Which is better??

[Electric Amish]

I have some cash in a savings account. I also have a couple of CC's with balances on them.

In your opinion, is it better to have cash on hand (Savings) while carrying a balance on other loans, or would you pay off what you could and then not have any cash savings??

amish

 

[Hoober]

I would carry some cash in savings if I couldn't pay off the entire amount of the loan at once.

 

[edro]

Bank accounts don't give you 20% interest, but credit cards charge YOU 20% interest....

 

[clamum]

If I was put in that position, I would probably pay off the debt first. Having money in a savings account is nice, and is helpful in the case of an emergency, but I would feel obligated to pay off any debts I have so I don't have to worry about them. Carrying debts will end up costing more because of the interest too.

 

[calvinbiss]

Deffinitly pay what you can, otherwise you are simply losing money....and that sucks

 

[Viper GTS]

Keep SOME cash on hand (enough, for example, that you can comfortably live off of cash/debit rather than credit), but don't focus on increasing your savings if you have CC debt that you're paying out the ass for.

Viper GTS

 

[MistaTastyCakes]

Pay pay pay so interest doesn't accrue and you end up having to blow more savings later. Then rebuild your bank account and be happier, less stressed, and debt free.

 

[jaeger66]

Pay off the cards as fast as you can. If disaster strikes and you need funds you can always run them back up.

 

[Spyro]

Originally posted by: calvinbiss
Deffinitly pay what you can, otherwise you are simply losing money....and that sucks

 

[Viper GTS]

Originally posted by: jaeger66
Pay off the cards as fast as you can. If disaster strikes and you need funds you can always run them back up.

The problem is people tend to make large CC payments & then live off the CC until the next large payment is made. You end up making no progress, & actually making things worse.

You'd be better off to have a couple grand in cash reserves, pay cash/debit for EVERYTHING, and dump any extra you have after re-filling your cash supply to your CC.

Viper GTS

 

[Chess]

id pay them off no matter what really.. Dont want to be in debt with credit cards can be the worst situation you can be in..

 

[jaeger66]

Originally posted by: Viper GTS


The problem is people tend to make large CC payments & then live off the CC until the next large payment is made. You end up making no progress, & actually making things worse.

You'd be better off to have a couple grand in cash reserves, pay cash/debit for EVERYTHING, and dump any extra you have after re-filling your cash supply to your CC.

Viper GTS

But if the cash is just sitting there in savings it's useless. He's earning 1%, maybe, vs. a CC balance with 10-20% interest. He obviously isn't living off his savings or his cards, so paying off the cards is a better move. In a situation like that, the only reason to have cash sitting in savings is for a possible unforseen major expense but you can use your cards for that. An emergency is a weak maybe, the loss on interest is a definite.