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Say you have five credit cards that you need to pay off, each with different interest amounts and balances. How do you pay them off the fastest?
1. $500      interest 0.005%
2. $5011    interest 0.035%
3. $3016    interest 0.015%
4. $8976    interest 0.04%
5. $16000  interest 0.09%
You already moved around your balances and this is the best interest rates you can get.
You only have an extra $80 per month after all the bills are paid and have cut down on any extra expenses so the $80 is all you have to work with. Which credit card should be payed off first, second and so on, for the fastest payback?

Should work on all scales from entire countries to individuals.

Well, the first thing would be not to have behaved stupidly and not to have gotten into so much credit card debt. But as played (a phrase we use a lot in poker) I would use the snowball method (https://www.ramseysolutions.com/debt/how-the-debt-snowball-method-works): pay off small debts first, regardless of the interest. From smaller debt to bigger debt. It doesn't make mathematical sense so much as psychological sense, and that's the important thing.

- Aren't you the one who owes five credit cards OP?
Then now, you know the advice that can be given to you here in this forum on what to do so that you don't get in trouble, am I right?

In my honest answer, I don't know what to do in such a scenario, because I don't have a credit card and I know that it's not good to have a credit card because you'll end up in more debt.

This might be wrong, but I would definitely look to pay up the one with less debt in it. I know that paying up the debt with highest interest rate would look better, but I just feel like if I can remove the number of debts instead of amount, I would be able to focus easier. So, I would pay up the one with $500 and least interest first, then move up from there.

However, if I have this much debt and only 80 dollars to pay them, that's a problem, we are talking about 30k+ dollars debt and only 80 dollars per month to pay it, banks would not allow you to keep paying them with this little amount of money, they will ask you to pay a lot more per month to cover this for sure.

Credit cards don't have such low rates, unless you happen to be in an interest free rate sort of offer. Credit cards commonly charge 10, 20, 30% or even higher - not fractions of a percent. If you wanted to pay the least amount in interest then you would simply pay off the highest interest rate card and work your way down the list, it's not a difficult concept to understand. The amount owed on the card is pretty much irrelevant in that scenario, as you have to pay back the borrowed capital and just want to seek it increasing by paying off the highest charging card until the balance is all cleared. It is not a complicated calculation, although in other circumstances with a card or two with mega low balances, you might want to pay them off first just to consolidate and have a little more peace of mind that there are less cards outstanding.

Only 80 dollars per month can be destined to pay the debt? That is less than 1k per year, besides I do not know if the numbers on the interest column are wrong because it is impossible for a credit card to have such a low interest, I could believe 9% per month but not 0.09%, if that is the case then that 1k per year would not be even enough to pay the interest rate of a single month from the fifth credit card, so someone with that kind of debt and such a low amount of money has probably ruined their life already.

For sure its his credit cards and this is really something a pit fall for those who do make out bad spending or not really that eager on paying up their credit cards. :D
I do already have a trauma on using up these cards yet i do have bad experiences with these but eventually you would really make yourself learn on spending wisely
once you had realized that it shouldnt really be spend up so easily.
Back on the topic made out by OP then short term duration loans or credits with having less interest might be look up ideal but making up some calculations
it would really be just the same into those long term ones which does have lesser % which these banks wont really be putting you on the easiest path imho.

The method financial planners recommend is to pay bills on time and never make a late payment.

All of which contribute towards having a better credit score with lower interest rates on credit cards, car and home loans.

I can't remember offhand what the average difference in monthly payments was but it is a significant sum of money for all but the super rich.

Arranging to pay for more items on a monthly basis to give credit chex networks more data to track on payments made successfully on time might help to increase personal credit scores.

Being wealthier and having a larger account balance could also contribute towards having lower interest payments.

5 credit cards. Wow. And I have none. Thankfully.  :D I don't like credits, it's just an addition for more stress when you have more think about than that stupid plastic card.
Why 5?
I hear you could stretch your credit amount whenever you use it frequently, so the other cards are unnecessary. The only solution for me if I am in that position is just to give back the other 4. Pay the the credit and move back to using cash. It will save you money because you are thinking twice before you spend it and makes you healthy by keeping you away from stress.

Pay off the card with the highest interest first because this particular card will swallow up any payments you make to the lower-interest cards, so you'll be back at square 1.

It's particularly the reason why I despise (and never had) CC debt in the first place.

