Paying off credit cards

[ComradeJing]

This is my second thread in Money Matters today but my first one got me thinking...

We have two credit cards. One (Card 1) has a debt of approx $5500 (AUD not GBP) on it and a lower interest rate. The other (card 2) has a debt of approx $14000 on it and a higher interest rate. Yes, I know, horrible high amounts and we need to get them paid off asap.

At the moment I have approx $2000 a month to pay off the cards. Am I better off:

A) Putting $1000 on each card and in 6 months when card 1 is paid off putting the whole $2000 on card 2?

B) Putting the $150 (about the minimum) on Card 1 and putting $1850 on Card 2 until that is paid off and then paying off Card 1 with $2000 a month.

C) Putting the minimum (not sure what this is) on Card 2 and putting the rest on card 1 until that is paid off and then putting the whole amount on Card 2?

Online most advice is to do B but I keep thinking that psychologically I'm better off getting Card 1 paid out asap. I'm also frightened that I could slip into bad habits with card 2 (this is the card we always used for big purchases) and find that I'm not paying off either card if I only pay the minimum off card 1.

WWYD (apart from not have gotten such high levels of debt in the first place obviously)?

I should add that as we are overseas at the moment we can't open a 0% credit card (for various reasons - none to do with credit history) so switching isn't an option at this stage.

As a general rule it is best to pay of the highest charging debt first. So get rid of card 2 asap - it has the larger amount and higher interest rate.

Is there any possibility of moving any of it to a zero interest card for a while ? If say you could move some from card 2 to a zero rated card for 6 months, you would then cut the interest you are paying, and therefore pay more into paying off the debts.

Might be best to get some advice locally on how to target it.

We can't switch to an Aussie (where all our banking is) 0% card as:
-We would have to open an account with a new bank as with our current ones you can't balance transfer to another one of their own credit cards.
-This would mean being in the country (won't happen for a few months at least) to prove id which is a requirement for a new bank account.
-We also have to be residing in the country. We aren't though we could get around this.
-DH is not employed there. Most banks won't give a credit card to some one with no employment in the country and DH can't say he is employed outside of the country and still pretend to live in the country.

In short... 0% just isn't an option sadly.

ah - sounds very complicated. Ok - so simplify it and just pay off the most expensive one as fast as possible, while paying the minumum for the other one.

Can you transfer any of the high interest balance over to the lower interest card? Rule of thumb is always repay minimum to everything except the highest interest card which should get the most you can afford. Once thats paid start paying maximum to next highest interest.