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This is for DH, so please ignore signature.
Last year he started addressing ~30k in personal debt from starting a business 10 years ago. We did not really know what we were doing, so we applied for new cards and shuffled everything into 0% balance transfers. Some of them are expiring starting in April, so we have a tentative plan but have some questions/would like advice.
He's put a good dent in it. He's down to < 16k. Business Credit is down from about 5k to 0. His income is good (~100k), but it is based on subscriptions/can be volatile at times. So, though he could afford to make more substantial payments, he prefers to keep payments at about 800-900/month total so that he's can keep on cash on hand.
His balances and current BT expirations are as follows:
Bank of America - 4578.96/25,000 - current BT expires 7/2020 - Offers 12 mos / 0% / 3% fee or 15 mos / 1.99% / 3% fee
Citibank 0/10,000 - no BT/no offers
Discover 3185/8000 - current BT expires 4/20 - Offers 12 mos / 0% / 4% fee or 15 mos / 5.99% / 0% fee
Fulton Bank 0/7900 - no BT/no offers
TD Bank 2800/10,500 - no BT/no offers
Old Old Old Bucketed Capital One with a $5 monthly fee that he hasn't canceled yet but plans to - 0/9500
Depending on the report his total credit is about 120k with 14% util. Some of the cards he's AU for his mother for decades or she's his AU. Either way these cards are great for padding utility but he does not wish to put substantial balances on them. All are currently at 0.
He also has a Citizen Bank card and HSBC with crappy low limits (< 4k each) because like I said we did not know what we were doing and over-apped a little.
His scores took a hit for awhile as we got everything moved around, then found this wonderful place and started requesting CLIs and such. So now he's doing pretty well:
Experian 754 / 12 mos inq - 6
Equifax 770 / 12 mos inq - 2
TU 772 / 12 mos inq - 1
He really would prefer to have everything in one place. We considered a personal loan, but were quoted 9-10%. We feel like a 15 mos BT would be fine, slightly longer would be ideal but we can do it in 15 at the rate we've been going.
I'm thinking the BoA card makes sense. We don't have any major credit applications coming up (own our home, he currently leases, and I will be buying a new used card next year, but by then the util would be back under control if I need him to cosign).
Something like Citi Simplicity would be great/give us flexibility, but I worry that he won't get a large enough limit to move everything to it.
How does it work with what's on the BoA card currently? Do we need to move it off and move it back? If so, is his **bleep**ty Cap One card the ideal place to park it and bring it back?
All advice is welcome. Thank you all for helping us learn so much and improve both of our scores so much in such a short amount of time.
you did not mention it, but if you have not already ask discover for a sp cli.
"He really would prefer to have everything in one place."
if you are you only looking to use your existing credit lines:
just bt discover and td to bofa for 12/0%. given the existing bt and the new one are both at 0% the payment will apply to the one expiring first. dumping 800-900 a month will just about get the first paid off by July. you then have another 6 months to pay off the rest at 0%. at the end of the 12 months if there is any balance, bt again to something else.
alternately, you can bt (or direct deposit) $4579 from bofa to discover at 0% fee then bt all balances back to bofa a 15/1.99%. just make sure you time it all before the discover statement cuts. I have personally done this before.
9/2022 $30000 | 8/2020 $20000 | 12/2018 $30000 | 8/2016 $30000 | 3/2016 $21000 | 5/2014 $20000 | 10/2007 $8900 |
As someone with erratic income I understand the desire to have everything on one card instead of having multiple monthly deadlines, but rushing to do so will cost you more in BT fees and thus take you longer to pay it off, so I suggest prioritizing pay-down over combining.
You also didn't list when the TD Bank 0% ends, so I'm just going to assume it ends in May for the purposes of the following plan.
Current-
Bank of America - 4578.96/25,000 - current BT expires 7/2020 - Offers 12 mos / 0% / 3% fee or 15 mos / 1.99% / 3% fee
Discover 3185/8000 - current BT expires 4/20 - Offers 12 mos / 0% / 4% fee or 15 mos / 5.99% / 0% fee
TD Bank 2800/10,500 - no BT/no offers
In Februray (after each statement cuts)-
Pay $100 BofA, $100 Discover, $600 TD Bank
This leaves you at:
Bank of America - 4478.96/25,000
Discover 3085/8000
TD Bank 2200/10,500
In March (after each statement cuts)-
Pay $100 BofA, $700 TD Bank
Transfer $3085 from Discover to BofA (12 mos / 0% / 3% fee)
This leaves you at:
Bank of America - 4378.96+3177.55 ($7556.51)/25,000
Discover 0/8000
TD Bank 1500/10,500
In April (after each statement cuts)-
Pay $100 BofA, $700 TD Bank
This leaves you at:
Bank of America - 4278.96+3177.55 ($7456.51)/25,000
Discover 0/8000
TD Bank 800/10,500
In May (after each statement cuts)-
Pay $100 BofA, $800 TD Bank
This leaves you at:
Bank of America - 4178.96+3177.55 ($7356.51)/25,000
Discover 0/8000
TD Bank 0/10,500
In June (after statements cut)-
Transfer $4178.96 from BofA to Discover @5.99% for 0% fee
Pay $800 to Discover
This leaves you at:
Bank of America - 3177.55 /25,000
Discover 3378.96/8000
TD Bank 0/10,500
In July (after statements cut)-
Pay $800 to BofA
Transfer 3378.96 from Discover to BofA (12 mos / 0% / 3% fee)
This leaves you at:
Bank of America - 6657.88 /25,000
Discover 0/8000
TD Bank 0/10,500
Continue all payments to BofA for next 8 months when it will be paid off