DebtMaven

I’ve added an additional credit card to my list of debts, but don’t worry, I’m not planning on spending more! This is a new card I got for the 0% interest rate. I had a $5000 limit, so I transferred $4,800. With their 3% transfer fee, that adds $144, for a $4,944 total “new” debt.

This resulted in a large payoff on the Line of Credit – It’s now at $8,988 due! That also drops my interest payments from $115 to $75. I’ve estimated that it will save me over $300 to do the transfer, so I’m not that concerned over the $144 charge. 

I do know that my minimum payments will be 4%, so I’m going to revise my budget to reflect a decreased minimum Line of Credit payment plus an addition of $200 for the Discover Card. I will pay the minimum on the Discover card, and apply all extra debt payments to the Line of Credit. I have 0% interest through the end of the year. After that, I’ll transfer all remaining balance BACK to the Line of Credit, which has a 10% interest rate.

It always seems a shame when paying interest that you pay more than you actually pay off (ie, the privilege of having credit). I wish I could include that extra payment, but it kindof doesn’t count. In the same spirit of paying interest rates, I’m not going to raise my debt total, nor decrease my amount “paid off” on the total debt by that $144 transfer fee charge. I’ll chalk that up to payment that doesn’t count and isn’t tracked in the totals.