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FINALLY! YA paid off CCards thread, lived frugally

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jagec said:
The problem that people run into is that instead of paying it off at the end of the period, they do a balance transfer onto a new 0% card. 2-3% of total, right there, even IF you always make your payments and use 0% offers.

As for "emergencies" that require otherwise frugal people to suddenly rack up tons of credit card debt, any emergency dire enough to make me resort to credit that I can't pay is obviously dire enough to declare bankruptcy over anyway. That argument always baffled me.

I ran into credit card debt in my college days, and it was a GREAT feeling when I finally paid it off. It's an even better feeling now that I'm using credit responsibly and slowly, slowly making back in rewards the extra money that I gave them in interest back in the day.

Now WHY don't they have a finance/life skills seminar in the senior year of high school? Sure, people will always make mistakes, but warning people about some of the common mistakes would still avoid a lot of heartache.
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I never paid a BT fee. Just racked up the new 0% while paying the minimum (if I needed to) and put more towards the one that was expiring. The only BT I ever tried to do failed (0% BT fee) because it was a Chase card to a Chase card and they don't allow that. I had to pay $7k to avoid getting an interest charge. It sucked but I pulled it off.
 
Congrats OP! Living without CC debt is a good feeling!

OILFIELDTRASH said:
Cc are perfectly fine if used correctly. Why would I not want 1% back on everything (sometimes i get 5% on gas and groceries) when I'd spend the money anyways? If people use them to buy stuff they wouldn't have cash for then yes it's a terrible idea.
I've heard the argument it's easier to use the cc on frivolous stuff since you don't actually see the money vs handing someone cash. To me it feels exactly the same.
Responsible cc user gets cash back and the convenience of buying online with the added protection of your cc company>responsible non cc user that pays everything with cash.
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Completely agree with the first point - not so much with the second - esp in a multiple user household. We found that we were spending more on small incidentals and more issues surrounding larger purchases. (Why do you need another expensive purse? Well, why do you need another video card?)

So we changed it a bit. Get a weekly allowance that we can spend on whatever we want. If she wants another expensive purse and, saves up and pays for it out of her allowance go right ahead. If I want to go out to lunch every day at work - who cares as long as I use my allowance. We pay for everything else with our credit card for the points

kaerflog said:
I sign up for CC to get the bonus and then cancel once the annual fee start kicking in.
Where do I start ???
Continental- 40K miles.
United- another 40K miles before they merged.
Chase Sapphire- 50K pts.
Chase Marriott- 50K pts.
Amex SPG- 25K pts.
Amex AA- 50K miles
Citi AA- 50K miles.
More CC that I got bonus $$$ that I don't remember.
All I can say is make them work for you.
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:thumbsup: Our list isn't quite as extensive but doing this has allowed us to take vacations we normally would have had to save a lot longer to do.

I will say we are keeping the Chase Sapphire card for various reasons. One of them is that they have a lot of partnerships - esp among airlines (Continental (Before the merger), southwest, united, British air, Korean air. This, of course, gives you access to their partners as well like Lufthansa, Air Canada, US Air, Quantas, Iberia etc. There are something like 70 airline partnerships!*). The (IMO) awesome thing is that we can transfer those points between Chase partners. Southwest doesn't have the flight you want but United does? Transfer Southwest to Chase and then from Chase to United! Thanks Southwest for the free United flight! (Or Lufthansa, or Iberia, or Finnair, or.....)

This also means we don't have to keep the partner cards active. Get the card - get the bonus - transfer to Chase - close the other card and hold the Chase points until we want to use it.


*One interesting thing I noticed is that Chase partners with Korean Air - which partners with Delta (Amex card - not chase) I wonder if its possible to go through Delta with this route?
 
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Im about to be in the same boat on one of my cards. Was nearly able to earlier this month but had to buy car insurance, still when I get paid that one will go to a monthly bill system. Then its time to work on my next card with around 3500 on it, hopefully by the end of the year. Then I can move out and not worry about trying to pay off college cc debt on my current salary , student loans are going to take awhile though.

As for those against CCS, I love my discover card, especially since I can now use my points on Amazon. Just about every month I have enough to either buy a small item or take off a good 10+ bucks with points alone.
 
