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Hello, I am new here. I have 11k of credit card debt (I feel very stressed about this..) and am a recent college graduate and a freelancer with fairly steady income. I can't find a full time job (so far) and am considering grad school. I have 25k in student loans and they are up to date on all payments for the next year. So I'm trying to knock out my credit card debt. I have no other debt (car is paid off).
I just applied for a loan through The Lending Club. I only applied for 6k (they offered me more, but I don't want to take it). The APR they gave me is 17.64%.. I know, not great. But 4 of my credit cards have higher APR's on them. My Chase Slate card has a 27.99% APR. I've had the card several years and I have asked several times for them to lower the APR and they won't budge even though I've made on time payments. I would be using the loan to cover the following cards:
Chase (27.99% APR) - 1,100
Barclay - (20.99% APR) - 945
Citi (19.99%) - 900
Capitol One (24.99% APR) 1,100
The rest of my debt has interest rates from 0%-14.99%.
Should I take the loan? I just don't know where I would qualify for a 0% APR card that I can use as a balance transfer (the ones with 0% I already have a balance on). My FICO is 665.
Thanks in advance.
What are the balances on each card? Leaving balances on them still adds to your debt.
If the interest rate on the loan is lower than the interest rates on the CCs then you should do it. There is one huge caveat if you proceed though - you need to make sure not to just run up the credit cards. If you use the loan to pay off your cards then just start charging again, you'll be digging yourself into an even bigger hole.