Is it better to pay one cc vs another details below

[lilywhiteflower]

I have 3 cc at almost full capacity.
1 is 0% so I pay down the minimum
2 is 20% interest
3 is 30% interest

I have been given £10k to pay down some of the debt. My plan is to pay down £10k on cc 3 As it lowers my interest overall.

but I am also trying to get my credit score up. Would it then be better to pay off part of cc 2&3 to achieve this instead of simply lowering the interest?

The £10k payment will lower my overall debt capacity to lower than half used (regardless of which cc I pay down) which I’m hoping will also result in a better credit score.

Credit score is a fickle thing. Reducing your overall debt will help and the way to make your debts cheaper is by going for the most expensive first.

Pay off 3, with 30% interest it’s a no brainer.

If I had debts in the 10s of thousands I won't give a thought to credit score, it's not even a real thing anyway. Are you planning to go straight back into debt?

What could be the reason not to pay off the one with the highest interest rate, am I missing aomething

With 3 credit cards and well over 10k of debt if the 10k doesn’t pay off all three, forget about credit score. You need to avoid taking any credit again if you want to avoid getting back in this position so credit score is irrelevant.

Yes, forget about your credit score, it's a meaningless random number that's only part of the picture when looking to borrow money. Paying down the highest interest debt first is key to improving your finances fastest.

At the same time look to see if I could get any more balance transfer offers. You could have these as existing account holder offers on cards 2 or 3. If not look on Moneysaving Expert to see what else you could qualify for.

Also, set the monthly payment on card 1 to a standing order for the current minimum (or manually pay an extra £1 each month above the minimum DD, anything to remove the minimum payment marker off your account, which is another way to make your credit file look better to lenders).

If you still have interest charging debt, keep plugging away, prioritising the most expensive debt. Also review your income and expenditure to try and generate more money to go towards your debts.

While you still have expensive debts, look for new balance transfer offers every 6 months until it's all on 0%/paid off.

Maybe the OP is looking at getting a mortgage at some point.

A mortgage is a long way off as she would need to get out of debt and save a deposit, so plenty of time to also build a credit file that looks good for mortgage purposes.

Well yes, but it doesn’t hurt to be thinking of these things in advance.

Yes it’s for a mortgage. I have a deposit and can get a mortgage even with this debt (with a broker) but am trying to balance it all out. Need the mortgage asap to get more secure accommodation.
Need credit score to stay in ‘good’ before I take the mortgage out hence me asking for advice.

Key things for your credit score are to never, ever miss payments. For mortgage affordability it needs to be clear that you’re not living beyond your means. So commitments need to be less than available funds.

Getting rid of the 30% interest is the best way to get a step change towards progress on that affordability front.

30% interest on a £10k debt is £3 grand over a year. It’s ‘only’ £2grand on the 20% interest one. That extra grand you save on interest over the year after you pay off the higher interest one can go towards the 20% one.