Don't pay anything and just declare personal bankrupt/default. Many countries around the world have such option for the citizens to declare a personal default, if they can't payoff their debts. I don't know if your case scenario is real or just a theoretical example.
You can't payoff all that credit card debt with only 80 dollars per month. That's impossible. If you start paying off the debts on one credit card, the other four credit cards will charge you additional higher interest rates for not paying on time. Your overall debt will keep growing, even when you pay small amounts on one credit card. This seems more like a "debt spiral". Going bankrupt is the only way.

That's going to screw around with your credit score and could also have ramifications on your house/car/anything else you took a mortgage on. It should be used as a last resort when you've exhausted all other options.


But you're right. Or OP can try learning some skills to increase average profit or reduce expenses to have more money available to pay off all that debt. Or perhaps you can sell your house/car to cover all that in one go.

Well if $80 is all you have to clear all that backlog of debts then you prolly would never end of paying it up even in quite a lot of years to come, the amounts you have written in your OP sum up to quite a huge sum of money, and it is not feasible for $80 to pay up for all that. You could prolly discuss your situation with relatives that are more well-to-do than yourself, if they could help you with some money to pay off some of your debts, they could give you the money outrightly, or even if you are going to pay back it might not come with any interest or fixed payment time.

Having said that, even if you don't wish to do this, you might have to resort to selling your valuables, or doing extra jobs, but the thing is that you must do something that will fetch you more than $80 monthly to cover your debt, anything legal that will earn you more, notwithstanding the inconvenience has to be done.

And something else I would like to mention before I forget: avoid get-rich-quick schemes. They can be very tempting when you have a ton of debt to pay, but you will lose even more savings if you go down that route. Recently I talked to a guy who had gambling debt but lost a ton of money on buying fake wallet.dat file (another get-rich-quick scheme that is actually a scam).

Trying to pay off debts can be one serious calculus to contend with. In the sense that, one may have to think deeply as to which comes first as important. I learnt in a book I read sometime back, that paying off debt should not be done at once, instead, little fractions be paid off as an investment. What is meant is that, if the bills were incurred because they helped provide a solution to a pending need, it should first be attended to, because it can sure be an open tap to more opportunities(if you know what I mean).
Payments from the least, if possible in full. If not possible to be paid in full, it can be divided into fractions and cleared off from the least to the biggest. Big debts can also be paid in fractions, but if one is not careful, more debt can be incurred. Just like the saying, robbing Peter to pay Paul ain't a smart move most of the times.

Pay the one with lowest and continue till you owes nothing but damn here we are talking about credit card and I don't know where we have the interest rate as you given as example because in reality interest rate is 30 to 40% per annum for credit cards that is why you should be very careful whenever you're swiping your cards and do it only when you know you can pay off completely in the next billing cycle.

Op, having $80 extras from your monthly income will not be enough to pay for 5 credit cards. You should have calculated your monthly extra income and checked if you could afford to pay 5 credit cards. For you to pay that debt, you need to double or triple your job because no matter what type of calculation you would do, you will have a hard time paying all those debts.
Credit cards have high interest and we can't deny that having multiple types of lf will only be a temptation for us to buy even the unnecessary things that we want. It should serve as a lesson for you so as much as possible, don't borrow or even use credit cards too much.

If you lived in Russia and could not pay your loans, then many lawyers recommend that you stop paying loans if it is not a mortgage. The best decision will be in court when half of your salary is arrested and the bailiff will pay your debts from this amount. After the court decision, the amount is fixed and no interest is charged.

Assuming you are "asking for a friend", I would highly suggest that you pay off the ones that are easiest to pay. Personally it allows me to confidently be able to pay off the other debts that progressively becomes more expensive as time progresses. Some may agree with me and that's because I also found that stratagem here in this forum, and has tremendously helped me build up good behavior especially when trading and taking up debt. So next time, don't go into debt, at least the ones that you couldn't afford to pay triple, and when you do, which I know you will because we are all human beings here anyway and we need cash every minute of our waking hour, start paying up your debt, little by little.

It seems that you will have hard time paying most of it with the based money that you've got. If it's possible to follow what davis has said, that's most likely the option that you should do. Because if you're going to pay for the one with the highest interest, how much you shall have for the rest of the credit cards bill that you have? Some I've read is about paying with the little balance that you have to clear them out first so that it will only leave the one that has the highest balance that you have so in the end of clearing all of them, you'll have the highest balance to be the last one to pay.

