BigSoccer Personal Finance and Credit Repair: New low 2% APR

I know someone who used Ameridebt and only paid off something like five grand out of $14,000 in outstanding debt over a number of years (I think the number was five, but I'd have to double-check with him and I'm not going to).

He eventually filed Chapter 13. Found that Chapter 7 actually would've been better for his credit. Is that possible, or is he mistaken?

 

she says that she is paying all of it, they are going to consolidate her cards, pay them off, and she'll pay 6% interest for 4 years til it's all paid off.

 

As far as your credit is concerned, it's like choosing between a punch in the face or a kick to the nuts.

 

Damn!

 

Thanks for the book tip. I have got to start thinking about this stuff. Kind of like the going to the dentist, I keep putting it off and putting it off and now I am almost 35 and got no clue about personal finance.

Actually, went to the bookstore tonight and picked up Kiplinger's Practical Guide to Your Money. Any opinions on it? Am I better off getting the Lynch book? I am utterly clueless as to this stuff.

 

At work we get Kiplinger's weekly financial reports which are generally a good read and are full of good info.

 

To be honest, the only reason I chose it was I recognized the name Kiplinger from those commercials when I was a kid plugging the Kiplinger Report or something like that.

I have flipped through it a bit already and it seems somewhat sensible to me.

 

I have a Capital One card with a $59 annual fee that is going to be assessed in, IIRC, February.

My plan was to pay down all of my bills and zero everything out before applying for a credit card through my credit union and then cancel the Capital One card. But now I really don't think I'll have everything paid off before that fee comes around again.

So my question is this: Should I voluntarily cancel the card now and spare myself the annual fee? Or would the better strategic move be to take the hit and stick to my original plan?

Related question: Once I've got everything paid off, how long should I wait to make sure that happy fact is reflected on any and all credit reports?

 

I have a balance of less than $300 on it right now, and I'm now trying to make payments of at least $30 a month on it.* My last payment for it was $65.

So should I go ahead and cancel this card now, then?

*As long as we're on this topic, I'd like to offer my testimonial for the Church Of Making More Than Minimum Payments. This started when I noticed my Target card's balance dropping at $30 a month while my credit cards were barely dropping at minimum payments of $15 a month. I'm now trying to pay at least $30 a month on all of my credit card balances, if not more. I'm also working hard to get to the point where I can just simply zero each of them out in one shot.

 

I'm sorry I didn't see your post earlier. The first thing you should do if you're at all thinking you're going to use that card down the road is to call CapOne and ask if you can convert into an account that doesn't have an annual fee. The card that you have with CapOne, is it one of their regular cards or is it from one of the Sub-Prime credit programs? Generally the only cards with annual fees these days are the Sub-Prime cards and the premium rewards cards like Airline miles cards and some of the higher tier executive cards without no cap on rewards points you can earn, or other premium services like Concierge Services and Airport Lounge access.

 

Just like to mention the fact that as of today I have absolutely $0 debt of any kind, student loans, mortgages, car payments, credit cards, etc... Now I just need to keep it that way... Buying a house next year probably isn't going to help that, but I plan on doing a 15 year mortgage with a large down payment and making double payments each month.

 

Just a scosh.

 

OK, I'm going to be very specific as I have read previous questions and I'm still in doubt on what to do. So, a couple of months ago I checked my credit report and score with TransUnion. My credit score came up to be 717 and said that the factors that impact my score are:

1. Length of time accounts have been established is too short - which I understand as I've only been in the US for 2 1/2 years.

2. Too few premium bankcard accounts - have no clue as what this means, what is a bankcard account?

3. Total account balances are too high in proportion to credit limits - here comes my big question: so on Black Thursday I go to Target and on top of the good offers they had, they offer me to open one of their target cards that they usually offer with 10% discount on the first purchase. Since I was buying a lot, I decide to go for it and specifically ask for a Target Card and not a Target Visa. Regardless of this, they come back with a Target Visa acceptance with 5,000 credit limit. Big story made short, I get stuck with this card. The only thing they offer (if I want) is to reduce my credit limit. So, I already have a 5,000 credit limit card and a 1,000 credit limit visa cards. However, I'm also have a car loan with s bit over 5,000 still to pay. What do I do? I know that closing the card will be bad for my credit, so do I keep it as is, or lower the limit. Or is it good that now I have more credit and decreased the debt/credit ratio? HELP!
Btw- I usually pay my CC in full at the end of the month, and there is no way I'll ever spend 11,000 in a month!

 

Thank you for that! It really helped Ian... I mean the CCV advice, not the idea you gave about getting an X360... now 'nutter is looking forward for it!!!

 

As Ian said, you've got nothing to worry about. With a 717 and only 2.5 years of CC history you're doing a great job. It's really not too big of a deal to be a little "overextended" on what you have in available credit (vs. what you could payoff in a month), because it's a situation that's very fixable and doesn't really have a long term effect on your scores. Mostly because you can always lower what your available credit is if a bank says that its too high when you're trying to get a approved for a mortgage or some other type of loan.

 

How can I get credit card companies to stop mailing me those stupid "checks" every month. I'm tired of them. Worse than useless they are.

Sachin