Question About USAA Minimum Payments

[daveg38]

I am thinking of [Mod Cut] my USAA [Mod Cut] today ($11,400, not used yet) and I have some goals I want to achieve.  This is what I am thinking of doing:

1) Take $1100 cash advance, move $650 to USAA savings, keep $450 in USAA checking.  This way, I will earn on the savings and have some checking cushion to pad my paycheck. (cash advances to USAA-related accounts don't get the 3% fee.)

2) Buy a $450-600 laptop (mine is about to go 'kaput')

This would make my running balance 1550 - 1700.

What would my minimum payment be (so I can pay more) come first statement?

Need advice before going through the motions.

Thanks, my credit pros!

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[rak320]

It should be about 2% of the balance, so figure about $35-40

[Anonymous]

Sounds like a very bad idea.

[timmis1127]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Sounds like a very bad idea.

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+1

The interest you will gain on $600 in a savings account is pennies compared to the interest you will be charged.

[haulingthescoreup]

cash cushion = good

borrowing money/ going into debt/ paying interest to create cash cushion = unh-uh, bad

I understand that you're thinking about how you can use credit to your advantage, but this won't make credit work for you. This will make you work for your credit, or for your debt, actually.

Except for things like mortgages and autos, and the occasional emergency, you don't want to have any debt that you can't pay off on very short notice, or when your statement appears.

I'd suggest instead setting up a direct deposit into a USAA savings account from your paycheck. You can then tie your checking to your savings for overdraft. Even if it's a fairly pitiful amount, it will grow. I've found that I can generally adjust to a lower take-home pretty quickly, once I start seeing the new figure.

Alternatively, you can tie your USAA CC to your checking for overdraft. This is what I do, but then I can pay off the card very quickly the few times that this happens. Although there isn't a cash advance fee on this, there is an interest charge for as long as the money is over in your checking, before you pay off the CC balance.

[webhopper]

I would not do this, you don't want to be paying CC interest just to put money in your bank accounts. I would say it's ok to use the CC for the computer and try to pay it off as soon as you can, then start putting money into a little emergency savings so that you'll have something there in case of emergency.

[Anonymous]

Even if the card were temporarily at 0%, monthly payments would still be more than interest on savings.

[Ron1]

It is not a good idea to take cash advance.  I have seen someone taking cash advance (from other forum) and they closed his/her account. Not only they closed his/her deposit accounts and held for one month.  They disclosed a BT check with my statement and I didn't use it.  I put into the shredder. 

Ron.