Debt Dumpers 2020

[crazycatstacy]

Can I whine for a minute? We are plugging along- not really quickly but I have to remind myself it is only February and we paid in $1400 in taxes so it's okay that we haven't made great progress. So I got an email from Wells Fargo that if I opened a checking account and had something like $4,000 deposited in 90 days I would get a $400 bonus. Decided to do as Wells Fargo is right next to my regular bank and it would be super easy to have my direct deposit switched to them and then just withdraw the money and put in my regular account. Changed my direct deposit online for work and last Friday got no check. Not in my regular account and not in the new account. Turns out they mailed me a paper check. Not a horrible deal but aggravating none the less. Payroll ensures me that it will be direct deposited next check.

I take medication daily and have for years. Since September my potassium has been low and despite being on potassium it hasn't come up. I have had tests and a CT scan to see if there are issues. My doctor (who took over for my former doctor) is worthless and I hate her but I am too lazy to do the work to find new one) referred me to an endocrinologist. I had my appointment and spent 20 minutes with him in which he did NOTHING (the nurse did the usual blood pressure, temp thing). Got the bill from insurance today and my portion is $200!!! My normal doctor appointment I owe $30!!! I'm annoyed by it.

I think I'm just annoyed in general lately.

 

[pblack]

I've finally booked one leg of my trip to Orlando in November! I'd been holding off since I want to make sure that our cruise doesn't get cancelled, but when I was perusing flight selections today to check on the point cost I came across a deal I couldn't pass up. We had talked about taking a red eye flight out (the one I looked at left at 11:30pm on 11/10), but that flight seems to have disappeared. The other flight we talked about was the 6 AM flight that left on 11/11, but the points for this flight have gone up drastically. So I decided to look on 11/10 and see if there were any other red eye flights that would work and they had one that leaves at 7:20 PM and the points prices for this flight were only 6k per person for main cabin....but then right next to it it said that first class seats were only 16k per person. This only really alters our plan a little bit because it requires a bit more logistics on how we're getting to the airport since we both will work on that day, but after talking it over with my DH and my co-worker (she's my sounding board) we decided to go for it! I just couldn't pass up first class seats for the same amount of points (maybe even less points) than what the main cabin seats are going for on the other flights. After using 32k points, I only spent $11.20 out of pocket! Not gonna lie, I gave myself some anxiety over this haha. Now I just need to find a flight back.

 

[imbatman]

I think I'm just annoyed in general lately.

I hear you. DD sent a picture of a doe and 2 fawns in the backyard and all I could think of was that they are jerks and will eat my roses.

 

[npatellye]

Work in progress so far but I’m pleased! We haven’t filed our taxes yet but I’ll get cracking on this next weekend. I deleted my first bullet because preschool hasn’t ended yet. So far, here is where I am:

• DVC dues, APs, and Villains After Hours paid for with BJs gift card deal; extra cards saved for food and MVMCP tickets
• DVC contract 1 will be paid in full at the end of the month. Half of DVC contract 2 will be paid off by May, before preschool ends.

Well, I’ve paid off all of DVC contract 1 earlier than anticipated. It was sitting on my Disney card with 0% until June but I just wanted it to be done so that’s gone.

Contract 2, also sitting on 0% until 5/2021, is on track to be more than half paid off by the end of March 2020. I will slowly chip away at the other half month by month and aim to pay it off before December 2020. So that will be paid off one year after purchase.

I hate debt so I would prefer to just pay it off as soon as possible instead of milking the 0% to the end.

 

[imbatman]

Ugh...our mortgage was sold. They haven't taken out a payment yet (letter said they would start last week). I've been on the phone with a rep for over 30 mins now because they can't seem to figure out a 14 day ACH payment, which has allowed us to pay two extra payments a year. Our loan maturity is 12/12/27. I'm debating on letting it mature or pay it off in 4 years...hrm... Probably will pay it off if we can to start traveling.

