For some reason I have been having trouble bringing myself to use our $20K line of credit. I have just been procrastinating, even though the interest rate is 10.2% as opposed to the highest credit card which is 13.24%. The other credit cards are below 10% (amazingly).
Mr. A and I have been having financial discussions and last weekend we signed a contract so we'd be on the same page for what I'd do with our money in the month of October. What's been happening is we have a discussion and come to an agreement, and two weeks later come to find out one of us thought the plan was dramatically different. I mean sometimes diametrically opposed to what we agreed upon. So I said this time we're going to write it all down, and sign our names to it. So when one of us comes up with some hare-brained idea about what we were going to do, the agreement will hold us accountable.
One of the things we agreed to is that we would tap our $20K line of credit to pay off the 13.24% interest credit card in full.
I was told by the bank during a phone call that I needed to come to the bank in person to access the line of credit, so I stopped by and talked to my personal banker. She said as long as the account was present when I logged in, I could transfer the money myself, online. No fees to move the money over, the interest remains at 10.2% even though it's kind of like a cash advance. I guess I'm a little suspicious.
I have checked my other credit card accounts, and while some of them have balance transfers available at 0% interest, the cost to transfer the balance is prohibitive. None of them have a cap on the fee, and at 3% for this card it would cost $267 to transfer the balance. We're hoping to refinance our home as soon as possible, and by the end of the year at the latest. In the meantime we will pay 10.2% interest.
Anyway, my goal for this week is to pay off the Chase card that is at $8928.80 using the $20K line of credit. My second goal is to move the Discover card over to Mr. A's business credit card, since that card only has business expenses on it. That will move $2431 from my personal credit card debt.
Yours Truly,
I think those are great goals and I am sure you will be able to achieve them! 🙂
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Mrs. Accountability Reply:
October 24th, 2009 at 4:15 am
Thanks, Mrs. Money. I did tap the line of credit, and get the one credit card paid off. Now I just need to find out if I can do a balance transfer from my personal credit card, to Mr. A’s business credit card.
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When paying of credit cards it is a good idea to pay off the one with the MOST interest attached to it, while, at the same time, making the minimum payments to those others you have. This reduces the overall interest you are paying which is dead money.
Yes if you can transfer debt to a lower interest rate card that is better. Then cut up the higher interest rate card and throw it away!
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I suggest paying off the debt smallest balance to largest, ignoring interest. This gives you early successes and keeps you motivated to pay off more debt.
After all, if we were worried about math, we would not have the debt in the first place. 🙂
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