Poker Player for the win... :D

Claim your prize or not?

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When you do have a credit card or you had been granted or qualified then you should really make yourself that responsible on your spending and be responsible on paying up those debts on due time.

Dont accumulate or trying out to compound and just be confident that you could able to pay some monthly minimum amount due yet you would really be finding up yourself on binding on debt for a very long time

and this is where banks do really make money for those people who doesnt really obliged themselves on paying up on what they had borrowed.
If you do have credit card then you should really make yourself that responsible on spending.

If ever I will end up on that, I will prioritize settling quickly the CC with the high-interest rate then after settling my obligations there, I'll cut it out quickly. Now the small interest is left and it should be fine now to pay those without a big hassle. You don't need much of that number of cards. In case the reason why you are having multiple cards is about the limit, then having several cards at the same is not a good idea. Try to build a good credit quality score and only choose one CC provider.

But before that, ask yourself first, is it really a must that you owned a CC? If yes, it's not wrong to acquire one but getting 5 CC's at the same time is something very risky. Another thing, is your salary can really afford to pay your CC? If yes, then good. If not, then try your best to cut your current CC.

I have my own CC and I don't even feel the interest rate because of proper money management. Of course, a stable income is necessary.

which definitely reduces things like this,
but if it is already done, which must be started to be paid or paid off, what is certain is that you can afford to pay first, gradually.

actually if you start from the most expensive to the cheapest it's the same,
the difference is only at the beginning.

I think the highest interest must be resolved immediately, if we leave it will be a serious problem, the point is that all debt must be resolved immediately and in our lives we never get used to debt, this is a bad culture that must be left immediately.

All participants say that you need to pay. What happens if you don't pay? Did you consult with a lawyer?
Is there credit slavery in your country or are you imprisoned for non-payment of loans?
If you have a difficult situation and you can not pay using legal methods, then it is better to choose this solution.

I don't understand if you really experience it and now you want us to provide a good solution. But if it's me, then my main payment priority is the card with the highest interest among the 5 cards but in fact I can't be in arrears to pay everything.

I don't even have a single credit card, and it's one of the things I avoid most in any financial situation. I prefer to borrow from family or relatives if I need money, but I know this has nothing to do with your topic.

One of the most difficult challenge on a norms is paying debt.  A reasonable person will first clear the first debt before thinking to take another one. He who takes debt and plans to take another without paying the first one is only tieing thyself to be a slave to debt. If the money is available to pay off the bigger debt,  then it is nice to start with it because of the high interest. But if the money that is available is not enough to pay for the big debt, he can start with the small debt.

Yes, having a credit card is not just all about owning but also being responsible for it. I was offered many times by my bank provider with that without having any hassle of application and approval but I've declined. I don't want to own it because I might be spend it in unusual things that I may decline to accept to myself that I am own of those. Well, at least for OP, he's asking this because he wants to clear his debt and with that, I wish him good luck.

And you are doing the right thing, in theory a credit card can be used to help you out when you do not really have cash available and you really need to pay for something right now, but we know the average person does not use credit cards like that and instead use their credit on stuff they do not really need, in my particular case I have a debit card but not a credit card as the interest rates and the hidden charges you need to pay discourage of having one.

If I experience conditions like that, I will finish the debt with a small amount, the opportunity to pay is very large and we can owe again, but I will use it for productive things so that when you owe $ 500 then 6 more months can profit 100%

I have to say it would be idiotic to get loans like that, it doesn't make sense considering the return is probably not that better. It's better if you can get a loan from a bank, which would have much much lower interest. That way you could cover all of your debt, but if you are getting as much as 100% return then I am sorry but that’s terrible.

Even something like 10% per month would be way too huge, you shouldn't accept those terms, even if you are in terrible situation just let the bank seize all you have instead of agree to pay that because you will fail to do it anyway. It’s better to just focus on how you could pay it back with earning more, instead of spending less and you will have an open door.

Having a credit card doesnt automatically means that it is bad.It is really just how you do able to make use of it which each person does have different behavior and different discipline when it comes to spending.

Some do have that kind of discipline and some do really get that too impulsive thats why you would be ending up on being fucked up in the end since you would need to pay huge interest out of those debts or credit you do have.
Be responsible and be mindful on repaying things on what you had used so that you wouldnt be ending up on a mess.