I have to share with you the conversation:

Me: But you have the physical proof in front of you that I have had 14 day ACH payments for years.

Them: Yes, but we can't do 14 day ACH, but we will honor the terms of your last arrangement.

Me:

 

[barkley]

Ugh...our mortgage was sold. They haven't taken out a payment yet (letter said they would start last week). I've been on the phone with a rep for over 30 mins now because they can't seem to figure out a 14 day ACH payment, which has allowed us to pay two extra payments a year. Our loan maturity is 12/12/27. I'm debating on letting it mature or pay it off in 4 years...hrm... Probably will pay it off if we can to start traveling.

I have to share with you the conversation:

Me: But you have the physical proof in front of you that I have had 14 day ACH payments for years.

Them: Yes, but we can't do 14 day ACH, but we will honor the terms of your last arrangement.

Me:

with the new lender do you have the ability to go on-line and do extra payments manually yourself? if so you could let them do their thing and just figure out how much you want to throw at principal yourself. it might be interesting to see what an on-line amortization calculator shows doing it w/that method ends up working out to since it would tweak things a bit on interest accruals.

p.s. i will never tell someone not to pay off their mortgage early if they can swing it w/their other needs/goals met-it is one of the most singularly freeing experiences of my life.

 

[Meglen]

Can I whine for a minute? We are plugging along- not really quickly but I have to remind myself it is only February and we paid in $1400 in taxes so it's okay that we haven't made great progress. So I got an email from Wells Fargo that if I opened a checking account and had something like $4,000 deposited in 90 days I would get a $400 bonus. Decided to do as Wells Fargo is right next to my regular bank and it would be super easy to have my direct deposit switched to them and then just withdraw the money and put in my regular account. Changed my direct deposit online for work and last Friday got no check. Not in my regular account and not in the new account. Turns out they mailed me a paper check. Not a horrible deal but aggravating none the less. Payroll ensures me that it will be direct deposited next check.

I take medication daily and have for years. Since September my potassium has been low and despite being on potassium it hasn't come up. I have had tests and a CT scan to see if there are issues. My doctor (who took over for my former doctor) is worthless and I hate her but I am too lazy to do the work to find new one) referred me to an endocrinologist. I had my appointment and spent 20 minutes with him in which he did NOTHING (the nurse did the usual blood pressure, temp thing). Got the bill from insurance today and my portion is $200!!! My normal doctor appointment I owe $30!!! I'm annoyed by it.

I think I'm just annoyed in general lately.

I recently got sent to an endo as well and it seems she's just throwing darts at a board hoping something sticks with my meds. It's really disheartening hearing that my thyroid is messed up and going on a year unable to lose weight even on a 1200 calorie diet. Hope our doctors get better.. these bills will stack up before my deductible is met.

 

[pblack]

Just got done making 2 dozen sugar free toy story themed cupcakes for my sister in laws baby shower tomorrow. Just had to share with my fellow Disney loving peeps. First time making sugar free cupcakes and they honestly taste like regular cupcakes. Even my DH who hates sugar free stuff (I like it) says they taste like regular cupcakes.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

There is a thread called "Should I pay off my 401(k) loan early" where people had some hard things to say to the OP. Some were a bit too harsh, & while I get their point of view, may have been giving their opinions in a less than constructive way. Some of those people have apparently been reading this thread, as there were comments (general) as to the way people think here. I believe a couple may have even commented here. What I would like to put out there to everyone is this: Debt is not evil. Everyone has a different threshold for the amount of debt they can have before it begins to stress them out. Everyone has different reasons for being in debt, and different situations going on in their lives that will effect how they pay off their debt. Some will suffer to get it paid off quickly, while others are willing to pay a little more in interest to pay it off at a steady pace while able to do other things they (and their family) enjoy. ...

