Debt Dumpers - 2018

[mommy2mrb]

Hmm, do you need an increase or need the score up more for anything in the near future?

Not really. I own my condo and car outright. Just have this one card with a balance. Have my late husbands IRA and a great amount in my investment account (from DH life insurance)

We are moving in June so will be selling condo and buying a small house
Will need a mortgage to purchase house but will pay off with condo sale.
Looking for around $250,000 for house. Condo is worth about 325,000.

It’s the second time they have sent me this offer.

 

[Dentam]

Opinions please...

Just received email from my Marriott/Chase CC staying I can request a credit line increase without it dinging my score.

Already have $21,500 limit with a balance of $9,254.

Should I go for it? Know it might help my score which is at 740 now.

TIA!

I've recently had two cc's increase my credit line without me asking. They both just sent emails letting me know what my new increased credit line amount was. It seems a little odd to me that they're asking you to request it.

 

[mommy2mrb]

I've recently had two cc's increase my credit line without me asking. They both just sent emails letting me know what my new increased credit line amount was. It seems a little odd to me that they're asking you to request it.

Yup says I’m eligible to request one

 

[jen7233]

It’s the second time they have sent me this offer.

Well, could be worth taking a look at closer then.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Opinions please...

Just received email from my Marriott/Chase CC staying I can request a credit line increase without it dinging my score.

Already have $21,500 limit with a balance of $9,254.

Should I go for it? Know it might help my score which is at 740 now.

TIA!

I have to laugh at this. Your credit line is $37 more than what I made at work last year. I can't wait for the day I can say I have a great credit score like that!

 

[fifthdimensiondweller]

1100 for our 2006 Honda CR-V with a bad engine. Dealer wanted to give me $75. I went through peddle.co

I'll look at that- thank you!

 

[DisneyMandC]

I checked this morning and the personal loan we plan on paying off in the next couple months is down a little lower than I thought- $1800. I have that cash in easily accessible savings, but I'm going to wait until I know the damage from my taxes before I pull it out and use it. Depending on DH's tax return/what I owe, I will pay what I owe this year out of DH's tax return and what I save up between now and when I file my taxes, and then I think go ahead and pull that money out of savings and pay off the personal loan. I will still have a little over $1000 as an emergency fund in savings even after doing that so I feel comfortable pulling it out and getting rid of that monthly payment. Plus, it'll be down a little lower between now and when I file my taxes anyways, so I'm probably looking at more like $1500 by then.

DH's work is also starting student loan refinancing through them. DH and I both have one student loan each that can't be forgiven through PSLF so we're going to look at their rates and see if it would be a better option. We both have about $5900 at 6.5% for DH and 5% for me. I don't know if my rate will be worth it as playing around on student loan refinancing websites have only produced interest rates as low as 4.3%. If that's the case, we'll likely just refinance DH's and throw the money saved from paying off the personal loan onto my student loan.

 

[pblack]

Opinions please...

Just received email from my Marriott/Chase CC staying I can request a credit line increase without it dinging my score.

Already have $21,500 limit with a balance of $9,254.

Should I go for it? Know it might help my score which is at 740 now.

TIA!

I would also just go ahead and request the increase, as long as you feel like you won't go crazy and max out the card. The more open credit you have the better, it helps to lower your debt to income ratio. Plus if you don't request it, there's a decent chance that they will just automatically give you the increase. I've had that happen to a card or two of mine.

 

[OhMari]

I checked this morning and the personal loan we plan on paying off in the next couple months is down a little lower than I thought- $1800. I have that cash in easily accessible savings, but I'm going to wait until I know the damage from my taxes before I pull it out and use it. Depending on DH's tax return/what I owe, I will pay what I owe this year out of DH's tax return and what I save up between now and when I file my taxes, and then I think go ahead and pull that money out of savings and pay off the personal loan. I will still have a little over $1000 as an emergency fund in savings even after doing that so I feel comfortable pulling it out and getting rid of that monthly payment. Plus, it'll be down a little lower between now and when I file my taxes anyways, so I'm probably looking at more like $1500 by then.

