Thanks for the kind words. It's a grind for sure.
My next big milestone will be getting my upcoming balance transfer (from NFCU card to Discover) paid off. I'm going to balance transfer between 9k and 18k over and start attacking that. If I can get enough extra income over the next year I'll throw that at the remaining NFCU balance so that when the Disco card gets back down to a zero balance again there won't be a huge NFCU balance remaining to pay off, if any.
There is a good chance my student loans could be forgiven through Public Service Loan Forgiveness by the time my revolving balances are all paid off, which would put me completely out of debt by May 2024 if everything goes well. My fingers are crossed on that.
nice work!
so what are your current balances?
| apr % | limit | balance | min pmt | |
| Auto Loan | 2.5 | -- | ?? | 510 |
| Penfed Personal Loan | 12.8 | -- | 17737 | 673 |
| Capital One QS | 22.9 | 4000 | 0 | 0 |
| Snyc Amazon Prime | 22 | 6000 | 0 | 0 |
| Pentagon FCU | 19 | 10000 | 0 | 0 |
| Discover | 18.25 | 19300 | 0 | 0 |
| NFCU Cash Rewards | 10.25 | 24000 | 20535 | 411 |
| TOTAL | 63300 | 38272 | 1593 |
@iowe wrote:My next big milestone will be getting my upcoming balance transfer (from NFCU card to Discover) paid off. I'm going to balance transfer between 9k and 18k over and start attacking that. If I can get enough extra income over the next year I'll throw that at the remaining NFCU balance so that when the Disco card gets back down to a zero balance again there won't be a huge NFCU balance remaining to pay off, if any.
when was the last time you asked discover for a credit limit increase? before doing the balance transfer might be a good time to ask again. if approved, could give some more utilization padding. usually it can be done online with a soft credit inquiry.
Thanks!
Auto Loan is paid off. Aside from student loans, all of my balances are now zero except for two. I've been thinking about that cli also. I haven't pushed that request button with Discover in a few months now. I intend to try for one after my Disco statement cuts in a few more days, but before requesting a balance transfer.
The current and only balances remaining are:
NFCU Cash Rewards $ 20197.98
Penfed Personal Loan $ 16750.80
Balance Transfer options from Discover I think end up working out pretty closely, with slightly more savings if I go the 0% for 12 months route. It tells me to respond by 12/20/22 as the offer could change to different terms, which could be better or maybe could be worse.
0% 12 Months 5% transfer fee
or
6.99% 15 Months 0 transfer fee
Up until this last payment which paid off Discover, the monthly amount that I was throwing at the Discover card ($1000) + NFCU ($411) + Penfed Personal Loan ($672) adds up to about $2083.00, so that's the monthly snowball amount to work with, give or take $200 depending on how much work I get each month from my 2nd gig.
What I am considering the most at the moment is balance transferring $13300.00 from NFCU CashRewards over to Discover on the 0% 12 mth deal. This would leave the NFCU card sitting with about a $6900.00 balance (roughly 28% utilization), which I understand is below a fico scoring threshold. Within about 4-5 months of payments my utilization on Discover would fall below 48%, then within 3-4 more months it too would fall below 28%. I'm trying to keep my scores going the right direction while at the same time saving a significant amount on interest using the balance transfer. It helps me psychologically to watch my scores rise throughout the this process.
@iowe wrote:Up until this last payment which paid off Discover, the monthly amount that I was throwing at the Discover card ($1000) + NFCU ($411) + Penfed Personal Loan ($672) adds up to about $2083.00, so that's the monthly snowball amount to work with, give or take $200 depending on how much work I get each month from my 2nd gig.
