Not sure if this was a good idea ... Advice?

[SweetLife]

Good morning all!!!! I have been doing a happy dance at paying off my 19.99%VISA credit card in just over 3 months ($5400) ... so now I was onto getting at my MasterCard Debt which is at 9.99% for 10,482.

VISA offered to up my credit limit to $9000 (with no credit check) AND offered a 6 months balance transfer at .99% (fee of 1%)

Sooooo... I decided it would be a good idea and did both - only transferred $6000 to my VISA as I think I can get the rest of the Mastercard debt paid in under 6 months ... and start working on VISA again (worse case scenario MBNA always offers low % balance transfers so I can always switch whatever is left back to Mastercard before I get hit with the 19.99% again :)

My current payments (after I paid off that VISA a few days ago) going to Mastercard are $660 /month plus any overtime/holiday pay will go here as well.


Was this a smart move? or worthy of a face punch? (I know its done but I am still fretting lol) :)

Thanks

[warfreak2]

Why didn't you transfer the full $9,000? $3,000 at 9% (9.99% - 0.99%) interest over 6 months will cost you almost $135, minus $30 for the 1% fee and you've lost over $100.

[Thegoblinchief]

The debt deserves a face punch, but getting it to as low a rate as possible and paying off ASAP does not.

I would have transferred the entire amount, that's actually a good transfer rate. The ones I get in the mail are usually 0% but with a 3% fee up front.

[wtjbatman]

The Chase Slate card is the bomb diggity for these. 0$ fee on balance transfers, 0% APR on balance transfers for the first 15 months, and the card itself has no annual fee. The only way it could be better is if they paid off your balance for you.

In your situation it might be too late, not to mention they do a credit check and if your credit stinks you probably won't get approved. But for anyone else who's reading this, I figured they might like to know.

[SweetLife]

The Chase Slate card is the bomb diggity for these. 0$ fee on balance transfers, 0% APR on balance transfers for the first 15 months, and the card itself has no annual fee. The only way it could be better is if they paid off your balance for you.

In your situation it might be too late, not to mention they do a credit check and if your credit stinks you probably won't get approved. But for anyone else who's reading this, I figured they might like to know.

I don't think I can get a Chase Slate up in Canada ... my credit rating is very good but I would rather not get another card ... I am trying to streamline lol... and just the two cards are driving me batty lol... Thanks for the advice though!

[SweetLife]

Why didn't you transfer the full $9,000? $3,000 at 9% (9.99% - 0.99%) interest over 6 months will cost you almost $135, minus $30 for the 1% fee and you've lost over $100.

I hated having it up to max again after being so happy to have it paid off ... But now seeing the cost I am re-thinking ...

[SweetLife]

The debt deserves a face punch, but getting it to as low a rate as possible and paying off ASAP does not.

I would have transferred the entire amount, that's actually a good transfer rate. The ones I get in the mail are usually 0% but with a 3% fee up front.

Yup I agree totally with the face punch ... I have learned the error of my ways lol... no really I have :) I am going to transfer the rest after a few have mentioned the same ... and just pay it all down before end of 6 months.

Thank you!

[wtjbatman]

Why didn't you transfer the full $9,000? $3,000 at 9% (9.99% - 0.99%) interest over 6 months will cost you almost $135, minus $30 for the 1% fee and you've lost over $100.

I hated having it up to max again after being so happy to have it paid off ... But now seeing the cost I am re-thinking ...

You're better off than you were as you will be saving money overall, but not as good as you could have been if you were truly looking to save the most money. You let your feelings get in the way and it cost you. Thankfully only about $100. You can recover from that ;)

[dude]

Why didn't you transfer the full $9,000? $3,000 at 9% (9.99% - 0.99%) interest over 6 months will cost you almost $135, minus $30 for the 1% fee and you've lost over $100.

This.  Curious why you chose to only transfer $6K instead of up to the full $9K limit they gave you?

And of course -- though it probably goes without saying since you seem to have learned the error of your previous ways -- none of this balance transferring stuff means diddly if you can't refrain from racking up new charges.

[SweetLife]

@Dude
Debt racked up was due to two large emergencies, I had previously already put these balances down to zero and had started on my line of credit ... but life happens and in my case it was before I had managed to get a cushion for "just in case".
Lessons learned ... but no - not planning on racking up more debt. :)