I have to agree somewhat with supafreak.
my parents are helping me more than enough by letting me live with them rent free to find my feet.
other than that, if i can’t get there with the help – i really don’t want to be there
but i am expecting to get there either way. its just a matter of time. i have every intention of repaying my CC debt. it was just one of those stupid thoughts you get in the middle of the night where i thought that i might be able to quick track a few things by saving for a deposit, paying the min repayments on CC and bringing forward my purchase date.
the disadvantges would be that i’m paying more interest on the CC in the short term
the advantage would be that with a house loan, my CC would get lower rates.
and from what i understand, that interest could be deductable since the property would be investment???
and also the difference in time between repaying the CC upfront or not would be more than covered by the rental return over that period.

so…

option 1 – pay CC upfront
debt – $12000
week repay – $500
CC rate – 12%
repay time – 26 weeks
interest paid – approx $500
save goal $12000
rate $500
time approx 24 weeks
TOTAL TIME – 24+26 = 50 WEEKS
TOTAL OUTLAY – 13000+500+12000 = 25,500

option 2
savings goal – $12000
weekly save – $500
interest rate – negligable
time to save – approx 24 weeks
CC interest – approx $650
weeks vacant – 10
weekly rental ret – 150
rent received – (50-34)*150 = $2400
TOTAL TIME – 24+10 = 34 WEEKS
TOTAL OUTLAY – 12000+650-2400 = 10250

this doesn’t take into account the following…

would receive possible tax deductions on interest paid for CC in option 2
larger loan amount required in option 2 to cover CC – or less money for property
interest paid over life of house loan in option 2 – but spread over years and not months would be easier to manage so not important to me
option 1 interest paid is lower cos princliple is being lowered
option 2 interest paid is higher cos principle is not being reduced
neither option consider pitiful interest paid on savings accounts – partly cos i was lazy and this overestimates the savings which seems safer

basically, i’m leaning toward option 2 cos i save upfront money $15,250 and 16 weeks

– or is too simplistic an approach?