Creative Finance

[Preston]

Does anybody have any ways to cut down the interest when you're carrying credit card debts?

I have mine at balance transfer rates except for one. But I was wondering if there are more ways to cut down on the interest as I am sick of paying it.

[babymakes5]

Call the CC card company and ask for a lower interest rate. I have done this before and gotten them.

[LexTysMommy]

I have called my credit card companies in the past to see about a lower interest rate. I called when I had a balance and when I didn't. They said "There are no offers at this time for that on your card" or the last time they said "this is a bad time for credit cards and most cards are going up so I am lucky!"

So I think balance transfers are the way to go if its a better rate..and not opening up a new card..UNLESS its totally for the balance transfer..no new charges.

[DillyBear706]

Preston,

have you tried or considered consolidating them into a loan? then cutting the cards up? Do you own your own home? If you do, do you have any equity? You can use some of your equity to consolidate your card debt at a much lower interest rate that you are paying on your cards. 7-8.25% vs. 25-29.99%.
With a home equity line you can,
-Consolidate your debt
-Help your credit score ( take a line out for more than what you owe, that way the ratio between what you owe and what you have are at its lowest point thus allowing your credit score to thrive.)
-Write off the interest you pay for taxes
-SAVE MONEY

With a line of credit your minimum payment will be 1% of what you borrowed against. For ex, you got a home equity line for 100K and only used 50K your minimum payment would be $500 a month, which would allow you to pay more when you could to bring the principle down or have a safety net if a month you are struggling. The best part about it is you only have to pay on what you used.

Hope this helps.

(ps. as you can tell I dont own a home or else I would do one in a heartbeat)

[PrairieRose]

I personally feel it's a really bad idea to ever get a home equity loan for any reason. You risk losing your home if hard(er) times should hit and you not be able to make the payments on such a loan. A loan at your bank is not a bad idea just not a home equity loan. You may or may not have the credit rating to borrow money on a signature loan, if so you are sort of stuck if the credit card co. won't lower the interest rate.

[gentledenny]

I agree with rose. a home equity loan isnt really a great ideal. It is a plan and could work but there are serious consequenses if the next emergency gets you behind again. I dont have a problem with consoliditing debt with a personal loan but try to stay away from risking the home. IF you own the home outright then maybe a 1st mortgage at 5.5 percent might be ok. but if you own your home, you probadly dont have to worry about credit card debt.

[starsapphire]

I try to make more than one payment a month. It lowers your average daily balance which lowers a bit how much interest you pay.

[Libby]

What I did was applied for a line of credit through my banking institution and was approved (thank goodness). Instead of paying almost 19% annual rate of interest, my line of credit is only 7.25% annually. So while interest still accumulates each month it wont nearly be as fast or as much as if the balance was still on the credit card.

No harm in trying to call to get a lower rate and if you're playing the balance transfer game - please pay attention and mark the dates on a calendar and do not mix it up b/c all it takes is one month to knock you back on your butt - at regular interest rates.

[gentledenny]

I sometimes read from a forum fatwallet.com. there are people there that say they are floating 10,000 or more every month on 0 percent interest rate cards and putting the money in a big cd or money market. There are people who claim they make big big money doing this. With transfer fees getting to be uncapped i am sure a bunch of them will have to stop. but i cant imagine keeping up with all them cards and dates. but if you make the money they say they making. i guess it could be a full time job..... I said 10,000 but there are people that say they float 80,000 monthly balances on credit cards and helocs at 0 percent and make 40 and 50,000 a year in interest .

[sdrjeolsen]

you probably can't beat the CCs intro rates, but have you checked out prosper.com? It is a peer to peer lending site. Sort of like ebay but for loans. People bid on your debt and your rate depends on your credit rating and a couple other factors. Just be sure to cut up the cards if you consolidate them, so you wont be tempted to start the cycle all over again.

By the way, I'm not a lender or a borrower there, just have heard lots of good things about it on financial programs and such....so, I'm not speaking from expereince, but its worth checking into.

[chatterweb]

I sometimes read from a forum fatwallet.com. there are people there that say they are floating 10,000 or more every month on 0 percent interest rate cards and putting the money in a big cd or money market. There are people who claim they make big big money doing this. With transfer fees getting to be uncapped i am sure a bunch of them will have to stop. but i cant imagine keeping up with all them cards and dates. but if you make the money they say they making. i guess it could be a full time job..... I said 10,000 but there are people that say they float 80,000 monthly balances on credit cards and helocs at 0 percent and make 40 and 50,000 a year in interest .

I "borrowed" 21000.00 at 0 percent and parked it in an mma, thanks to fatwallet...pretty conservative according to their standards too.

I have never paid interest on credit cards, but I guess I am just lucky? or stubborn, or really on top of bills?

I still owe close to 2500.00 in credit card debt, but I have been lucky to keep rolling the expiring intros to new intros and snowball down the debt.

I never got a heloc, we have around 130K in equity in our primary. I only would recommend a heloc if you are close to paying off the mortgage and want to buy another re property as investment or move into a new home and rent existing primary that cash flows...

Above all, stop using credit cards, and you will see immediate relief!

[Luv2BeFrugal]

I've tried calling and asking for a lower interest rate and they said there weren't any offers. We've done balance transfers before and they've saved us a bundle.