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Discover is singing a different tune…

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Here come the 0% balance transfers from Discover card. Remember they would do nothing to help me knock down that 18.4% interest rate just a few weeks ago?  I found out about this offer b/c I got an email saying they were going to debit my account for the “minimum due.”  Well, with the balance at $0 I hopped onto the website to figure out why there was a minimum payment at all.

After sign on, a big opening page with “0% for 12 months on balance transfers” showed up.  The credit available on that card is $8,000 so I did some quick calculations to see what we would save if we moved the two smallest credit cards over.  It worked out to be a $205 fee for the balance transfer and we’d save $230 in interest.  Just not worth the hassle to me AND there is always the risk that we don’t pay it in 12 months and then that criminal interest rate of 18.4% returns.  So that was fun to look into for a minute…but more importantly…to have the power for a change.

I had to call to talk to a rep about the $46.00 interest charge.  I was told that was interest from those days where the balance remained-from the last pay cycle end date to the payoff date.  Thankfully Discover did the right thing this time and waived it when I asked.  And kudos to me for asking…there was a time that I would not have done so!


8 Comments

  • Reply Poor to Rich a Day at a Time |

    Kudos Claire, sometimes all one needs to do is ask!

  • Reply Desperately in Debt |

    That’s fantastic, Claire! Just curious, what is your take on closing credit accounts after you’ve paid them off? I’ve heard it hurts your credit but I feel like I should be getting rid of the temptation to wrack up more debt by just closing the account… I tried to close an account once with Captial One and somehow they talked me into staying by lowering my interest rate a little and warning me about the perils of ruining my credit rating. Needless to say I now have a stupidly large balance on that account that I have to dig myself out from under 🙁

    • Reply Cathy C. |

      Closing one or two cc accounts is not going to have that huge of an impact on your credit score unless it’s a card you’ve held the longest for years and years. As long as you’re not looking to finance a car or take out a mortgage in the next year, I wouldn’t think twice about closing out a card or two. Sorry, but Capital One is one of those “predatory” lenders and is going to tell you anything to get you to keep that account open and run up that balance, which apparently you did.

      • Reply scarr |

        Cathy C. is right in saying Capital One and may other card companies are predatory lenders and will say or do anything to keep you. I closed all but one of my 7 credit cards while I was paying them off. It always makes me laugh, partially because I was the same way before I paid off all of my credit card debt – why do people care so much about their credit score when they are in massive amounts of debt? Your credit score probably already sucks if you have a lot of debt and it will not be any more ruined by closing most of the accounts. No one needs 7 or 8 credit cards, one should suffice. Close the others, your score will rebound after taking a dip and all will be fine. You should especially close all other accounts if you are not responsible with debt, such as myself – I only keep one credit card because any more and I go nuts!

  • Reply Cathy |

    I have, literally, just started working on trying to fix my debt over the last couple of months. I started with my student loans, which were already kicking my credit score to the bottomless pits. Now, I’m working on some old (and not so old) medical bills. I actually only have one credit card, was never able to get one really. I had bad credit right on into 18. Young mom, just didn’t know anything about credit or why it was important. Just knew I needed things for my kid. Anyway, to make a long story short…it seems that you’re doing insanely well, and I want to know if you’ve ever heard of debt snowballing and what your take is on it. I’d like to give it a try because I have yet to stick to a program successfully. It’s mostly been hit and miss for me. I work on this, I work on that. I just work on what seems to be the most urgent, I guess. I thought maybe you could offer some pros and cons about it that would help me decide if it’s the right type of payoff program for me. Any advice would be great. And yes, I will take the time to look over your site some more as well. 😉

    • Reply Cathy C. |

      Cathy, I recommend reading Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover and checking out his website for the steps to the debt snowball. I think many would agree that his method, while a bit extreme, is easy to comprehend and a good starting point.

      • Reply Cathy |

        Thank you! I will definitely give it a good look over. We are just so excited to finally be taking those purposeful steps forward. Thank you for the point in the right direction. =)

  • Reply kate |

    Keep in mind that you can usually find 0% balance transfers with no fees. There is really no reason to pay a fee on that. I think Chase Slate is one that’s out there now.

    The pressure to pay it off in 12 months could be a good thing.

So, what do you think ?