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Help!! I need to pay off my credit cards!

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shalane85
Frequent Contributor

Re: Help!! I need to pay off my credit cards!

Paying the minimum makes me feel like I will be in debt forever. I will try the snowball method. Should I go for the highest interest rate or the highest balance?
Message 21 of 41
shalane85
Frequent Contributor

Re: Help!! I need to pay off my credit cards!

The $500 includes the min payment. I have no idea what the capitol one rate will be.
Message 22 of 41
Bluebonnet
New Contributor

Re: Help!! I need to pay off my credit cards!


@shalane85 wrote:
The $500 includes the min payment. I have no idea what the capitol one rate will be.

Try to find out what Capital One's rate will be, so you don't get surprised by a 19.99% APR or more.  

 

I would go for the highest interest rate first, but I could understand if you went for the 10K balance since there is only 3% difference on interest rate.  



Last app: 10/4/14
In the garden until Winter of 2016
Message 23 of 41
shalane85
Frequent Contributor

Re: Help!! I need to pay off my credit cards!

Yeah I honestly would love to get the $10k down. When I get my bonus I may pay off the 6k balance so that way I only have two large balances to deal with.
Message 24 of 41
09Lexie
Moderator Emerita

Re: Help!! I need to pay off my credit cards!

Knowing that information will help with the advice given. Based on the pyts you have an extra $50 or so dollars to add to your pyts. Even if you split it between the two higher balances it will do little to dent your debt.

Luckily, you will have a bonus in December to help knock it down. Assuming your Cap 1 APR will be higher, I'd suggest knocking that down. The extra money you have from Cap 1 being paid off should give you an additional $120 towards NFCU.

If, for some reason Cap 1 is lower than 10.99%- pay NFCU $6000 off

Edit: is the pyt on $6000 -$188?
Message 25 of 41
Crashem
Valued Contributor

Re: Help!! I need to pay off my credit cards!

If you have the discipline, you best bet is to get every card to below 80% and see where your FICO score sits.  If it is high enough, you basically get new cards with 0% BT offers and transfer the balances over.  Otherwise, the snowball method involves paying any/all extra money to card with highest interest.  Once that is paid off, take extra money and move on to next card.  Snowball method is good for someone having problems managing their debt as it is simple to follow.  However, I really believe in what I said above if you have the discipline/organization as it will minimize the interest you pay.

 

Also, you really do need to get cap one terms of 0%.  I have seen where any balance at end of 0% get the new interest and interest being backdated to when you first got 0% offer.  Hopefully Cap One isn't that way, but if it is, that is the first card you should concentrate on.

 

Finally, NFCU has a line of credit if I remember correctly.  Not sure what that interest rate is.  Also, you would need to look into this, but I find 401k loans not the worse deal in the world.  You have to look into the conditions on yours, but essentially you basically borrow from yourself and pay yourself interest so real costs are basically some small handling fee.  However the gotchas involve if you have problems paying or if you lose your job, or 401k growth (ie it is doing really well and you are basically reducing amount being invested and only getting the little bit of interest you pay to yourself).

               LIMITS IN CARD DESCRIPTIONS
Message 26 of 41
compassion101
Established Contributor

Re: Help!! I need to pay off my credit cards!

Most likely the capone apr will be higher than the other 2 when the promotion ends. I'd try to pay that down to zero by the time you get your bonus, chances are pretty decent you may be able to get another 0% (with 3-4% fee) promotion from them as they seem to have alot. Then you can transfer part of the other balances over to capone.

 

 

Message 27 of 41
oscar_actuary
Frequent Contributor

Re: Help!! I need to pay off my credit cards!

sone advocate paying the lowest balance off first.  Speaking anecdotally, it's emotionally satisfying to see the balances go to 0.  Mathematically, paying off highest rate saves money.  Whichever keeps you motivated will be the best method.

 

And sell stuff. 

And get another part time job.

 

sacrifice

FICO EX 827, 2015 Feb; FICO EQ 836/900 (Citi), 2014 Dec; FICO TU08 818, 2015 Feb.

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Message 28 of 41
nursepower
Frequent Contributor

Re: Help!! I need to pay off my credit cards!

If you would like to try the snowball method Dave Ramsey way....line up your debts smallest owed to largest. Pay minimums on all except for the lowest. Throw everything you can at that until its paid off....then move to the next one and so on and so on. 

BK DC 10/18/18
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Last app 6/2/21
Message 29 of 41
shalane85
Frequent Contributor

Re: Help!! I need to pay off my credit cards!

The $6k balance has a payment of $115. The $10k has a payment of $188. I think I will try to tackle the highest interest rate first because I really want to save money. Thank you everyone for the advice.
Message 30 of 41
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