This is exactly why I say paying off debt is a lot like carrying extra body weight, and trying to lose it. If you're carrying an extra 10 or 20 lbs, you know it's there and slightly uncomfortable, but it may not feel urgent for you to try to lose it. If you continue to gain weight, at some point it starts to feel uncomfortable and you realize you need to do something about it. You might even procrastinate for a while. At SOME point, you say to yourself, "wow, remember back then when life was simple and I wasn't carrying this extra weight? I wish I could go back in time and have a do-over." You see that if you continue down this path it will only get worse and how much excess does it take to say, "This is it; I'm taking better control of myself right now."
So some may start a strict crash diet to speed up the process, others prefer a slow and steady approach, after all those pounds didn't appear overnight, while others still stick their head in the sand and procrastinate. Others might opt for the instant gratification route of getting liposuction or some procedure to see a big improvement.

In the end, who is most successful at losing the weight and keeping it off?
I have done crash diets and find that the more things are "forbidden" then the more you want them, and it takes some massive willpower to stay the course. Also once you lose the weight, and stop the crash diet, you probably gain a lot back when you return to old habits. For me, slow and steady wins the race. It takes a lifestyle change that is doable and effective. It takes changing my way of thinking. Eventually you see results but not so fast as liposuction or a crash diet.

It's the same with debt. Having $100 balance on a credit card doesn't feel so bad. $2000? Yeah it's more but not horrible, others are in the same boat. $20,000? $40,000? At some point, depending on income and job security and other factors (such as spouse/SO attitude) you really face it, tally it all up and say, "wow! How did it get this bad? If I don't change my ways, it's gonna keep creeping up to $_____!" (insert some extremely high amount that would really make you feel ill.)

While I continued to pay off my credit cards, I did take trips now and then because life is short and work is stressful and taking a short break felt great, and each time I returned to my goals with renewed vigor and continued on, eventually paying it all off.
So perhaps in the midst of all that, some others scoffed at what I was doing and had the opinion that I could do better, I could be stronger-willed, and that by taking no vacation it would speed up the process. Sure, they're entitled to their opinion but here's what dh and I say about opinions: Opinions are like a *****s; everyone's got one and everyone thinks that everyone's else's stinks.

I did it my way. And it worked.

We're all human and those of us here are doing what we feel is best for us to be able to stay the course. It may not be the fastest nor the "best", in someone's else's eyes, but I think for most of us, it's working.
Just keep swimming Peeps!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I did not, but i'll go do that now. This car has only had 1 owner which I also liked about it. I've read some reviews and they've been mostly positive. I'll have to do some more internet searching. Thanks! I would love to get a highlander, but i'd want the more top of the line model (so probably the limited) and that's just totally out of my price range, even used.

Personally, I like carguru.com. Enter the year and model, search used, and how much a radius from your zip code you'd like results to list.
This is how we found the perfect car for ds in Connecticut. It HAD to be a newer style Miata RF(2016+), it HAD to be a stick, it HAD to have the Bose speakers in the headrest, then once I found a blue one in Baltimore, which we had never even seen ANYWHERE, then he HAD to have the blue one. Carguru rated the price, rated the dealership, you can exclude cars that were in an accident, part of a fleet, or had more than one owner. We really found it so helpful to find a used car.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I use cargurus for my price research

I'm a little slow.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Can I whine for a minute? We are plugging along- not really quickly but I have to remind myself it is only February and we paid in $1400 in taxes so it's okay that we haven't made great progress. So I got an email from Wells Fargo that if I opened a checking account and had something like $4,000 deposited in 90 days I would get a $400 bonus. Decided to do as Wells Fargo is right next to my regular bank and it would be super easy to have my direct deposit switched to them and then just withdraw the money and put in my regular account. Changed my direct deposit online for work and last Friday got no check. Not in my regular account and not in the new account. Turns out they mailed me a paper check. Not a horrible deal but aggravating none the less. Payroll ensures me that it will be direct deposited next check.

