How to clear your credit cards

Once you have found the right deal to reduce your interest, you can see how much you will have saved, and put that towards paying off your debt as well - it will make it disappear much more quickly. You may be able to work these figures out yourself, or if you are struggling, there are calculators available on the internet that will help you.

Before you make an overpayment it's important to check whether you'll be penalised. If so, and you have no other penalty-free debts that you can put the money towards, you will need to:

• Work out the total cost of clearing your debt if you carried on making repayments as you are
• Work out the total cost of clearing your debt now, including the early repayment penalty
• Compare the two and opt for whichever works out cheaper in the long run