No credit card required
Browse credit cards from a variety of issuers to see if there's a better card for you.
Previously, I was trying to look into refinancing my one private student loan with Sallie Mae, which was sitting at ~7100 and 11%! However, nobody would refinance because it was less than $7500 and I had a bk two years ago. My partner and I were going to start paying off my car loan faster, mostly to get it paid down, but my loan is now only 4.79%. So I decided to try another route to save money while paying my loan down.
I was trying to see if I could BT the balance to a credit card and I have a Penfed Pathfinder w/ a 10k limit that was offering me a BT 0% for 12 months with a 3% BT fee. Turns out, it was something I could do and it was completed yesterday on the card, and the loan was paid off today! Now this loan will be paid off in a year rather than by 2028 and I'll save thousands in interest. I'm thrilled!
ETA: I do know this will increase my utilization on the card for a little while but I am not planning on applying to anything for the next year and will be paying $600 a month, if not more, to pay it down. Plus any extra income/bonus will go to the balance as well!
@wantitgone wrote:ETA: I do know this will increase my utilization on the card for a little while but I am not planning on applying to anything for the next year and will be paying $600 a month, if not more, to pay it down. Plus any extra income/bonus will go to the balance as well!
As some people like to say on the forums finance before FICOs. Always prioritize saving money over scores, scores can recover but money lost due to interest is gone forever
Congrats and keep up the good work over there
Very nicely done!
Good thinking! You'll end up saving I couldn't understand if that 11% was the rate or the util of the account if that's the rate you'll save $3,111.82 in interest and $2,898.82 after the BT fee. If the 4.79% is your current rate on the Sallie Mae loan not the car loan then you'll end up saving $1,270.74 in interest and after the BT fee $1057.75. You should be thrilled! Yeah it will raise your utilization and your score will take a hit but if your not apping for anything it won't matter and it will make a recovery and when it does you'll be student loan debt free all at 0%!