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Posts Tagged ‘interest rates’

pros and cons of debt consolidation. Is it better to lower my bills and interest rates or pay them off with a lump sum and just have one monthly bill?

Hi, I’m 24 and have been working for about 2 years. I didn’t start saving money until I started working full time and have about 60K saved up sitting in my checking account right now. Reason being I don’t want to make the wrong choice and the 1% or so from a savings account doesn’t seem very attractive (my bank’s rate is actually only ~0.2%).

I am loan/debt free and don’t owe anyone money whatsoever. Calculating my expenses right now, I plan to be able to save an additional 50K/year.

It’s adding up and I feel totally lost in what I should do to maximize my interest earning potential. And advice would be greatly appreciated. I realize there is already a lot of information out there about how one should invest their money, but I thought I may be able to receive more of a ‘custom’ answer based on my financial situation and age. Appreciate everyone’s time and thought.
The problem I have with CDs is that I really do not like the idea of having my money locked in for a period of time for the interest rates given. Mutual funds seems like a good idea, and last time I looked into it, Vanguard mutual funds appears to be highly recommended but I never completely understood what the expected/average returns would be.

Were considering chapter 13 and were wondering if having all of our debts worked through one of those credit services that lower interest rates and payments would be a better/equal alternative. We bring home about 7,000 per month after taxes and have a mortgage of about 2200 per month. Were afraid that our disposable income will give us a large BK payment. If our BK payment is going to be a thousand or more than what is the use fiilng BK in the first place. Our credit card payments now are about ,200 per month. I figure I can get them lowered through making deals to a thousand. Were very confused at this point. Any suggestions?
Actually Bert,

The 2,600 that you think we are mishandling goes to 2 car payments, insurance, utilities, food and clothing for our 3 kids, per gallon gas to get around and you’d be surprised to find out there is very very little left over to have all sorts of fun that people who are hemmoraging money get to have.

When the Government hikes interest rates leading to more EMI’s on your mortgage, it adds even more misery to your bleak existence. No more degrees of freedom and a hopeless vicious cycle is what you inherit.
I’m earning a hell lot of money in my present line of work but all of it seems to go down this bottomless bit called debt. I’m young -just turned 26 and feel frustrated with this choking condition. I never asked to be in this situation but now there’s no way to get around it.

I am trying to pay off all my credit cards. I have three major credit cards and I owe ,000. I’ve made every payment on time and I’ve been doubling up on my payments, but my interest rates are so high on two of the cards, that a big part of minimum payment is covering the finance charges.

Ideally, I would like to transfer my credit card debt into a 0% interest for 12 months card, where I can make large payments every month and pay the debt off faster, avoiding the finance charges.

But I’m worried that if I open another credit card, it’s going to hurt my credit score. I have good credit as of now, but I’m worried opening another card will hurt my score.

Any advice?

Also, if I get a new card, I need it to have a high credit limit so I can transfer most of my debt to it. How can I find the right card?

Thanks for your help.

I am currently a little over ,000 in debt, not including my car loan. I am planning to move to a new city at the beginning of 2009 and am trying to get myself out of debt. I went to Care One Credit and applied to use their services without looking into their company. I have since found out using this service can hurt my credit. I have been a member of this service for about a week now, and am starting to get notices saying my credit cards are being revoked. I have never been late on a payment and I was just wanting to get out of debt quicker and get lower interest rates. Should I get with care one and cancel the service, and speak to my credit card companies on my own, or is it too late to stop this from hurting my credit?

I just finished grad school with a significant amount of credit card debt (approx ,000) spread amongst three cards. They were student cards when I opened them so the interest rates are disgustingly high. My three banks cannot currently lower my interest rates even though I have graduated and got a good job making a decent salary.

I am not fool and I want to pay these cards off as quickly as possible at the lowest rate possible. I am interesting in learning more about credit card consolidation services.

Mostly I want to know how using one would affect my credit score. My score is good (low 700s) and I do not want to affect as I hope to buy a home in the next 2-3 years.

Does anyone know the effect of debt consolidation and does anyone have recommendations for reputable services?
thanks!
I just finished grad school with a significant amount of credit card debt (approx ,000) spread amongst three cards. They were student cards when I opened them so the interest rates are disgustingly high. My three banks cannot currently lower my interest rates even though I have graduated and got a good job making a decent salary.

I am not fool and I want to pay these cards off as quickly as possible at the lowest rate possible. I am interesting in learning more about credit card consolidation services.

Mostly I want to know how using one would affect my credit score. My score is good (low 700s) and I do not want to affect as I hope to buy a home in the next 2-3 years.

Does anyone know the effect of debt consolidation and does anyone have recommendations for reputable services?

(To be clear, I am talking about a consolidation LOAN not a consolidation management program. I understand the difference)

I have approximately 00 of credit card debt that I absolutely need to get paid down. i talked to consumer credit counseling services, a debt consolidation company, http://www.cccsstl.org/ and this is what i was told:

Basically they would cut my payments down to about 0 a month total for 3 cards by getting my interest rates lowered to between 6 and 10% approximately. I would pay it off in 2 years instead of 8 as i would now without consolidating. he said the 0 a month payment included a monthly fee of directly to the credit counseling service for their help and services. Is that the normal thing when consolidating? Is that legitamet? I would only be paying or so a month on the actual credit card debt and that doesn’t seem like very much to me.

Anyone have any knowledge in this area? Is consolidating a smart thing to do and does it hurt your credit in any way? Is there a smarter way to do it?

LONG-sorry and thanks!

I have 3 different credit cards that now have over 20% interest rates because I was late on one payment. I have heard that Christian debt consolidation might be a better option than regular, but I want to make sure I select a company that is reputable.

My husband has a family member that is always asking what I consider to be extremely personal questions about our finances, such as how much we paid for our house, our amount of debt, our interest rates, etc., and then criticizing everything we have and do. How would you handle this from now on? It’s starting to get really old.