Debt Dumpers - 2017

My grandfather passed away on Thursday. We live in Oklahoma and the funeral is in Pennsylvania. I knew I'd be coming up with the kids on my own, so I left Friday afternoon. The funeral was supposed to be tomorrow, but someone didn't file the right transport permits and now the funeral won't be until Thursday. I'm lucky to be staying with family, but the later funeral date means I now have to take 2 extra days off work unpaid.

We stopped for the night on our way here ($103) and have filled/topped off twice ($60 total), so im guessing we will have another $200 in travel expenses to get home. I've spent under $100 on things since I've been here, including formula and a few christmas presents from Ikea for the girls since we don't have an ikea near us.

I'm just glad this check had some overtime and my bonus on it. It definitely made it easier to manage. I also realized the missing 2 days of my check will be on my check after Christmas, so I have about 2 weeks to try and make that up by picking up another shift or two.

So sorry to hear about your loss. I know all to well the stress it can cause during the holiday season. I lost my grandmother last year around this time.

I hope the rest of your stay with family is relatively stress free and that everything goes smoothly.
 
I haven't read this thread in a while. Today I am prepping my spreadsheet tot turn over to DH. Effective Jan 1, 2018 I am going to have him manage the bills for a year. Granted, I will have to walk him through this and I am sure double check for a while... but I have always managed the bills and his prior wife managed the bills before me, so he has never done it.

Question:
There are two credit cards that we haven't used in a long time and have high interest rates. Should we try to consolidate these into a lower interest card? I have never done that and not sure of the pros and cons and what cards and possible hidden fees to look for. Any help appreciated.

Card 1: currently owe $13k at 13.24% APR
Card 2: currently owe $ 9K at 16.74% APR

I have two smaller accounts less than $5k each I am snowballing to pay off before these two. Is it better to just leave the cars as is or only transfer one?

ETA: I just looked at USAA and NavyFed. USAA was starting at 10.99% NavyFed at 6.99% so I applied and was approved with NavyFed for the 6.99%. I just did card#2 which is in my name only. Card#1 is in DH name only and I was afraid if I put both down it wouldn't allow both to transfer. WRONG. My approved limit was higher than the two totals, so darn, I should have listed both. LOL. Maybe I will have DH apply separate for a card in his name alone.
 
Last edited:
I haven't read this thread in a while. Today I am prepping my spreadsheet tot turn over to DH. Effective Jan 1, 2018 I am going to have him manage the bills for a year. Granted, I will have to walk him through this and I am sure double check for a while... but I have always managed the bills and his prior wife managed the bills before me, so he has never done it.

Question:
There are two credit cards that we haven't used in a long time and have high interest rates. Should we try to consolidate these into a lower interest card? I have never done that and not sure of the pros and cons and what cards and possible hidden fees to look for. Any help appreciated.

Card 1: currently owe $13k at 13.24% APR
Card 2: currently owe $ 9K at 16.74% APR

I have two smaller accounts less than $5k each I am snowballing to pay off before these two. Is it better to just leave the cars as is or only transfer one?

ETA: I just looked at USAA and NavyFed. USAA was starting at 10.99% NavyFed at 6.99% so I applied and was approved with NavyFed for the 6.99%. I just did card#2 which is in my name only. Card#1 is in DH name only and I was afraid if I put both down it wouldn't allow both to transfer. WRONG. My approved limit was higher than the two totals, so darn, I should have listed both. LOL. Maybe I will have DH apply separate for a card in his name alone.

You should be able to still transfer the second cc onto your new card. Usually they give you a period of 30 days to do balance transfers at the special rate - at least for the 0% cards I've gotten this year. It's definitely a good step to do this since it can save you a lot in interest!
 
Why does it seem impossible to get out of debt!??!
I have $20K+ in credit card debt and plan to 'snowball' it down in 2018. I've paid off some low balance cards already and have a few more to go. A good chunk of the debt is from when I was not working and had to basically live off the cards

How do you keep your positivity while paying off debt whennyou feel.like you're buried in it?

