Consolidation loan...

That's what I hate about this place!!!!

No one ever wants to give another person around here any good advice

Great ideas....and plenty of them. It can be hard but don't let paying down your debt feel overwelming...as they say you can't eat an elephant in just one bite.

 

Just went back and finished. Yep.

"But to claim that freedom, you need to look around you and see that these trapped, tiny Sheeple around you are not normal or sensible. They are obedient followers of the social script, trapped so tightly that they can barely move. And although you’re a social animal too, you can rise up to a far happier lifestyle just by becoming a tiny bit less ridiculous than average."

 

hope so. i'm pretty miserable without her :/ (we don't live together yet...)

anyway, back on topic....

make the phone calls to reduce the rates.
if they can't help you, 'threaten' that you will move the money then. as you are about to hang up, they will try to keep you.

if that still doesn't work, get one of these.
https://creditcards.chase.com/slate-credit-card
$0 transfer fee for 15 months. you can pay just the min here, while attacking remaining debt accumulating interest elsewhere.

and in 13 or 14 months, move again to a 1 time 3% fee and 21 months of no interest.
https://www.citi.com/credit-cards/credit-card-details/detail.do?ID=citi-simplicity-credit-card

there's 100 other options like this where you can effectively pay 0 and do it on your own terms, not a for-profit agency.

 

yup, it's not GOOD for your credit to move money around.... but it gets it paid off. And THEN you can focus on getting the score back in check. Closing inactive accounts is the key. if you have 50,000 in lines of credit and none are being used- they question why you need more! this person might be about to go nuts and charge a ferarri and then drive it off a bridge! So, After you're done with the cards, cutting it up is not enough. You must call and close the account down. It's a PITA as they try to keep you, but if you're firm and polite, you'll get it done.

 

This^^^

And this^^^

Call this what you want...Rainy day fund, emergency fund, safety net, savings
all it means is....don't spend 100% of your income (or more in some cases)
We are all guilty of this at one time or another. But it's financial suicide.

 

Here is another thing that helps keep me focused.
I know the more I spend now, the later I will be retiring.

 

I had a dealership get mad at me for paying cash for a vehicle. Hammered out the price without ever saying I wanted to finance it. Told him I didn't have any credit anyway. I was only 18 and didn't have a credit card. In some ways I might have been a little smarter back then. Fell into the trap of its ok to use cards and stuff. Never carried a super high balance though.

Unfortunately at one point I talked myself into taking a loan out of my 401K. Don't have a lot to pay back but enough. Only took really to pay off the vehicles and stuff like that. It worked for me, but I would not advise anyone to do it. Hindsight is always 20/20 though.

 

There was a girl my wife used to work with and she made twice as much money as my wife. She drove a leased mercedes and had a new $350K house and everything she did in her personal life revolved around impressing others with money. She was always broke and trying to figure out better ways to budget her money and what made it really funny was that she was an accountant. We went to her house one time for a cookout and there were a bunch of other people there, standing around talking about what they've done and what they've got. There were also a few wanna-bes that hadn't risen to the level of full debt saturation yet, but were salivating over what the others had. It was amusing and bizarre at the same time.

 

Just a few thoughts. One is be careful that you don't have a fee to shutoff your cable/sat/landline before doing so. I believe ours is $175 early termination fee.

I see the point you are making, but in the long term is a one time shutoff fee more cost effective than paying say $100 or so a month if you are only halfway through a 2 year contract? If money needs to be freed up I think paying the one time fee is better.

 

Well, though I agree with this, and I do live a debt-free life, I differ in that I believe having active credit cards (paying them off every month) and a high credit score is valuable. Did you know that insurers (auto and home) pull your credit report and consider it when pricing the policy? (varies by insurer and state) In my case, when I repriced my insurances while my score was in the 800's, I got a significantly better deal on both than when it was in the mid 700's.

How about car rentals - do debit cards offer the insurance protection? Or purchase protections that credit cards do? Maybe they do, I honestly don't know.

I agree with the statement that somebody posted, a quote from Ramsey along the lines that millionaires don't get there because of points on their cards. However, I also know that I gain about $50/month by strategic use of my cards.

They are a tool, albeit a dangerous one. Like a chainsaw Some people use them well, some cause themselves harm with them. First time I cannot pay it in full at the end of the month, I will throw them out, because they beat me.

Greg

 

Just check the book out of the library, and start listening to his podcast or radio show. All free, and it will get you there. No need to pay the money guru anything, a great start on learning to spend less.

Greg

 

If you use the credit option on the debit card it provides the protections just like a CC. Plus most full coverage car insurance will cover rental damage.

 

It is if you don't have the $175 or whatever the fee is on hand. Trust me, turning off our cable TV would be wonderful.

 

Couldn't find the standing ovation Smiley...Excellent points!

 

My dad uses his credit card each month for everything. He is meticulous about not over spending. At the end of the month, he pays off the bill. This habit has been going on for 4 or 5 years now. Every now and then he'll come a touch short and leave a small balance of no more than a couple of hundred. Next month he pays it off in full.

The bank for his CC called him offering a lower rate, but with an annual fee. He said no thank you, what interest he does pay is far lower than the annual fee. The representative could not understand why he did not want the much lower interest rate along with the annual fee. Paying off your full balance is a foreign concept for this rep. To save the next guy, my dad kept him on the line for 30 minutes. Hopefully he saved one person from that idiot.


Jason from RI.