5: £4.5K 0% --> for 13 months

Cards 4 and 5 are new (this month) and the amounts on them are from balance transfers from card 1. They are both pretty much at their limit.

The good news is that I can afford to meet the minimum payments each month and pay a reasonable chunk off the debt. Also, my SOA is looking pretty darned good thanks to all the good advice on MSE and my spending diary .

I have a credit limit of £15K on Card 1. They recently sent me some credit card cheques which if used before 6th June will qualify for 0% interest for 9 months but with a 3% fee that does incur interest. My thoughts are that I should:
a) Clear down the £200 amount on C.Card 1 as soon as I get paid.
b) Use the credit card cheques to shift the amounts from C.Card 2 and C.Card 3 to C.Card 1 at 0%.
c) Cancel cards 2 and 3.

Can anyone see any reason for not doing this? I can't but I seem to spent so long recently getting my finances into a better state that my brain is turning into Swiss Cheese and this is a lot of money so I don't want to mess it up.

Thanks for reading this far. Any advice or thoughts would be much appreciated.

RD308

suzialwaysbroke

I think the thing to ask is what does the % revert to after the 9 months are up & could you clear the debt before this date?

Suzi

RedDino308

Hi Suzi,

After the 9 months it would revert back to 18.5% (variable).

I would expect to clear a significant chunk of it during that period.

One possibility is attacking the debts in order of shortest time to run on the low percentages and doing a bit of tarting if needs be.

RD308

RedDino308

Bump

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

I guess you've all been watching the footie..

andan

I agree with what Suzie has said. You've obviously given it a lot of thought though and looking at it i don't really see a problem with it and what your saying makes sense. If i was in your situation then i think i would do what your planning. I'd definately cancel the two surplus cards and in nine months time you may be in a position to shift the debt to another 0% card.

RedDino308

Hi Both,

Thank you for your comments. Its good to know that my thinking on this seems reasonable and I'm not losing my marbles.

RD308

Wesker

It might be worth keeping the other cards once you have cleared them, just dont use them at all.
Then after several months of no use they might offer you a 0% deal so you can transfer some of the money back after 9 months if you havent paid it off by then.
I have several cards that havent been used for a long time and they keep offering me 0% deals

RedDino308

Hi,

Thanks for that Wesker, I hadn't thought about that side of it - it could provide a good get out of jail free card if I need it!!

RD308