I have a credit card debt of 17thous. With an average interest rate of 8%. I make a very modest income, no savings. I was given a gift of $10,000. Is it more important to pay this credit off fast? Or to have the money on hand, and continue to pay my usual $50 over min. payment monthy till paid. Ps I have quit using my credit cards.

First paying the min, you will never actually pay off the debt, Not sure the exact but what 40 or 50 years perhaps. It would take over 28 years if there was no interest.

So you need to be paying 300 or so on he debt to even make money plan.

I would pay off at least 8000 and so of the debt, keep a little for a rainy day and start a 2nd job, get rid of some debts of something to start paying at least 150 a month on the balance

If your current $50 over minimum payment amount isn't a hardship for you (in the absence of any extra cash) then you might want to consider putting maybe $5000 of it towards this debt to reduce the principal and make some other use of the remaining $5000. Then continue making the same dollar amount monthly payment that you had been. It won't be $50 over minimum anymore, it'll be more than $50 because your min. payment will be smaller with a smaller principal. But since you already have that particular $$ amount budgeted, keep it up as though you never sent the extra $5000 to the creditor. You'll pay off the debt a lot sooner and still have another $5000 to use at your discretion.

This is NOT an expert answer, just a opinion. First off, 8%? How did you get that? I owe about $12,000 and my credit card company just raised me and all other members from 11% to over 24%. A lot of credit card companies, I hear, are doing this before some government regulation passes. If I had an extra $10,000 just lying around I would totally pay off my card. I honestly don't think you can rely on keeping your 8% interest rate for very long. So, I'd say, pay it off. Just my opinion.

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Originally Posted by Lucas2009

This is NOT an expert answer, just a personal opinion. First off, 8%? How did you get that? I owe about $12,000 and my credit card company just raised me and all other members from 11% to over 24%. A lot of credit card companies, I hear, are doing this before some government regulation passes. If I had an extra $10,000 just lying around I would totally pay off my card. I honestly don't think you can rely on keeping your 8% interest rate for very long. So, I'd say, pay it off. Just my opinion.

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Balance transfer offers that I haven't seen for years now. I jugled.

Fr_Chuck, very true. I have NEVER missed a payment. And I always pay a little more than the min balance, but still my credit card company raised the interest rate to over 24%
I now have to pay $100 more per month than I was already paying, and that's just the min payment. Rockie100, you said that your 8% interest rate was from an old balance transfer. I hope that's locked in, and isn't subject to change. Like I said before, if I were in a position to pay off some or all of my balance, I would. Yes, having that fat cash around is nice, but being out of debt is nicer.
Good luck guys. I sure hope the government steps in and does something about these ridiculously high interest rates.