Circle the Wagons!

Circle the Wagons!

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Conestoga WagonOkay, we’re not being attacked, but with the pushy sales tactic, sometimes it feels like it.

We’ve decided to green light the siding project!

So today I spent some quality time with my trusty calculator and the various “convenience” check offers we’ve received over the past few months from our credit card companies. (Yes, I’ve been collecting them in a pile on the kitchen table for months to the delight of my wife.)

So, subtracting the CitiBank 0% transfer of $6000 last month, we still need to come up with around $18000 relatively quickly. I’m able to throw around $2000 from my checking account balance at it, so now we’re down to $16000.

I’ve got it down to two offers. The first is on a card from Chase Bank. I don’t carry a balance on the card and the limit is $22k. The offers are:

0.99% for 6 months with the usual 3% fee with a ceiling of $99
or
4.99% until paid in full with 3% fee and a ceiling of $99

I’ve decided to go with the second option and write a check to myself for $8000, which will actually end up being $8099 on the card after the transaction fee.

The second offer we’re considering is on my wife’s CapitalOne card. Right now, she’s carrying a balance of around $800. We’re going to wipe that out this week and then use their offer of:

1.99% for 1 year with a 3% fee. No ceiling

So, if she writes a check to herself, or me, for $8000, with the transaction fee, the balance will be $8240.

Total borrowed will be $22339.

The plan, which we should be able to stick to, is to continue on our aggressive debt strategy on a slightly smaller scale.

We can pay it all off before the rates jump by paying roughly $600 per month per card. That’s $1800/month which is actually less than what we’ve been paying back on a monthly basis for the past 3 years.

Being that the Citi balance is at 0%, it might be wise to just pay the minimum on that card to focus more on the higher rate balances, but each way I’ve calculated the various repayment scenarios, they all fall within a span of about $60.

So, while just a day ago I was fretting about having to borrow over $20k, now I’m seeing it’s not really that big a deal.

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