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Proliferation of plastic
Dec. 4th, 2003 09:20 pmWell, I've just done something I'd been meaning to do for a while...finally, the crunch of some forgotten bills coming back into my life at the same time as the holiday season caused me to rummage through stacks of old mail until I found the offer I was looking for.
And so, I applied for another credit card. Not intending to use it, mind (save perhaps as a temporary crutch in emergencies), but as a debt-lessening measure. I can transfer my balance from my current card over there, and not pay any interest on it for six months. By which time I hope to have it pretty well paid down, especially if my tax return for this year approaches the size for which I hope. It's got a $59 annual fee, the new card does...but I figure that's only about two months' worth of the interest charges on my current card, so I'll still come out ahead. It's hard to get ahead on repaying my card if I pay back $100 and then $30 or $40 of that pops right back on again. Six months of zero interest should pause the "two steps forward, one step back" game long enough to let me whittle it down a fair amount.
The new card eases the load on my mind substantially. And it also means that, if worse comes to worse, I can transfer part of my balance from one card to the other, and consolidate them both with a loan-consolidation agency. (I have to have more than one source of debt for such a thing, you see, and the student loans don't count since they're already consolidated with someone else.) Once that debt is down to zero, I'll have another disposable $100 or so in my monthly budget, and can pay off the student loans that much faster.
And so, I applied for another credit card. Not intending to use it, mind (save perhaps as a temporary crutch in emergencies), but as a debt-lessening measure. I can transfer my balance from my current card over there, and not pay any interest on it for six months. By which time I hope to have it pretty well paid down, especially if my tax return for this year approaches the size for which I hope. It's got a $59 annual fee, the new card does...but I figure that's only about two months' worth of the interest charges on my current card, so I'll still come out ahead. It's hard to get ahead on repaying my card if I pay back $100 and then $30 or $40 of that pops right back on again. Six months of zero interest should pause the "two steps forward, one step back" game long enough to let me whittle it down a fair amount.
The new card eases the load on my mind substantially. And it also means that, if worse comes to worse, I can transfer part of my balance from one card to the other, and consolidate them both with a loan-consolidation agency. (I have to have more than one source of debt for such a thing, you see, and the student loans don't count since they're already consolidated with someone else.) Once that debt is down to zero, I'll have another disposable $100 or so in my monthly budget, and can pay off the student loans that much faster.
