New card thoughts...

[tcbofade]

Thanks all for the input...and you're all certainly correct.

As difficult as it may seem, we have managed to pay off one account every month of 2012...thus far...and we'll keep at it.  We've got a long way to go...you're only looking at about 1/3 of our CC spreadsheet.

We ARE reducing our total debt month by month...but I'm also interested in moving higher interest balances to zero percent deals...it seems silly not to.

[Anonymous]

You just want to make sure that you don't start overmaxxing your cards once the BT fees start kicking in.

Or that the fees you are paying aren't going to be more than what you would have paid in interest had you PIF that month.

I just see a lot of people who get confused easily when they start rearranging TOO much debt.

Or once they have done the BT's, they leave the pending balance on the card since it is 0% interest and pay off the other accounts, but by the time they get to the 0% cards, it's already racking up 20% because 12 months just flew by.

[tcbofade]

A valid point, and I appreciate your words.

Currently, we've got four zero percent deals...well, now five.

Two of the first four we're monitoring monthly and will PIF before any interest becomes due.

The other two are in exactly the same place that you describe...eventually, they'll NOT be interest free and we'll end up paying some interest on them....

...barring future BT's....

As I mentioned elsewhere, we've got WAY too many CC accounts, and I'm trying to reduce the total number of accounts at the same time that I'm reducing our total debt load...ie, one new zero percent card used to pay off two or three older, interest charging accounts results in fewer accounts...and possibly better util...

slow but steady. 

[Anonymous]

At least you have a plan, and even though it'll take some time to see it fully realize, it's better than not having a plan at all.

Good luck!

[LS2982]

@tcbo Good luck, I hope it all works out for you!

[tcbofade]

Thanks both.  As I mentioned, we ARE making progress.

Paid off Macy's in January, paid off Victoria Secret in February, paid off Fingerhut in March.

I'm planning to knock out DW's Kay card in April...

...one piece at a time...

[LS2982]

@tcbo I noticed you have fingerhut, You have better cards is there a reason your keeping them?

[tcbofade]

Not especially.  Paid them off.  $600 CL.  It's not hurting anything sitting there empty...

[Anonymous]

I figured it was for the utilization. If you're not paying any annual fees, I'd say leave it open for now, since your goal is to lower utilization above anything else.

[LS2982]

---

@tcbofade wrote:

Not especially.  Paid them off.  $600 CL.  It's not hurting anything sitting there empty...

---

Yea....extra utilization.