And I definitely don't want to go through one if those debt management companies. They totally ruin ypur credit score until all cards are paid in full and, even after that, your score won't go back up for at least 7-12 months or longer
 


Why does it seem impossible to get out of debt!??!
I have $20K+ in credit card debt and plan to 'snowball' it down in 2018. I've paid off some low balance cards already and have a few more to go. A good chunk of the debt is from when I was not working and had to basically live off the cards

How do you keep your positivity while paying off debt whennyou feel.like you're buried in it?

And I definitely don't want to go through one if those debt management companies. They totally ruin ypur credit score until all cards are paid in full and, even after that, your score won't go back up for at least 7-12 months or longer

It is hard for sure. I ended up taking out a 401k loan which for good reasons many people advise against doing. For me, I was stuck paying interest on cc's and unable to get ahead or qualify for 0% balance transfers. After doing the 401k loan, I qualified for 0% cc's and was able to transfer my remaining balances to those. My loan is for 3 yrs at around 6%, which was a lower interest rate than the cc's I had at the time. As I pay back the loan, the principle and the interest I pay all go back into my 401k. My credit score also went way up within about a month. So... if you feel stuck like I did that is one option, though like I said many people would say to never do this.
 
It is hard for sure. I ended up taking out a 401k loan which for good reasons many people advise against doing. For me, I was stuck paying interest on cc's and unable to get ahead or qualify for 0% balance transfers. After doing the 401k loan, I qualified for 0% cc's and was able to transfer my remaining balances to those. My loan is for 3 yrs at around 6%, which was a lower interest rate than the cc's I had at the time. As I pay back the loan, the principle and the interest I pay all go back into my 401k. My credit score also went way up within about a month. So... if you feel stuck like I did that is one option, though like I said many people would say to never do this.

Unfortunately, I have no 401K or any possibility of getting loan. I have to do this straight up. I'm hoping that, as I pay off the smaller cards, my credit score goes up and I can get a lower interest rate loan to pay off the larger ones
 
Unfortunately, I have no 401K or any possibility of getting loan. I have to do this straight up. I'm hoping that, as I pay off the smaller cards, my credit score goes up and I can get a lower interest rate loan to pay off the larger ones

Ah, I see - you could also look into side jobs without set hours like dog walking, writing, editing, etc. that you could do in your spare time to increase your income. You could use the extra funds to throw at your smallest cc balances and build your snowball that way. 0% cc's are the way to go if you can qualify for one down the road. Some have balance transfer fees but others don't which makes it a really nice way to go.
 


Last week before semester exams.

Lots of life stress happening (finishing out semester, kids turning in late assignments, trying to get grades up for semester).

I'm making the students listen to "Let it Go" while they do their work.
 
Last week before semester exams.

Lots of life stress happening (finishing out semester, kids turning in late assignments, trying to get grades up for semester).

I'm making the students listen to "Let it Go" while they do their work.
@dayvewc what do you teach?
 
Unfortunately, I have no 401K or any possibility of getting loan. I have to do this straight up. I'm hoping that, as I pay off the smaller cards, my credit score goes up and I can get a lower interest rate loan to pay off the larger ones

You might check with a local credit union about getting a credit card with a 0% interest rate - or at least a lower rate than you're paying. Of course, you need to factor in the fees - it used to be common to offer no-fee balance transfers but I think those are getting less common. And also factor in the possibility of temptation to add to the balance if you get a new card. Many years ago, with small children and grad school costs, DH and I did the rotating balance transfers. We were super careful to put the new cards away and just pretend that we didn't even have them.
 
My DH thinks it is better to list as buy it now and not bid on eBay. Although he is constantly then checking for watchers. And usually when there are X # of them, it sells. I think he sold 4 items yesterday and, of course, shipping on one of them was cheaper through FedEx so I had to drop that off at lunch time and the others will go to our post office this afternoon.

Thanks for this tip. I actually just changed two of the auctions to buy it now because they aren't even getting many views, so I figure with the buy it now listing the items will be listed for 30 days, and if they don't sell then I know for sure they just need to be donated.
 
My grandfather passed away on Thursday. We live in Oklahoma and the funeral is in Pennsylvania. I knew I'd be coming up with the kids on my own, so I left Friday afternoon. The funeral was supposed to be tomorrow, but someone didn't file the right transport permits and now the funeral won't be until Thursday. I'm lucky to be staying with family, but the later funeral date means I now have to take 2 extra days off work unpaid.

