She wants me to stop charging stuff on my credit cards, and pay them off. She has me paying $75.00 a month. I’m also putting money into savings each month.
I guess . . .
Jayster
That’s a good idea.
Oh good. That’s a good idea.
That’s a good idea. I think I might make a few calculations on my budget tomorrow.
I don’t know all your finances but Basic Credit Card rule 1C is that the slower you pay off a credit card, the longer it takes to pay it off and the more extra money you will be paying because of interest.
Just 5 years ago I was trying to pay a $7000 debt. Being in debt sucks, it can really weigh on your mind.
I did two things that got me out of that jam. #1 I gave all my credit cards to my sister to hold. And I found out I can get along just fine without them. #2 I signed up for the local food bank and I was saving $200 per month on groceries. Actually there’s a #3. I switched all my balances to a 0% interest credit card. Eliminated about $175 a month in interest payments. So I started making $200 to $250 a month payments and that debt just melted away and I paid it off about two years ago.
And in fact now, I always have at least $2000 in my checking account most of the time.
I owe about $800.00 on credit cards. My case manager says I should pay it off in maybe a year at $75.00 a month. It’s not really big bucks. She doesn’t like the 24% and 29% interest rates I’m paying.
I will be buying a new health insurance and I just did a few calculations and I will be spending more than I make. It will be all right short term, but I will need to switch to a cheaper insurance in 2022.
Sorry to hear that. I hope it works out for you.
So switch cards. One idea is transferring your debt to a card that has 0% interest on balance transfers for a year—to 18 months.
Find a card that does that plus charges 0% interest on purchases for a year. Those cards aren’t hard to find. And transfer the $800 to the new card.
There’s also cards out there that waive balance transfer fees. Which usually is about 3-5% of the balance you transfer.
You’re right, $800 isn’t a huge sum but using a rough estimate, if you did what I suggested you may pay off your card sooner and save fifty dollars of sixty dollars in interest.
Thanks 77nick77
Youve got me thinking i need to do something about my credit card situation. I have 4 credit cards maxed out. Its not a lot maybe $3500 total but i can barely afford the payments.
Yeah, $3500 isn’t outrageously high. But if you’re making the minimum payments each month, then do the math and see how much extra in interest you will end up paying. IDK about transferring balances from 4 different cards, the 3-5% balance transfer fees might not make it worth it. But there are cards out there somewhere that don’t charge balance transfer fees. It’s not too difficult to check out credit cards and see which is best for you.
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