What I am considering the most at the moment is balance transferring $13300.00 from NFCU CashRewards over to Discover on the 0% 12 mth deal. This would leave the NFCU card sitting with about a $6900.00 balance (roughly 28% utilization), which I understand is below a fico scoring threshold. Within about 4-5 months of payments my utilization on Discover would fall below 48%, then within 3-4 more months it too would fall below 28%. I'm trying to keep my scores going the right direction while at the same time saving a significant amount on interest using the balance transfer. It helps me psychologically to watch my scores rise throughout the this process.
the balance transfer including int+fees saves ~$500 vs. not doing it.
the balance transfer including int+fees saves ~$90 vs. not doing it.
the rough math looks like (13300 bt * 1.05 fee = 13965):
| pmt | balance | util % | pmt | balance | util % | pmt | balance | util % | ||
| 10.25 | 6898 | 29 | 0 | 13965 | 72 | vs. | 10.25 | 20198 | 84 | |
| 1 | -160 | 6797 | 28 | -1167 | 12798 | 66 | -1327 | 19044 | 79 | |
| 2 | -160 | 6695 | 28 | -1167 | 11631 | 60 | -1327 | 17879 | 74 | |
| 3 | -160 | 6592 | 27 | -1167 | 10464 | 54 | -1327 | 16705 | 70 | |
| 4 | -160 | 6488 | 27 | -1167 | 9297 | 48 | -1327 | 15521 | 65 | |
| 5 | -160 | 6384 | 27 | -1167 | 8130 | 42 | -1327 | 14326 | 60 | |
| 6 | -160 | 6278 | 26 | -1167 | 6963 | 36 | -1327 | 13122 | 55 | |
| 7 | -160 | 6172 | 26 | -1167 | 5796 | 30 | -1327 | 11907 | 50 | |
| 8 | -160 | 6065 | 25 | -1167 | 4629 | 24 | -1327 | 10681 | 45 | |
| 9 | -160 | 5957 | 25 | -1167 | 3462 | 18 | -1327 | 9446 | 39 | |
| 10 | -160 | 5847 | 24 | -1167 | 2295 | 12 | -1327 | 8199 | 34 | |
| 11 | -160 | 5737 | 24 | -1167 | 1128 | 6 | -1327 | 6942 | 29 | |
| 12 | -199 | 5587 | 23 | -1128 | 0 | 0 | -1327 | 5675 | 24 | |
| 13 | -1327 | 4308 | 18 | -1327 | 4396 | 18 | ||||
| 14 | -1327 | 3018 | 13 | -1327 | 3107 | 13 | ||||
| 15 | -1327 | 1717 | 7 | -1327 | 1806 | 8 | ||||
| 16 | -1327 | 404 | 2 | -1327 | 495 | 2 | ||||
| 17 | -408 | 0 | 0 | -499 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| total pmt | total int | total pmt | total fee | total | total pmt | total int | diff | |||
| -7675 | -369 | -13965 | -665 | -1034 | -21731 | -1533 | -91 |
this is based on $2000 in total monthly payments (1327 cc + 673 loan = 2000). if you can add another hundred or two randomly, might save a month or two.
Thank you for drawing that up! I really appreciate it! It makes the choice a lot easier when I can see that I stand to save half a grand in interest using the balance transfer.
That gameplan is what I believe I can manage to stick with each month. I didn't factor in tax returns, bonuses, etc. but those get rolled into a snowball when they come as well.
this afternoon I got curious about the 6.99%/15mo/$0 offer... in calculating that, I have to call foul on myself for the previous calculations. I missed the last $409 payment in the formula, so the actual "total pmt" is 7675.
the 0% balance transfer including int+fees saves ~$90 vs. not doing it. I edited the post to reflect that.