I take medication daily and have for years. Since September my potassium has been low and despite being on potassium it hasn't come up. I have had tests and a CT scan to see if there are issues. My doctor (who took over for my former doctor) is worthless and I hate her but I am too lazy to do the work to find new one) referred me to an endocrinologist. I had my appointment and spent 20 minutes with him in which he did NOTHING (the nurse did the usual blood pressure, temp thing). Got the bill from insurance today and my portion is $200!!! My normal doctor appointment I owe $30!!! I'm annoyed by it.

I think I'm just annoyed in general lately.

I love churning bank bonuses! It's so easy and most time you don't even have to change your direct deposit at work. doctorofcredit.com tracks all of these and tracks which banks you can make a transfer from to have it mimic a DD. We pushed $ from Santander which is also offering a $225 bonus at the moment, to trigger our Wells Fargo bonuses.
We typically pocket around $5000/yr in bank bonuses. Lately, I've been getting them for ds19 to pay extra on his car loan. He only has a few thousand remaining and this really helps him out.
Sure, you have to claim it as income to the IRS but I look at it like this, if my employer offered me another $5k per year, would I turn it down because I'd have to owe taxes on that income? Of course not.

The best I've gotten lately is from HSBC, $750. So for dh and I having our own accounts, that's $1500 extra last week. Sweet.

I'm not a doctor but if you take medicine for hypertension, most are diuretics which deplete your potassium. My doctor warned me of this when he first prescribed it. I try to keep up with bananas, potatoes and OJ but they are all high calorie too.
I hope yours in an easy fix.

 

[kymom99]

I'm a little slow.

You said it better

 

[jen7233]

I love churning bank bonuses! It's so easy and most time you don't even have to change your direct deposit at work. doctorofcredit.com tracks all of these and tracks which banks you can make a transfer from to have it mimic a DD. We pushed $ from Santander which is also offering a $225 bonus at the moment, to trigger our Wells Fargo bonuses.
We typically pocket around $5000/yr in bank bonuses. Lately, I've been getting them for ds19 to pay extra on his car loan. He only has a few thousand remaining and this really helps him out.
Sure, you have to claim it as income to the IRS but I look at it like this, if my employer offered me another $5k per year, would I turn it down because I'd have to owe taxes on that income? Of course not.

I looked at DoC and just signed up for an easy one for me, Fulton Bank. This is my first try, hopefully it's as easy as it seems. I think I can handle 15 transactions in 60 days easily, and funded with our debit. If I don't think it's for me to mess with bank account bonuses as I get a little keep things simple as possible feeling most the time, at least I'll know how I feel without much of a hassle but the 10 minutes of filling out the application. Looking at the rest of the year ahead, decided recently it's actually doable to get our car loan paid off in 12 months and call it a day with Toyota Financial. Going to focus on the car and pushing all extra into Ally to save up to pay the balance off in one transaction when it gets to the point of having the payoff amount, one and done transaction with them. Maybe when that's done, I'll see what new bonuses are offered out at the time and play a bit, though definitely not comfortable with DD playing.
*DD direct deposit, not daughter!

 

[DisneyMandC]

I have a 2003 Lexus RX suv, bought in 2005 - only been in the shop twice. Now we'll never own anything else, most reliable car we've ever owned. Has almost 157,000 miles on it and still drives great (I don't drive as much as other people probably), and everything in it still works like the day we bought it. I will probably keep it until it dies (at least 5 more years?) so we've been saving to buy our next car in cash since that's what we did with this one. Granted, the only way we can do that is to save for years, lol, but worth it! Will definitely buy used (by a year or 2 most) but Lexus has a "certified" program (I think other brands do, too) that we used last time - it was great and they really stand behind it.

