Paid off oldest CC keep it open or close it?
Close the account.  The age doesn't outweigh the fact that you have to pay for the card.  It would be one thing if the credit line was a couple thousand but showing the credit bureaus that you are staying away from the $425.00 doesn't really make them think you are any more trustworthy with your available credit.  Utilization matters when you are staying away from much larger chunks of your available credit (across all cards). First off, congratulations on taking care of your finances and paying off your cards!  Takes a lot of discipline.   If your next oldest card is just a year apart, you can safely close this card.
If you have $5k in cash and $5k in credit card debt, you should pay off the credit card and use your line of credit for any emergency cash need.  You're worried about not having cash on hand but that's exactly what a credit line provides. You can draw a cash advance from it if you need. If you pay it off, at least you don't pay interest during the time you don't need it. 17% is a ridiculously high rate of interest.  In actuality, you don't have $5k in savings because if you had paid for your purchases using cash, you wouldn't have the savings. So it's basically like you've drawn a cash advance from your CC company to fill your bank account with. No, to follow up on your example First Direct won't care (and I suspect won't even know) how long you held the account you are switching to them so if you don't want to switch your main current account to them you can just open a new one and switch that. To get the bonus you just need to make sure you meet the requirements imposed which in First Direct's case seem to simply be: have not held a First Direct account before pay in at least £1000 within 3 months of opening the account Once the First Direct bonus is paid, which they say should be within 28 days of you meeting the criteria, it is yours to keep.  You are then free to close the First Direct account or transfer it on to another bank (and potentially claim another switching bonus). Thanks for responding. Ive been weighing my options and i still have quite a ways to go before im MIG/TIG/stick certified. But i am actually leaning more towards focusing on welding first and foremost because its faster money. If i get on my cousins crew i could potentially make close to 50-60k my first year (and thats just as a welders helper, not an actual welder) therefore, theres potential to advance to an actual welding job where i could make 100k+ (hopefully i have some luck and get that opportunity early in my career).  That will give me time to pay off my student loans, all the money my family has helped me with, buy a house which will eventually become another income, and even save A LOT after thats all paid off! I think thats the safer option for me starting off and then ill have more money to invest in local buisnesses such as the pizza joint and most likely open a welding shop a little later. I just need to bust ass and make as much money as possible for the next 4 or 5 years so i can settle down and not travel for work as much.   Nothing is set in stone yet and obviously im weighing all options but i wanted to get opinions on the subject. Especially because the pizza joint expanding idea was just presented to me the other day. Take the consolidation loan and pay it off. Don't close the card. Opening a new account will have no bearing on your mortgage a year or two down the road. Keep paying on time -- that will make a big difference! JohnFX's suggestion to open a new card and do a transfer is  a great idea if you have good credit. Just read the fine print -- most cards charge a 3-5% transfer fee and some cards accrue interest if you don't pay within the promotional period. Assuming you don't plan on continuing to use the card frequently, the best advice I've heard is to leave them open unless they have an annual fee. Also, leaving it open with a zero balance doesn't help your credit score as much as using it a few times a year (even for small amounts) because it will eventually shift to an inactive state that is less positive for your credit score. Without knowledge of the special provisions of your loan contract, the one with the highest interest rate should be paid first. Or, if one's fixed payment is much larger than the other, and it is a burden, then it should be paid first, but refinancing may be an option. Socially speaking and possibly even economically since it could affect your reputation, it is probably best to either refinance the cosigned loan or pay that off as rapidly as possible. Economically speaking, I would recommend no prepayment since the asset that is leveraged is your mind which will last many decades, probably exceeding the term of the loan, but some caveats must be handled first: Many would disagree, but I finance the way I play poker: tight-aggressive. "Aside from an annual fee, if any, the card issuer makes money 2 ways, the transaction fee, about 1.5%-2% charged to the merchant, and interest from you if you leave a balance month to month. Obviously, the bank has some cost in processing statements and maintaining your account. If up front you are saying you will not have any chance of providing a certain profit level, they may have no interest in your business. (As you updated.) Other card issuers (almost surely with fees) might. Put the cards on ice. A bag of water in freezer. Don't be so hasty that you ding your report this way. By trashing the history as well as utilization, you may impact your score enough to do some harm if you actually need credit in the near future. I know this is a game with the credit agencies, a ""how good a borrower am I"" game, but it can really impact your bottom line if you don't play along.  In reply to Michael's comment 1/5/15, if I have one card and am budgeted for $1000/mo in spending, in order to keep utilization down to less than 20%, I'd need a line of more than $5000. Even if I ignore utilization, my January spending is $1000, but the bill is cut on the 31st and not due till Feb 25th. So a line of nearly $2000 is required unless you wish to make mid cycle payments on an ongoing basis." You've already received good advice here, pay off the highest rate card first, in this case the Best Buy card. I completely agree. To answer your question about the minimum payment, I can't guarantee that this is how Citi does it on your particular card, but several online calculators seem to use the following formula. Minimum Payment = Fees + (APR / 12) x Balance + 1% x Balance. I plugged in your numbers and got really close to the minimum payment you mentioned. I ran calculations for balances of 8,500 and 6,500 and got payments of $184 and $141. You can use this calculator to plug in some numbers for yourself. I found the formula on this page along with a reference stating that Citi uses the formula. Edited to Add: As Bruce Alderman mentioned in his answer, it's probably not a good idea to just pay the minimum. That calculator I linked to shows the difference between paying the minimum and even a small amount ($50 or so) more than the minimum every month. Something like the difference between 3 and 10 years.