More progress.... :)

[zerobacan]

---

@tcbofade wrote:

---

@_jb_ wrote:

---

@tcbofade wrote:

1.6 to pay off current loan.

4.6 paying off various credit cards.  (SIX of them!)

1.1 that I ain't decided yet! 

---

Congrats. My only question is about that $1.1k that you have not decided how to use yet. Is there other current debt with higher interest that you could apply that towards (car loan maybe)? If not, you might think about just making a $1.1k payment back to the loan, otherwise you are borrowing for nothing at 14.99%.

---

Good point.  The car loan is at 4.7%, so I'm not going to prepay that...I'm sure that the other 1.1 will end up reducing util on some other card, I just don't know which one yet. 

---

I would put that money back into the same loan as a principal payment.

your installment loan will not look so bad, 100% utilization instead 84% giving you a break.

[LS2982]

CONGRATS!!

[tcbofade]

Now it's Saturday morning...just paid $3,375 to pay off FOUR cards.  Geez, that's a lot of money.

Four more that I JUST made payments to will have to wait for a week or so, but right now, they'd cost $1,337.69 which may go up or down a bit over the next seven days.

Feels good, feels scary somehow too.  eek.

[SnackTrader]

Can I pry a little and ask how many cards have balances now? It has been going steadily lately, and this helps give a little bit of the snowball effect to next month's payments, so I want to know where you are now and see where you are in a month. My thought is that the pay downs should speed up a little.

And I know what you mean when you say it is scary. You know where you sit financially when you have CC balances, just as I know where I sit when I have student loan balances. But when you make payments, the cash goes out the door and you don't know when it is coming back. Hopefully, it comes back when next month's payment is due and you don't have to make the payment. But there is still some psychological uncertainty, and I get that. But rest easy knowing you are in such a better position than 6 months ago.

I'm really happy for you!

[tcbofade]

---

@SnackTrader wrote:
Can I pry a little and ask how many cards have balances now? It has been going steadily lately, and this helps give a little bit of the snowball effect to next month's payments, so I want to know where you are now and see where you are in a month. My thought is that the pay downs should speed up a little.



I'm really happy for you!

---

No worries, but it is a bit difficult to answer.  Between mine, hers and ours, we have 45 active CC accounts.

As of Wednesday, 21 August, ten of those had a zero balance.

With my new BofA card, I paid off two more, but of course those aren't showing yet.

As I mentioned, I paid off four more this morning, and will pay off four more next week...so in theory, once the dust settles, we will have 19 cards with a zero balance.

I think...

(ten plus two plus four plus four=20, minus the BofA card that we're putting a balance on.)

Yes, we're going to close at least two of them.

Probably more.  We shall see.

[SnackTrader]

Paying off 9 cards (net BTs) in under 2 weeks is humongous progress!

[tcbofade]

TYVM, and thank you for the encouragement.

Roughly, I think at the end of September, I'll have 30 active accounts with 17 carrying a balance, she'll have 20 active accounts with 9 carrying a balance.

...and due to some "manufactured spend" on that new B of A card, we should be able to pay off one more in September!

[Shogun]

You should buy a lottery ticket, you're luck is on a roll.  Congrats!!!!!

[09Lexie]

You are a Man on a Mission! Doing great

[TheConductor]

Can't think of a better reason to leave the garden than for debt consolidation.

I disagree with the suggestion to roll the extra 1.1k back into the loan.  It may make the loan itself look better for credit scoring purposes, but I am willing to bet that amongst those 40-ish cards you have there are some more places you are carrying debt that exceeds the 14.4% rate on your loan.  Apply the money wherever interest rates are highest.

Until you zero your debt burden, interest is a bigger concern than credit score.  Get out from under the weight of the mountain before you try to climb it.

Again, congrats!  You are making great progress, and you have no idea how much MORE satisfying it is going to be when the day comes you have every account at zero!