My first car was a 2001 Lexus RX and I loved it! It did have some problems-transmission went out at 100k miles and steering rack at 150k- but it was a great car. I drove it until 265k miles when whatever broke became more expensive to fix than the car was worth. I still miss it, it was a great car.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I looked at DoC and just signed up for an easy one for me, Fulton Bank. This is my first try, hopefully it's as easy as it seems. I think I can handle 15 transactions in 60 days easily, and funded with our debit. If I don't think it's for me to mess with bank account bonuses as I get a little keep things simple as possible feeling most the time, at least I'll know how I feel without much of a hassle but the 10 minutes of filling out the application. Looking at the rest of the year ahead, decided recently it's actually doable to get our car loan paid off in 12 months and call it a day with Toyota Financial. Going to focus on the car and pushing all extra into Ally to save up to pay the balance off in one transaction when it gets to the point of having the payoff amount, one and done transaction with them. Maybe when that's done, I'll see what new bonuses are offered out at the time and play a bit, though definitely not comfortable with DD playing.
*DD direct deposit, not daughter!

Fulton is a good one to start with. I'm doing that for ds also. It's up to you but to knock out the 15 debit transactions quickly and with minimal spending, a lot people on DoC register the debit card at Amazon and buy a $0.50 gift card reload, and do this 15 times. So you really only end up spending $7.50 and it stays in your gift card fund, as if you uploaded a gift card, and you could hold onto it there until you need some practical thing. I know it's not a lot of money but I don't like the feeling of being forced to spend frivolously on things I probably wouldn't buy. We do a monthly Subscribe & Save delivery each month so I apply it to those items.

The most Amazon GC reloads I've ever done was 10 and halfway through I'd lose count. (Well, I guess that was 30 because it was for me, dh and ds.) This time I think I will do 5 per day for 3 days.

I have a referral code for HSBC Bank to get a $500 bonus if your interested. I don't think I can post the code here on Dis but anyone interested can PM me and I'll send you my email address. No pressure.
https://www.us.hsbc.com/share-the-experience/
My sister refuses to do any bank bonuses. She says she has a hard enough time keeping track of one checking account. Our lives are very different; she has a busier social life and packs a lot into each weekend, always out and about, going here and there, whereas dh and I are more like homebodies and go out occasionally. This is probably from when we started debt dumping and trying to avoid spending extra $ and it just became a habit. It's not for everyone but to me it's an easy side gig.

Be sure to keep accurate notes and to-do list with dates completed and deadlines; it will help you a lot down the road when you're wondering, "What the heck is happening next?" or "Isn't there something else I should be doing?" (You definitely don't want to incur any fees that will eat at your profit so it's good to start with banks that have no monthly maintenance fees.)
I like to list the date I applied, any promo code used, the source of starter funds, what to do to trigger the bonus, date range when bonus should be expected, future date when I can close the account, and date that account was closed. I save these as a Word document so a year or 2 later when I'm wondering if I meet the criteria to churn, I can look back and see the date of that bonus and know when I can apply again for it.
Some accounts I have kept open even after the bonus posts because it's so helpful for triggering other bonuses. This was Santander and Capital One 360.
After a while you might find that doing one at a time is too slow and eventually get more adept at juggling multiples.

Good luck!
Hope it helps kick that car loan to the curb!

 

[imbatman]

with the new lender do you have the ability to go on-line and do extra payments manually yourself?

Nope. That's the ridiculous part. DH and I agree that the sooner we can pay this off, the better. So we will stay the course on paying this off in 4 years instead of 6. We will shoot for 3, but know that 4 is our goal.

It takes a lifestyle change that is doable and effective.

THis is what I've had to learn. And relearn. I got myself here. I can dig myself out.

 

[jen7233]

Fulton is a good one to start with. I'm doing that for ds also. It's up to you but to knock out the 15 debit transactions quickly and with minimal spending, a lot people on DoC register the debit card at Amazon and buy a $0.50 gift card reload, and do this 15 times. So you really only end up spending $7.50 and it stays in your gift card fund, as if you uploaded a gift card, and you could hold onto it there until you need some practical thing. I know it's not a lot of money but I don't like the feeling of being forced to spend frivolously on things I probably wouldn't buy. We do a monthly Subscribe & Save delivery each month so I apply it to those items.

