@Anonymous wrote:
It’s federal. And if I don’t pay it right away, they charge daily interest of 25% so I need to pay it with a credit card ASAP since I don’t have that full amount available to me at this moment. I think there might be a 2% or 3% fee for paying with a card. I’m mad at myself because I got the Everyday card which had a no fee BT offer on it but it expired after 61 days.
I asked you a few questions, but I think they got lost in the shuffle. Regardless, this is what my advice would be...
I think it really comes down to when you're going to need to apply for credit (cards/loans/etc) again in terms of what the best strategy is. If you don't need new credit over the time it will take you to pay back the 8k, then I'd personally pull the trigger on Discover. If the SL is 10K I'd just put it all there (you have cash back match for the first year, so this will get you 1% now and then 1% in 12 months). Yes, you'll be at 80% util on a single card, but if you don't need new credit until it's paid off or paid down significantly, then it really doesn't matter and it will be at 0%. I'm assuming you can pay this off in 12 months/before the 0% intro ends (and a new tax bill would be imminent, I'd think).
If you will need to apply for new credit then this payment should be split over 2-3 cards to keep utilization down. In that case, if you're planning to garden anyhow, I'd consider applying for another card or even 2, so you can be at 0% and also low util. If you cannot get new cards then I'd contact your existing cards and ask for a BT promo, charge it all a card that can take it without going over 88.9% and then transfer it off in pieces to your promotional cards.
