For context, I currently have four credit cards, but I only owe money on two of them, with a total balance of approximately $10,000 and an interest rate of 20.99% per annum.
I want to pay off this balance asap and am currently looking at two paths:
My bank has an offer for 0% interest rate on a 24-month balance transfer credit card. The downside here is that I would have a 5th credit card to my name, and even though my credit score is good, I’m worried that this may have a negative impact.
Sell some shares to pay off the debt in full and avoid applying for another credit card. The downsides here are that one I would have to pay 13.8% tax on the sale, and two my current investment has been very profitable over the last few year (more than 10 times more profitable than the 20.99% interest charges on my credit cards), so I would rather avoid selling unless absolutely necessary.
So my question here is, is having a 5th credit card to my name worse than selling highly profitable shares?
And just as a final note, I don’t want to close out my other 2 credit cards all at once since it would look bad on my credit and also because they each have their own purpose. If I were to get the 5th CC my plan is to close it off after the 24 months once the balance is paid.
I’m open to any advice and ideas that I haven’t thought of, and I appreciate your input in advance.