The most Amazon GC reloads I've ever done was 10 and halfway through I'd lose count. (Well, I guess that was 30 because it was for me, dh and ds.) This time I think I will do 5 per day for 3 days.

I have a referral code for HSBC Bank to get a $500 bonus if your interested. I don't think I can post the code here on Dis but anyone interested can PM me and I'll send you my email address. No pressure.

Thanks for the info on Amazon, we always get something from there so I'll play with that once the debit card comes in, and if that seems easy to me that'll be perfect! I also just signed up for Wells Fargo checking, so I'll see how it works to push from my bank and hopefully that works fine. Two is enough for me to try over the next 60-90 days, making sure I don't miss a step, if they work I'll maybe try for HSBC if it's still going then! Also curious what this will do with taxes and the 1099 next year, so a little nervous about that and treading cautiously.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Thanks for the info on Amazon, we always get something from there so I'll play with that once the debit card comes in, and if that seems easy to me that'll be perfect! I also just signed up for Wells Fargo checking, so I'll see how it works to push from my bank and hopefully that works fine. Two is enough for me to try over the next 60-90 days, making sure I don't miss a step, if they work I'll maybe try for HSBC if it's still going then! Also curious what this will do with taxes and the 1099 next year, so a little nervous about that and treading cautiously.

You could hold 30% of your bonuses aside to pay taxes but I never do. It would help me mentally though when I end up owing the IRS.
Look to see if your bank has been listed as one that works for Wells Fargo.
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/knowledge-base/list-methods-banks-count-direct-deposits/

 

[pblack]

As we're nearing the end of February, i'm taking a look at my goals to see where we are at so far, and what I *hope* we will accomplish by the end of the year.

2020 Financial Goals:

• Pay off remaining $2000 credit card debt from new sectional ..... We are down to $1100 owed and this should be paid off by April 1st. (Not an April Fool's joke )
• Pay off remaining ~$1625 of DH's student loans ........ Finished paying off on February 1st
• Save $1000 towards emergency fund ...... Will have added $450 when we get paid this Friday. Only $550 more to meet my goal which should be by mid-year.
• Increase retirement contributions for DH and myself ...... Have not done this yet, but will look into it when/if we both get raises. I know I will in August/Sept, but unsure if DH will.
• Decrease my student loan of ~$12,100 by a couple grand ..... we currently have a plan in place to pay this off in full by November (hopefully by October) as long as nothing catastrophic happens. But because we're trying to pay this off by the end of the year, I'm holding off on a "new" car until next year.
• Pay off ~$2000 due on our Nov 2020 cruise..done w/taxes ...... This money has been set aside to pay off our cruise. I won't pay for the balance until closer to final payment though. (Just in case something happens and they cancel our cruise. Fingers crossed that won't be the case.)
• Save up enough money to pay for WDW portion of Nov 2020 trip ...... Currently have close to $750 saved up (not including the tax refund) Should have another $2000ish saved up before November. So this goal is looking good. Hoping to book our return flight on points so it won't cost us anything.

I didn't include any personal goals this year, but last year I added exercise more to my list. Happy to say I've been using my bike/elliptical combo 4-5 days out of the week for 40 mins/day. Can't say if I've lost any weight, but I do at least feel better and I think that's what counts. DH's sister also mentioned yesterday that she wants to go to Disneyland in September for her 30th birthday and for her soon to be baby's first time to the parks. We are tentatively going as of right now. I've booked a refundable hotel room. Looking at ticket prices kills me since two 3-day park hoppers with maxpass (non-negotiable) will cost us $850. So I mentioned to DH that if we decide to go, we should just get AP's again since the cost of 2 3-days tickets is almost half of what it would cost us for deluxe AP's. If we decide to do this I may have to shift some things around since I'd like to be able to pay for the AP's outright. I've also been trying to really conscious of what I buy and how much I throw away (trying to recycle as much as possible). So I guess you could call that another personal goal for the rest of the year.

Hope everyone is chugging along with their goals!