DH's work is also starting student loan refinancing through them. DH and I both have one student loan each that can't be forgiven through PSLF so we're going to look at their rates and see if it would be a better option. We both have about $5900 at 6.5% for DH and 5% for me. I don't know if my rate will be worth it as playing around on student loan refinancing websites have only produced interest rates as low as 4.3%. If that's the case, we'll likely just refinance DH's and throw the money saved from paying off the personal loan onto my student loan.

Please make sure that you will still be able to deduct the interest if you refinance thru your husbands work.
My dd called me yesterday and her work is doing the same. Seems like everyone wants to get on the band wagon and help out people with student loans and then they come to find out it is considered a personal loan now and you cannot deduct the interest any longer. Your husbands work is probably legit with the refinancing-but my dd's wasn't.
I told my dd, that we will help her start pounding down some of her loans, since we have 3 weddings paid off, and we now have the money for our last son's wedding.

 

[imbatman]

Howdy ho! Checking in with updates. I do it to keep myself on track because, accountability!

CC #1 - scheduled payment for Feb is $150 more than what I had planned because DH has started taking OT
CC #2 - scheduled Feb payment for just over minimum, because paying minimum burns my soul.

In the other news, sent first payment for WDW trip. The hotel has been booked and we are going. Applied for the Alaskan Airlines CC's for DH and myself solely for the free companion offer (after $1000 in the first 3 months). Also, have been working at NOT draining the banking account every week to pay off the CC. I need to let this all ride a month to see how it lays down.

So...I made a budget. Kinda. I find that I cannot stick to them. What I CAN stick to is watching how the money is spent (via the bank log on) and adjusting other expenditures. Anyone in the same boat? Budgets make me anxious, like if I go over the allotted amount, lightning will strike me.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Please make sure that you will still be able to deduct the interest if you refinance thru your husbands work.
My dd called me yesterday and her work is doing the same. Seems like everyone wants to get on the band wagon and help out people with student loans and then they come to find out it is considered a personal loan now and you cannot deduct the interest any longer. Your husbands work is probably legit with the refinancing-but my dd's wasn't.
I told my dd, that we will help her start pounding down some of her loans, since we have 3 weddings paid off, and we now have the money for our last son's wedding.

Unfortunately you don't get to deduct student loan interest when you file your taxes married- filing separate. All we get to deduct is our mortgage interest. Whomp whomp....

 

[Dentam]

So...I made a budget. Kinda. I find that I cannot stick to them. What I CAN stick to is watching how the money is spent (via the bank log on) and adjusting other expenditures. Anyone in the same boat? Budgets make me anxious, like if I go over the allotted amount, lightning will strike me.

I make a budget also, but I feel the same way about being too strict to it down to a penny... kind of like a strict diet. Just doesn't work for me because it stresses me out and if I waver at all I'm likely to throw my hands in the air and give up. So, I try to be easier on myself and have a general budget plus keep track of my bank and cc logs online.

 

[isabellea]

We use the software Mint to follow our expenses. I like the pie charts to see where our money is spent.

 

[kkmcan]

Here's my financial goals for the year.

-Pay off my new car $12,000
-Using allowances each month for dh and I in order to keep on budget.
We are allowing $100 for each of us per month.
$100 for eating out each month.
No other extraneous spending.
$100 each month saved in an envelope towards next vacation

Any extra money coming in will go towards paying off my car- tax refund, overtime, cashing in unused paid time off etc.

We have no CC debt, and a 7 month fully funded emergency account. Just need to work on getting our cars paid off, first mine, then his next year and cutting the crazy amount of spending we do.

 

[mommy2mrb]

Just applied for instant credit line increase. Got bumped up to $29,000.
Will see next month what that does to my Credit score!

thanks for you insight all!

 

[therapistalexandra]

Joining in. This is my anonymous account, although I'm a long-time DISer. Found out my spouse has charged several thousands of dollars in 2017 last night. I'm devastated, to say the least, because we were scheduled to be debt free in May. So, I'm posting here to try and encourage people who read this and feel embarrassed if they are in the same boat. It happens...even after more than 20 wonderful years of marriage. Yes, I cried myself to sleep. Yes, I cried typing this post, but I'm going to get through this. Here's the plan:

#1 - New CC debt $3472.98 -- According to my snowball chart, I'll have this paid off in June. But I'm going to throw anything I can at it to try and pay it off by April.
#2 - Main CC debt $18,509.99 -- Without a doubt, this hurts the most to post. We even have a WDW trip planned in December that I'm considering canceling, but I dread telling our kids. We've been planning it for 2 years. My goal for this one is to pay down, according to the snowball.

