Can you please help me find out whats the best option for me?

Question

I have 15K coming in which I want to use to clear the following debts:

i was hoping to pay off my car but it's still on finance and have 8k left on it. The idea was to pay it off and sell it as we already have another car and a motorbike which my partner and i have are happy with.

I owe a catalogue and that's £1700.

I owe credit card £4K which i was hoping to clear

I owe my parents £3K.

which one should i clear first as priority i was hoping to have some left to keep as savings for future reference but calculating those either way I don't think I will have any left. If you had those options which one would you clear first. I was also hoping to start improving my account as since after christmas I seem to live on my overdraft. We have a mortgage and we both work and have 2 daughters. Can you help!! I have no excuses for getting myself into stupid debts. And how to improve my credit rating?

Answer 1

I would pay the credit card first, then the catalogue and then your parents last

Answer 2

pay off the car first, then the catalogue and credit card.

Either sell the car and pay off you parents or agree a repayment with the monies saved.

Either way learn  and do not get into debt again!

    

Answer 3

Clear the credit card with its dangerous clause conditions for higher penalty rates; pay your parents off just because; pay the catalogue debt and make regular payments vs. the car unless you want to reduce what you owe for positive trade possibility.  The car, as collateral, is a secured loan; if worse came to worse it could be repossessed without further claim on you.  Save some money for the proverbial rainy day.

Answer 4

If I where you the first debt I would clear is the one to my parents, reason being, if you need to borrow from them again they would be fairly happy to lend it again.

The next has to be Credit card,for obvious reasons. I would put the remainder into an ISA which pays a higher rate of interest. Also if you can open a monthly saver account, if you can manage to put £30 or more p/c/m into that, it would help your credit rating.Try if you can not to use your overdraft, that too will help your rating.

As for the car, well do you really need two and motorbike?? Depending on how old the other car is why not sell it and put the money from to good use, ie:pay catalogue off.I hope that I have been of some help to you, this comes from my previous experiences from being in debt.

Answer 5

I would pay off your parents first , then catalogue, then credit.

your parents probably need the money more than your creditors, and you would get their personal respect for living up to your debts to them

Answer 6

You are the only person armed with all the information to answer this.

The first point here is simple finance. You pay off the highest interest loans first. The exception to this rule is a morral one. You presumably don't pay any interest on the loan from your parents and that doesn't mean that you should put it to the bottom of the pile. They could be earning interest on it if you hadn't borrowed it so its not a free loan.

It sounds like your debts exceed the 15K windfall which you are expecting. There is almost no logic in the idea of holding back some of the cash whilst you have outstanding debts. The interest on the money is very unlikely to exceed the interest on your loans.

Spend the whole lot on paying off your debts and then work hard to pay off the remaining balance of your debts and then live within your means in the future.

The only exceptions to the above are if you will incur any early repayment penalties or have initially paid over the odds for something in return for an interest free credit agreement.

As far as your credit rating goes, it sounds like you are inclined towards borrowing. You don't want a good credit rating, it will only help you borrow more!

Sorry to sound severe but it is simple. Debt is bad! Debt is the currency of slaves.

Answer 7

I would pay off the car, then the credit card, then your parents.  That would use up all of the 15K.  Since you plan on selling your car, I would use those proceeds to start a savings/investment account.

I would pay the catalog off using the monthly cash savings from the car and the credit card.  I bet you could have that debt paid off in less than 6 months.  Once the debt is paid off, I would use the monthly payment to fix any shortfalls in your budget and then save the remainder.

As for your credit rating, once you have all of these debts paid off, your credit rating will improve.  Some questions though, why do you care about your credit rating?  Do you plan on borrowing more money anytime soon?  Whenever I see people ask how to improve their credit rating, they want to borrow more money and start the debt cycle all over again.

The next thing is going to be hard to do.  You need to follow this mantra, or whatever you want to call it.  If you need a credit card to pay for something, you can't afford it.  That applies to all everyday purchases.

Answer 8

1. Pay off the credit card first.

2. Check with your parents if they need the money. If yes, pay them off. If no, then pay your parents 1k. Let them know you will pay the rest after you sell off your car.

3. Pay off your overdraft.

4. Pay off your catalogue.

5. Pay off the car finance. Sell the car.

6. Now that your car is sold, you should expect some savings in fuel, auto-insurance, auto maintenance and so on. Put all these savings into your emergency fund.

You can improve your credit by making sure you pay your credit cards and loans on time.

Answer 9

pay off credit card, ur parents and the car finance and then sell the car and pay off the catalogue and put the rest in a high interest savings account

Answer 10

The "experts" say to pay your highest interest debt first (credit cards) and work your way backwards, leaving items such as school loans, etc., for last as not only do they traditionally have the lowest interest, it actually helps your credit rating (as long as you pay on time) over the long run.

Though you are getting the lowest interest from your parents, I would pay them first (emotional reasons) along with your credit card debt. I do not know how much interest is with your catalogue, but you can choose to pay that and bank the rest, keeping up with your payments on the car. Or, sell the car and use the money from the sale to pay the remaining amount on the car since you want to get rid of it anyway.

Answer 11

Pay your credit card, the catalogue and your parents. Get rid of the car and get an old banger. Improve your credit: http://www.mycashplus.co.uk/about-cashpl...

Answer 12

You need to pay the ones with the highest interest rate off first.

Suggest you give yourself a money make over, check out:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/

The forum on this site is good place to get advice on money saving matters.

Reduce spending by getting the best deals on insurance, phone etc.

You might want to consider paying the car off if you intend to sell it as the longer you leave it the less it will be worth.