Reply to: I have a £2800 CC bill I can pay off nxt week...

[Gordon Gecko]

Is roadster the most idiotic poster on this forum?

Nearly 15% APR???



Hold it as 'savings' mate. It's a no-brainer.

[rootsnall]

Financial matters have never been my strongpoint

You are not kidding !

[moorfield]

Yes. Pay it off.

If you have an offset mortgage draw funds from that if you need to it is much cheaper debt than a credit card.

[roadster198]

Pay it off, I started down the road of 0% credit cards 8 years ago and have built up a sizeable balance since then. Still on 0% but it has grown too much and now I have vowed to get it down by 1k a month.

However if you do need 0% take a look at CapitalOne as they give 6 months and I beleive they dont charge a transfer fee.

Capital one is who I'm with. They have a call center in India... TOTAL MURDER to get them to understand what your saying. THERE'S the reason right there!!! thanks all

I'm paying it off due to their PHISH! call center

[bellymonster]

Pay it off, I started down the road of 0% credit cards 8 years ago and have built up a sizeable balance since then. Still on 0% but it has grown too much and now I have vowed to get it down by 1k a month.

However if you do need 0% take a look at CapitalOne as they give 6 months and I beleive they dont charge a transfer fee.

[beaker]

Pay it off dude. Make things easy for yourself, don't buy anything unneccessary while you're on the bench. Stop using your credit card as well, you're just delaying the inevitable...

[zathras]

However I'm also on my last day of the contract to-day.

I have the money to pay it off without harming the backup fund.

Should I do it or keep paying the min amount until I get work again and then pay it off? The APR is 14.9 or something.

I'd feel like I'd achieved something if I pay it off next week though

Pay it off. New borrowing on a credit card is cheaper - for a start you are not paying interest on interest. Also it stops the credit card company playing silly buggers by allocating any payment to the cheapest debt, so purchases are paid off before any cash advances.

[roadster198]

What would be the reason for not paying it off?

It would add an extra month onto the "Being on the Bench Fund" which will already stretch to 5 months.

[expat]

However I'm also on my last day of the contract to-day.

I have the money to pay it off without harming the backup fund.

Should I do it or keep paying the min amount until I get work again and then pay it off? The APR is 14.9 or something.

I'd feel like I'd achieved something if I pay it off next week though

What would be the reason for not paying it off?

[miffy]

Can't you do a balance transfer onto another card at 0% and then pay it back slowly whilst you're on the bench?

I see virginmoney are still offering a card with that facility for 15 months.

I thought those crazy deals would be long gone with the credit crunch.

Depends on how big your bench fund is. Personally I'd pay if off if I had the cash.

[KevinS]

Find a 0% interest credit card (if such a beast still exists), transfer the balance into it (taking the 3% fee hit) and then stuff the cash into a fixed deposit for the length of time the 0% lasts, paying the minimum each month.. Then, when the fixed deposit matures, pay off the balance on the card..

[Swiss Tony]

Pay it off now. Otherwise you will still be paying 14.9% APR until your next contract.

Worse case scenario you pay it off and then have to borrow again. At least the APR will be on a smaller amount of money borrowed so lower payments and less money lost on interest.

[gingerjedi]

Pay it off... it will make you more hungry for work.

After all this time I can't believe I've still got debts, then I think back and realise we have 2 newish cars, nice house, lots of luxury holidays etc etc... all the things we never had when I was a permy.

Expenditure rises to exceed income and all that.

[roadster198]

Financial matters have never been my strongpoint

I'll pay it off then thank you

[Peoplesoft bloke]

At the risk of getting told off - this is what the dense cliche ridden Amercians would call a "no brainer" isn't it? There's no way you could make 14.9% on the cash - or probably even the monthy equivalent so it makes sense to pay it off - innit, like WHS, OMG