so back to the 6.99% offer... this might actually be more friendly than the other offer:
| pmt | balance | util % | pmt | balance | util % | pmt | balance | util % | ||
| 10.25 | 6898 | 29 | 6.99 | 13300 | 69 | vs. | 10.25 | 20198 | 84 | |
| 1 | -927 | 6030 | 25 | -400 | 12977 | 67 | -1327 | 19044 | 79 | |
| 2 | -927 | 5154 | 21 | -400 | 12653 | 66 | -1327 | 17879 | 74 | |
| 3 | -927 | 4271 | 18 | -400 | 12327 | 64 | -1327 | 16705 | 70 | |
| 4 | -927 | 3381 | 14 | -400 | 11999 | 62 | -1327 | 15521 | 65 | |
| 5 | -927 | 2483 | 10 | -400 | 11668 | 60 | -1327 | 14326 | 60 | |
| 6 | -927 | 1577 | 7 | -400 | 11336 | 59 | -1327 | 13122 | 55 | |
| 7 | -927 | 663 | 3 | -400 | 11002 | 57 | -1327 | 11907 | 50 | |
| 8 | -669 | 0 | 0 | -658 | 10409 | 54 | -1327 | 10681 | 45 | |
| 9 | -1327 | 9142 | 47 | -1327 | 9446 | 39 | ||||
| 10 | -1327 | 7868 | 41 | -1327 | 8199 | 34 | ||||
| 11 | -1327 | 6587 | 34 | -1327 | 6942 | 29 | ||||
| 12 | -1327 | 5299 | 27 | -1327 | 5675 | 24 | ||||
| 13 | -1327 | 4003 | 21 | -1327 | 4396 | 18 | ||||
| 14 | -1327 | 2699 | 14 | -1327 | 3107 | 13 | ||||
| 15 | -1327 | 1388 | 7 | -1327 | 1806 | 8 | ||||
| 16 | -1327 | 82 | 0 | -1327 | 495 | 2 | ||||
| 17 | -83 | 0 | 0 | -499 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| total pmt | total int | total pmt | total int | total | total pmt | total int | diff | |||
| -7158 | -260 | -14157 | -857 | -1117 | -21731 | -1533 | -416 |
saves ~$400. this case makes more sense to start with the larger payment towards nfcu due to the higher rate. disco requies something like 2% of balance as minimum payment, but I bumped it to 3% since some interest is accruing. at month 16/17 the rate increases back to 18.25%, but by that point the balance is low enough that the $ amount it negligible.
Again, thank you for doing my homework! You've been a tremendous help. I'll mull that over, but seeing that has me leaning toward the 6.99% deal now.
My luck.. I took the 15 month 6.99% deal. Four days after my balance transfer was approved and posted, the interest rate on the new Discover balance transfer offers went down from 6.99% to 4.99% Lol
Anyway, that's the way the rate falls sometimes I guess. Here is what remains now that a large part of my NFCU balance has transferred over to Disco.
$6797.98 NFCU cashrewards
$13295.24 Discover
there is no fee for 4.99%? well there was no transfer fee for 6.99%. technically, you could balance transfer back to nfcu (at no fee) then back to discover again at 4.99% with no fee. might not be worth the hassle to save the $181 in cumulative interest.
| nper | apr % | balance | pmt | cumipmt |
| 15 | 6.99 | 13295 | -928 | -628 |
| 15 | 4.99 | 13295 | -916 | -447 |
| diff | 181 |
did you ask discover for a limit increase yet? also have you checked the apr for ncfu? when the thread started it was 10.25%, but now I see the newest rate from the website is 12.65%
| apr % | limit | balance | min pmt | |
| Penfed Personal Loan | 12.8 | -- | 16750 | -673 |
| Capital One QS | 22.9 | 4000 | 0 | 0 |
| Snyc Amazon Prime | 22 | 6000 | 0 | 0 |
| Pentagon FCU | 19 | 10000 | 0 | 0 |
| Discover | 6.99 | 19300 | 13295 | -928 |
| NFCU Cash Rewards | 10.25 | 24000 | 6798 | -485 |
| TOTAL | 63300 | 36843 | -2086 |
in any case, wait until the first week of 2023 to see if nfcu is going to offer any 0% or 1.99% offers this year. then we can get creative and see how much of your debt we can get 0% apr.
Discover gave me a cli of 4000. I went from 19300 to 23300 limit. I have to give kudos to Discover. I've really enjoyed the relationship with them from the get go. I think when I got the card back in 2015 it only had an $800 limit. All of my experiences with Discover have been good ones. My only mild gripe would be the impossible-to-figure-out formula for consistent cli's. Seems to be no rhyme or reason to their cli approvals or amount of the approvals when approvals do come. I really like Discover though.
nfcu current apr is 13.65%