Next Steps...Snowball or UTL?

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous  there are many comments on credit scoring. At this point you need to pay off debt (forget about scores). You and your spouse are busting hump to reduce debt ... that is the focus! More credit is not the answer. Looking at the interest rates, you are getting hooked hard on some debt. In my world the interest killed me and I had to take the big BK which ended up haunting me for about eight years. Today lenders are a little more flexible but, the economic indicators for debt seem to point to a tighter credit market. Time to pay debt and find a garden.

[Kforce]

If I have the numbers correct:

Debt = $66,000

Monthly Payments (900+2300) = $3,200/mo

With 18% interest this is paid in full in 2 years.

Just keep paying.

To keep all issuers happy, I would pay 1.5x min on 0 cards

2x on low interest cards and 3x or 4x on high interest cards.

Don't worry about scores and getting more 0 cards.

The goal is paying them all off and keeping issuers from balance chasing.

[tacpoly]

Can you list what the interest will be when the 0% period ends? Having them at 0 doesn’t really reflect your situation because it doesn’t look like you’re not going to be able to pay them off and the interest will kick-in on the entire balance. If it’s provided in your statement, you should also provide accrued interest so far.

Top of my head calculation assuming 20%, 1 year, and not much paid down, you could see an additional $8,000 in accrued interest added to your debt before the end of the year...

That additional debt would max out a couple of your cards. I’m afraid that may start a cascade of interest rate increases on your other cards. I’m no expert on this so you should get others’ input, but would you consider preemptively closing the Chase cards to lock in the interest rate while you pay them off? You have plenty of other cards.

Could you borrow money from family to pay off at least some of those 0% cards before they convert?

If family isn’t able to help monetarily, then when you plan your snowball, you should consider the actual interest rates and not the temporary 0%.