Those are my two goals. We have one car payment and a mortgage, too. If you need encouragement, if you want to cry, PM me (although I'm not sure if I can get PM's before 10 posts?). Want to rage? I get it. But I hope that by reading my soul-crushing debt, someone else can make a decision to move forward, one payment at a time.

You can also reach out to me if needed! When I was young, single, in graduate school, and on my clinical rotations, there was absolutely no way I could hold down a paying job with school and intern hours. I did not have any family to help me and ended basically living off of credit cards which I am still paying off. It's a hard road, I have been there. But because of this, I can also very much attest to it gets better as long as you make a plan that you can stick too. Please feel free to reach out if you'd like!

 

[Dentam]

Just applied for instant credit line increase. Got bumped up to $29,000.
Will see next month what that does to my Credit score!

thanks for you insight all!

Congrats! It might take a couple of months to show up on your credit score - at least that's been the case with mine recently.

 

[mommy2mrb]

Congrats! It might take a couple of months to show up on your credit score - at least that's been the case with mine recently.

Thanks. Oh that’s true.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Heard back from the insurance adjuster via my dad. He said the car was worth $5500. We owe $4500 on it. Sounds like a good enough deal right? He gets to pay it off and has an extra $1000 to his name. Apparently, That's not good enough for him. He seems to think that because the accident was 100% the other lady's fault, she should pay to fully replace the car with something similar, which to buy would be in the $8-10k range. While it sucks because I'll have to go buy one now instead of finishing paying off his, I don't know why he won't just be happy with the extra cash in his pocket. I guess he decided to cancel the claim with his insurance and is now planning to sue the other lady for the extra money he thinks he deserves. I honestly want no part in any of that, but since I was driving, I just know I'm going to end up in court over this crap.

The only real complaint I have is that in the manual for our car seats, it requires them to be replaced once the car is in an accident. His insurance company said they would cover them, just turn in the receipt and leave the old seats in the car so they can be disposed of. Now they're coming back saying we have to pay the deductible ($500) to file the claim to get them replaced (they were $350). It seems ridiculous to pay more to file the claim than just paying for them myself, however, I do feel like HER insurance should be the one to cover them since it was 100% her fault. So I guess he's going to try and get them to pay for them now.

I need a drink after all this drama, but I'm going in for 9 hours of overtime in a couple hours since it looks like I'm buying a new car really soon.

 

[jackers]

So...I made a budget. Kinda. I find that I cannot stick to them. What I CAN stick to is watching how the money is spent (via the bank log on) and adjusting other expenditures. Anyone in the same boat? Budgets make me anxious, like if I go over the allotted amount, lightning will strike me.

I kinda make a budget, too. But mine is more about staying within my annual income overall, vs specific categories. I keep a pretty detailed spreadsheet and have been tracking expenses for the past 10 years. So using all of that information, I can estimate how much I will spend in each category and try to stay within range, but it's not down to the penny kind of thing and only if I seem to be tracking much higher in a certain category do I have to go back and look at the numbers and decide where I will spend less. Last year turned into The Year of Gifts but we were apparently also very boring last year because I was tracking well under in our Entertainment category so it all balanced out in the end.

The other thing that my spreadsheet really helps me do is manage my money so I don't have to put things on a credit card (well, technically I use my cc to get cash back rewards, but I don't put anything on it that I don't have the cash in hand to immediately pay it off). I have every paycheck planned out for the year with what bills need to be paid with each one so I know how much money I have left for the non-bill expenses (groceries, etc). So I instantly know if a certain two-week window may be a little tighter, and I can proactively be more cautious with my budget during that time. Or, if I know I am going to have more cash than normal, I can apply it towards other areas (vacation fund, savings, extra car payment, etc.). I started this about 10 years ago when I was going through my mass debt dumping challenge (multiple credit card debt, school loans, personal loan, ugh). It took me 2.5 years to get rid of about 30K in debt, but it has totally changed my financial situation around.