If you were in £10,000 worth of credit card debt and someone left you £1000

[OnePramAndHisSprog]

Would you use it all to pay off a bit of the debt?
There are so many bits and pieces that we need and we are unlikely to ever get a sum like this again... But it seems like such a joyless way to use the money. And only a drop in the ocean of what we owe.
On the other hand, we are never going to get out of debt unless we prioritise that above everything else. WWYD?

Yeah I would. I'd also make sure the debt was interest free if possible, or low interest if not.

Get out of debt. The interest you'd be saving on the £1000 you pay off would make it worth it.

Stop buying more stuff and use it to pay off your debt. How come you're in so much debt anyway?

If you have a more than one credit card. Say four for instance. Can you use this money to pay one card off completely. That would be a start.

pay it off the highest interest card

Pay it off.

If you never expect to see £1000 again, how do you intend to pay off your £10,000 debt?

Needless to say, if £1000 is such a lot of money to you, paying off an even larger debt should take priority over all else.

It's not a drop in the ocean

It's 10% of the total debt.

I would definitely pay it off the debt. It's not a drop in the ocean at all, it's a good amount and presumably it's going up so the quicker you can pay it off the better.

We were feckless as students and then DH was out of work for a year Pobble. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Even if it was a drop (which it isn't) you are going to have to pay it off in drops anyway if you are never going to see the likes of a thousand pound again.

Pay off the debt and cut up the card so no temptation to use it.

£500 to pay off of the card.
£300 in an easy access savings account to use as an emergency fund. If things are tight it could save you over draft fees, or hailing to take out more debt.
£200 to spend.

Have you a debt assessment to see if you would qualify to have some of it written off and the interest frozen?

I'd pay it all off the debt. We had some money (5k) from a ppi claim. We paid it all off our 100k mortgage. I didn'tlet myself think about what we could have done with it but I felt great knowing we'd done the sensible thing. It was bonus money.

Azz I don't envisage paying it all off. I can't imagine a life in credit. It's like an unachievable dream.

A lot of debt can accumulate a lot of interest. I would use to money wisely to clear off part of your debts.

10% of your total debt is hardly a drop in the ocean. Pay it off. And cut up your credit cards.

Pay it off. Think of the interest you'll save.
Your aim should be clearing that debt, not buying bits and pieces.

so how long will it take you to pay back £10k, in the instalments you usually manage to pay?

OF COURSE you should use the money to pay off a significant lump sum, or you'll end up paying more than that in interest

I don't want to sound rude, but frittering money away like that is exactly why some people end up with unmanageable debts - sheer lack of sense.

If it makes things clearer, put it this way. You do not have £1000. You have -£9000. Any money you spend is not yours. You could easily borrow £1000 at any time anyway, but that wouldnt be a bright idea in your situation, so it is no different to fritter away £1000 now.

200 for xmas funds............no no no no. Op when are you going to learn. Im starting to feel .

It's not an unachievable dream! Plan for it.

If you're thinking of using £200 for Xmas funds then you still don't have control over how you spend!