Unless my math is wrong, looks like $37k in debt, not 36. 15 + 5 + 6 + 3.5 + 2.4 + 5.1 = 37.
$315 Card #1 14.99 interest (balance $15 K)
$156 Card #2 18.99 interest (balance is $5 K)
$200 Card #3 5.99 interest (balance is 6 K) -- this one is through a credit union
$90 Card #4 14.99 interest (Balance is 3500K)
$190 Card #5 0 interest until December 2013 (balance is $2400 K) - then goes to 18.99
$200 Card #6 0 interest until December 2014 (balance is $5100 K) - then goes to 18.99
I still need to buy groceries for two kids and gas. I estimate we spend about 500 total each month on groceries and gas, plus odds and ends for school activities. Some of the grocery bill is money for me to bring lunch to work.
That leaves around $429 left over. I've been trying to throw this extra at Card 5 since it has a low balance and rate is about to go up but it is slow going. I'm also starting to worry about Christmas.
In order of importance:
1.
Definitely look into consolidating. I don't think it really matters how "bad" or not that may look on your credit - I think effects will be relatively minimal. Less than the effects of not doing it. If you can get everything into a single 8% or so loan, you'd be doing great. And a home line of credit (second mortgage is the less polite way of saying it) is an excellent strategy as long as you're fairly sure you won't do anything stupid with the "free money", or lose your job tomorrow.
2.
Your card minimum payments are $1151. You spend $500 on other things. The rest is essentially fixed, as you say. Of that $500, how much can be reduced? Grocery, gas, and school things you said. Generally speaking, can you find a way to drive less? And can you find a way to eat cheaper? I'm not suggesting less food, but perhaps you currently buy things you really don't need. Often times a lot can be saved by cutting out soda and most junk food. What do you usually buy? A savings of $100/month here would be great, and $200/month would be even more awesome.
3.
Assuming you can't or won't consolidate. I'll lay out some figures, and then I will show some rough figures if you can consolidate at 8%. But the short version is that it may well take you three, three and a half years, if you don't do anything different.
Beating the interest on #5 sounds like a good idea, but it's not currently making you bleed. #2 is. I suggest paying off #2 first. Especially since the minimum payment is so small compared to the other cards, that most likely means every minimum payment you make on that one is hurting you more than minimum payments elsewhere!
You have double the balance on #2 as on #5, you have 19% interest, and yet you're paying less? That smells bad. Very bad. Annual 19% interest (compounded annually) on $5k is $950, and you're paying double that in minimum payments. Compare that against annual 19% interest on $2400 is $456 and you're paying 5x that in minimum payments.
So I would put all extra money into #2. If you're putting $50 in car savings (fine idea!) that's around $350/month extra into #2. And the $1800 bonus you mentioned. That will bring your payments from now until the end of the year to around $2800 (november payment, december payment, and bonus).
Things get a little hazy from there, so definite update your situation. Also if you get tax refunds, those would probably go into paying off debt.
If I were to follow this to completion, assuming no refunds, and without doing much math...
After the year rolls over, you will have about $2500 at 19% on card 2, and about $2000 on card 5 at the same 19%. If you keep putting the extra $350 into card 2, you're paying 500/month, and will finish it by around June; at this point, you have around $1000 on card 2. You clear that in two months, in August. There's a bit of interest I have hand-waved instead of doing a real calculation, so someone can correct me.
At that point you'd switch to paying the highest current interest, which is 15%. Card 4 has $3500 on it today. Interest currently costs you $500/year and you pay just under $1100 in minimum payments (again, only double the interest). You should be around $3000 on it in August; payments for the last four months of the year would bring that down to around $1300. That's at the end of December 2014. If you have another $2000 bonus, you finish off card #4, and put five hundred into card #6.
At the end of next year, you would have paid for ~14 months at $200/month on card 6, and at 0% interest, your principal would be down to $2300, and the five hundred would bring that to $1800. Interest starts accumulating january 2015 and you are paying $550/month on that, finishing it in four months. At this point, only card 1 and 3 remain. Card 3 is paid off at $2400/year and accumulates interest at $360/year right now. Roughly speaking, it would have around $3500 in january 2015. At this point, you'll confidently pay it off after card 1 (or possibly during, since card 1 is so big.)
On the other hand, card 1 is going to hurt. It's 15k now, accumulates interest at $2250 a year, and is paid at $3800/year. Significantly less than the others. In january 2015, you'd still have $13200 on it. At $665 a month, it will take you around two years to pay it. (By this point, card 3 would be paid off long ago, just from minimum payments.)
So from a rough estimate, it looks like you'll be into 2017 by the time this is all finished.
Now what happens if you can save $100/month on your current expenses? Add to that perhaps earning $100 a month extra from side work. Also ignore inflation; the good news is that your take-home pay should go up but the credit card APR is fixed. (RIGHT? YES?) I think you can already imagine that $200/month extra could cut an entire year off this repayment. ($2400 extra paid PLUS the reduction of interest from the money paid.)
Now what if you could roll all the debt into a single 8% loan. Of course you'd want to keep your 6% card, and not roll your 0% cards in until they turn into 19% cards, but let's ignore all that and say that you right now rolled that into 8%.
Interest: 8%. Principal: $37K. $3000/year in interest. (How much does it cost to consolidate? I don't actually know.) $1500/month in payments. Another 1800 at the end of november. Looks to me like it will take under two and a half years. You're saving a *ton* of money by consolidating.
Realistically speaking, if you only consolidate cards 1, 2, 4, and 5, that will be:
- 6000 @ 6%
- 25900 @ 8%
- 5100 @ 0% for now
Then you could choose between snowballing (kill the 5100 before it starts yielding interest, or kill the 6000), or paying off the most expensive one first (25900). If you did the latter, you would have 2300 left on card 6 at the end of 2014, which you might either pay off using an annual bonus, or roll into the 8% if possible.
Also psychologically, you'd have to deal with fewer individual bills.