Requesting better credit card rates
I’ve been reading a lot lately on Blogging away Debt (in my blogroll). I’ve been waiting to see a post about whether or not to go out of my way to get a 0% rate credit card to transfer some of my higher-rate debt onto. I’ve only got 1 card with a $500 balance on it (all new purchases; I had a bad car month and had to get major brake/rotor work done). My personal line of credit through my bank just went up to 10%. I think the economic crisis has made them up the loan amount. It went up 1.25% – and they mailed out a form to me, which means they did it across the board.
So I’ve been looking at the offers coming in and the Discover Card looks really good. I am going to call tonight after I get home from work and see if they will let me have one to transfer a bank loan, and if I can get a little or no transfer fee (I think they start at 3% fee). I doubt I’ll get the full amount of credit limit as my loan is just shy of $15K, but anything will help.
As a first step, I called my bank to see if I could negotiate a lower % rate on my personal loan and did an application and was denied (the reason to be mailed to me in 4 weeks). I did call my Citibank credit card to see if they would give me a low to no % interest rate for transfers, but they don’t have any offers out right now. However, they did review my account, and after I mentioned several times I would close the card and get a new one (very nicely), they dropped my 18.99% rate (which is from an old default rate when I was late on payments), back to 8.99%. Hey, can’t hurt! I don’t plan on having finance charges anymore, but it never hurts to ask!
Wish me luck getting a discover card tonight! I’ll post the results tomorrow.
Saving Money Costs More
One of the biggest ways I’m trying to trim the budget is by cooking more at home and eating out less. I have to say it’s been working, at least in the 1 month that I’ve starting budgeting. I think I’ve eaten out once a week, and usually for lunch on the weekend, which is usually pretty cheap. It generally costs $10-15 each time. I initially had budgeted $100 for restaurants and $400 for groceries per month and I think I’ve been more than meeting that (at least for the restaurant part).
So to cook more at home you have to buy more foodstuffs. This means lots of bulk foods, and cooking from recipes. I’m finding there are certain kitchen goods I’ve been doing without that I’m starting to really need! Measuring cups, a good 9″ square bake pan, and a good seasoned cast-iron skillet. Glassware to store extras in, freeze, and/or take to work. I did without previously but now that we’re cooking and baking at least every other night, it’s become a necessity. J even started canning, and he had to buy a bunch of mason jars and racks for boiling. I had to buy a bunch of mason jars for bulk goods. I bought the jars at the thrift store, but still have to go buy the new lids.
These are short-term purchases, so I’ll need to be spending some money in the home goods budget category – I think I’ll portion one of these per month until I’ve gotten them all.
