@twpounds wrote:
I've got another thread under the credit card forum discussing BT cards and paying down cc debts. I have learned a lot in the last few weeks and I am trying to come up with a solid/methodical plan to get us off of running around on the hamster wheel of debt. My wife and I have racked up $44k in cc debt with a $7k balance on a car. Her credit is very low 600s with $21k of the $44k debt in her name as well as the $7k car balance. I have $23k in my name. $5k of which is on a RTG 0% promo that I'm handling fine. My big problem is my capital one card that has the $18k balance on it. I have FICO 8 scores ranging from 797-801. My total utilization rate on my 6 cards is about 22%. However, the utilization rate on my capital one card with the $18k balance is 62%. I recently opened a new Citi card with 0% BT offer for 21 months that I intend on using to put about $5,200 of my wife's cards on to pay off. That would payoff 6 of her cards, but it would put me with a 33.73% utilization rate on the new Citi card. I have not done any BT yet and after doing some research, I think it would be best to try to obtain a personal debt consolidation loan for all or as much of our debt as possible. My debt to income ratio is currently sitting at around 33% which includes my mortgage. I have read about debt consolidation loans and it seems like there are a lot of scams out there as well as the companies that are supposed to be paying your debts while you pay them, but they only cause you to have late payments and ruin your credit. We have no late payments and have been snowballing the best we can, but it is taking a toll on us because it is an extremely slow process. I think a personal loan coupled with 0% BT offers may be the way to go for us. I have read about SoFI and have saw credit unions mentioned as possible personal debt consolidation loan possibilities. I'd like to apply for a loan before doing any BTs while my total utilization and debt to income ratios are still in decent shape. We can make payments, but we would like to see the balances reducing instead of being eaten by the high interest cards my wife has. Do any of you know anything about SoFi or any other companies that would possibly lend me the total $44k or really any large sum at a decent rate(15% or less preferably) given my credit scores, utilization rates, and debt to income ratio? I'd rather not involve my wife at all other than using her income to help pay the loan off because of her low scores and very high utilization. We'd also not want to consider a secured loan such as a HELOC if at all possible. We don't want to risk our house. Would a personal debt consolidation loan or a personal line of credit be the best route and if so, which one would you go with? I'm leaning personal loan over line of credit even though the LOC would give flexibility for unexpected house or car repairs while paying down our cc debt. Any feedback on our situation would be greatly appreciated as well as any personal loan leads that any of you have had good experience with. We have done all the cutting back that we can and we have had the tough discussions about how we got here and how to not get back here. We just need some favorable lending to help us. If I left out any pertinent details, please ask.
About three or four years ago, I took out a $20,000 loan at LightStream for 60 months at 6.99%. It's almost paid off now and it has been a really good loan for me. I love the interest-rate. I think their loans go up to $100,000, so I would recommend taking a look at their website. I applied for the loan and the next day it was in my checking account. It was so easy that I never even talked to anybody at LightStream and still haven't. I filled it out online and it approved me right after submitting it.
I don't blame you for not wanting to take out a loan against your house. I would not do that myself. With how things are uncertain lately with the economy and the election coming up, we just never know where we are headed as a nation right now.
I would take a look at spreading some of your debt around to any 0% BT cards that you may have opened up so that your utilization looks a little bit lower on certain cards that are high. Then, I would look at LightStream and if you are satisfied with them, apply for it. From everything that I've seen about SOFI, it looks like they charge higher rates of interest. Most likely in the teens or upper teens in some cases. There are definitely places that charge lower rates of interest for personal loans, but you just have to look for them. I haven't seen anyone that can compete with LightStream yet though.
Another good thing about taking out a personal loan out is that it will lower your utilization on your cards and make your score go up considerably. That's what happened with my scores at the time. Please let us know what you decide. Best of luck to you!