We stopped for the night on our way here ($103) and have filled/topped off twice ($60 total), so im guessing we will have another $200 in travel expenses to get home. I've spent under $100 on things since I've been here, including formula and a few christmas presents from Ikea for the girls since we don't have an ikea near us.

I'm just glad this check had some overtime and my bonus on it. It definitely made it easier to manage. I also realized the missing 2 days of my check will be on my check after Christmas, so I have about 2 weeks to try and make that up by picking up another shift or two.

Hi Hon
I just wanted to say I am so sorry for your loss and hope you
are able to gather with family and remember the "good old times" you had with your grandfather.
Healing hugs being sent your way.
Hugs Mel
 
Why does it seem impossible to get out of debt!??!
I have $20K+ in credit card debt and plan to 'snowball' it down in 2018. I've paid off some low balance cards already and have a few more to go. A good chunk of the debt is from when I was not working and had to basically live off the cards

How do you keep your positivity while paying off debt whennyou feel.like you're buried in it?

And I definitely don't want to go through one if those debt management companies. They totally ruin ypur credit score until all cards are paid in full and, even after that, your score won't go back up for at least 7-12 months or longer

Hi Hon
Sometimes you have to give yourself credit for keeping your head above water--unemployment can being devastating and
managing to rise above it (even with debt) is to be congratulated. Just keep swimming Hon it will get better!
Hugs to you
Mel
 
Unfortunately, I have no 401K or any possibility of getting loan. I have to do this straight up. I'm hoping that, as I pay off the smaller cards, my credit score goes up and I can get a lower interest rate loan to pay off the larger ones

From my experience, borrowing $ (ie. 401k loan or peronal loan) doesn't help.. Sure i pay off the balances but soon the are back and i have 401k loan and personal loan that I am paying on plus CC debt. UGH!

So, in hind sight..i would not recommend borrowing $ to pay off credit card debt... some might have the discipline to do it.. but i am not one of them... at least not yet! :(
 
DH and I have come to a big decision. For the last year we have been making extra payments towards our mortgage. We decided to stop those payments because we want to finish our basement. At first we though we would just save the money until we had enough, which would probably take 2+ years. Then we considered how nice it would be to have the basement finished within the next 6 months or so. It would give us a nice big play area for the baby. We would have more room for when guests visit. We would have a nicer area for working out. I could move my sewing room down to the basement. And we would have a big, comfy theatre room that seats more than the 3 people our loft space currently does. So we have decided to take out a home equity loan to get the work done now and then divert all of the funds we were spending towards the mortgage into paying down the home equity loan as soon as possible.

I am really excited about this idea and am starting to consider how exactly we will go about it. I think that we will act as general contractor and do some of the work ourselves (painting, trim, my dad can do all electrical, some plumbing) and hire out the majority of it. This will also give us the opportunity to do a few other small projects that we wanted, including putting a tile backsplash in the kitchen and adding more insulation in the attic plus installing an attic ladder.

I will be spending some time figuring out where to get the loan (leaning towards Chase since USAA doesn't offer them anymore) plus researching how to be our own general contractor. New challenges and hopefully a nice reward in the end.
 
From my experience, borrowing $ (ie. 401k loan or peronal loan) doesn't help.. Sure i pay off the balances but soon the are back and i have 401k loan and personal loan that I am paying on plus CC debt. UGH!

So, in hind sight..i would not recommend borrowing $ to pay off credit card debt... some might have the discipline to do it.. but i am not one of them... at least not yet! :(

Yes, it definitely depends on each person's ability to stay on track. I'm hoping I will do well using this route! I like that each of my 401k loan payments is taken directly out of my paycheck. Now I just have to stay on track paying off the remaining balances before the 0% interest rates expire.
 
Yes, it definitely depends on each person's ability to stay on track. I'm hoping I will do well using this route! I like that each of my 401k loan payments is taken directly out of my paycheck. Now I just have to stay on track paying off the remaining balances before the 0% interest rates expire.

I have 1 year left on my 401k loan payment. I suspect that time will fly by. That will increase my bi monthly paycheck by ~$200.. :)
By then i suspect i will need a new vehicle... my current car is 10 years old.. been paid off for 5 plus years. I don't look forward to a new car payment but this car wont last forever no matter how much i wish it would.. :(
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Latest posts

Top