I would recommend going with the snowball method. If you can throw $1000 a month towards that, you should be able to knock that out within 2-3 months. Then take the money saved from that and attack the next balance (Discover). Then so forth. I would probably attack the cards with interest before going after the 0% interest cards. Just make sure you're making more then the minimum payment. With this method, I would say you should be able to pay off all your cards within 3 years. Possibly earlier as each paid off card will add more money to your $1k.
@PNut08 wrote:I want to tackle my debt situation that I have had since grad school. Beginning in Jan 2019, I want to throw an extra $1000/month to my debt and all of it is at a low interest rate. I'm active duty military and most of my cards gave me SCRA benefits since I had them before beginning active duty with balances. I'm thinking about using a personal loan to consolidate it and just have 1 payment per month on a fixed schedule. However, I don't think a persona loan will be at a lower interest rate. My overall utilization is at 31%, my fico 8 scores are between 736-750, no baddies, 20 years of credit history, no derogs, 3-4 inquiries, clean file. I just purchased a home so I'm not applying for anything else in the near future. I do also have some citibank 0% interest BT offers I received in the mail (simplicity 0% for 21 months and double cash 0% for 18 months...both with 3% BT fee). I'm pretty sure the best offer I could get for 36 months on a personal loan would be at least 5.99% through SoFi or PayOff (I did the soft pull) so I'm not sure if it makes sense with my current interest rates. Below is my info:
Barclay Apple Card 0.00% interest. Balance of $2243 with a card limit of $2600 (they chopped my limit in half about 5 months ago so I'm thinking I should pay this one soon due to the 86% utilization...but it's a 0% card due to being active duty military).
Discover Card 5.9% interest. Balance of $2377 with a card limit of $7200.
Citibank Costco 0.00% interest. Balance of $3000 with a limit of $6700.
Chase Amazon 4.00% interest. Balance of $5900 with a limit of $26,100.
Barclay Arrival 0.00% interest. Balance of $7987 with a limit of $12,900.
Bank Of America 5.90% interest. Balance of $11,900 with a limit of $19,900.
I have other cards with $0 balances hence the overall utilization of 31%. I'm just trying to come up with a plan and I'm not sure that it makes sense to transfer balances. I easily pay the ~$500 in minimum payments. After all of our bills are paid, we have $3400 left/month for a family of only 2 but we do live in a high cost area (DC). We can very comfortably live on $1900/month (food, groceries, gas, unexpected dog vet bills, car repairs, home issues, etc.). I also want to put $500/month in savings which leaves the extra $1000 to put towards my debt issue each month. I also have a personal loan at 2.99% with a monthly payment of $449 that will be paid off in June 2019 so I can throw that extra money towards my debt then.
I would really like to pay all of it off in 3 years and a personal loan would force me to do that but with my low interest rates I'm not sure a loan makes sense. Alternatively, I could just use the snowball method and start with the Barclay Apple card. Any thoughts?
Since you're not planning to apply for a mortgage or anything else in the near future, it's just a matter of money, not FICO scores.
I agree that you should not do a balance transfer or loan.
I think you should snowball it. Since the Barclay Apple card is the one which has caused you to have the highest individual utilization, and coincidentally is (a) the smallest balance card and (b) the lousiest of your cards, that's the logical balance to get rid of first.
The only balance transfer I would consider if I were you would be getting something like the PenFed Promise card, which has no balance transfer fee, and will have a low promotional interest rate.