Congrats I can't wait until I finish school loans. Credit cards are a pain in the butt. I often carry a balance on ones with really low interest but if you forget one payment they screw you. I was 1 hour late with my Amex card I called in after I payed and they still raised it to the penalty interest after telling me I would be fine I've been a long customer.

I just won't use that one until after its payed off and until the penalty interest goes away.
 
Exterous said:
:thumbsup: Our list isn't quite as extensive but doing this has allowed us to take vacations we normally would have had to save a lot longer to do.

I will say we are keeping the Chase Sapphire card for various reasons. One of them is that they have a lot of partnerships - esp among airlines (Continental (Before the merger), southwest, united, British air, Korean air. This, of course, gives you access to their partners as well like Lufthansa, Air Canada, US Air, Quantas, Iberia etc. There are something like 70 airline partnerships!*). The (IMO) awesome thing is that we can transfer those points between Chase partners. Southwest doesn't have the flight you want but United does? Transfer Southwest to Chase and then from Chase to United! Thanks Southwest for the free United flight! (Or Lufthansa, or Iberia, or Finnair, or.....)

This also means we don't have to keep the partner cards active. Get the card - get the bonus - transfer to Chase - close the other card and hold the Chase points until we want to use it.


*One interesting thing I noticed is that Chase partners with Korean Air - which partners with Delta (Amex card - not chase) I wonder if its possible to go through Delta with this route?
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The Sapphire is by far my favorite card. (its the metal one, not plastic).
I knew about moving points from there to the partners for free but they let you move it back to the Sapphire too ?? If thats the case, thats even better.
I like if I was to buy something I go to their ultimate reward site and see if there a link through it. A lot of times, you get 2x-10x the reward.
 
Good for you OP. Keep up the good work and get rid of those CC debts.

<<<--- Never owed any CC debt, pay off the whole balances and get back between 1% to 5% cash back.
 
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What are you guys doing to get in such large credit card debt? Is it just stupdity? Did you have an emergency? I'm not trying to be rude... just wondering. I use my credit card all the time because I like the protection it offers, but I pay it off every month.
 
Leros said:
What are you guys doing to get in such large credit card debt? Is it just stupdity? Did you have an emergency? I'm not trying to be rude... just wondering. I use my credit card all the time because I like the protection it offers, but I pay it off every month.
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Not trying to be rude doesn't mean you aren't actually being rude. You don't have to try to be an asshole.
 
Congratulations on trying and making it this far. F*ck, the amount of people I know who think they "don't have a problem" when they're at least 20k in the hole (not student lones or "useful" shit like mortgage) from CC and line of credit. "If you're not using it all, you're not living" is their motto.
 
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Imp said:
Congratulations on trying and making it this far. F*ck, the amount of people I know who think they "don't have a problem" when they're at least 20k in the hole (not student lones or "useful" shit like mortgage) from CC and line of credit. "If you're not using it all, you're not living" is their motto.
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The motto should be "owe no one". Well, that's my motto anyway.
 
Congrats OP. One thing I'd like to say - acquiring a lot of credit card debt is the opposite of living frugally (in the long run.) Short term, it's not; but once you start paying interest on whatever it is, it has the effect of decreasing your expendable income.
 
Leros said:
What are you guys doing to get in such large credit card debt? Is it just stupdity? Did you have an emergency? I'm not trying to be rude... just wondering. I use my credit card all the time because I like the protection it offers, but I pay it off every month.
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i bought a fixer upper house for cheap. i spent years working on it, but eventually when it came close to sell i needed more things and i didnt have the credit line to get a loan. $10k goes quick when it comes to houses, and then of course they dont sell in these days so youre left with high interest debt.

i still learned though. its almost never good to use credit cards unless you back it with cash first. i should have just dumped the house and not worry abour profit, because anything i would have made has gone to high interest and market deflation.
 
soulcougher73 said:
Congrats, but dont be a slave to credit scores. if you are frugal and financially savey they dont mean a thing 🙂
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this is how my dad lives. when his ex wife ran up a $1500 cell phone bill on her way out, he called verizon and told them "no way in hell im paying this". they said "its going to go against your credit score" and he just laughed. "i dont use credit, go ahead and do whatever you think you need to do".

😛
 
Imp said:
Congratulations on trying and making it this far. F*ck, the amount of people I know who think they "don't have a problem" when they're at least 20k in the hole (not student lones or "useful" shit like mortgage) from CC and line of credit. "If you're not using it all, you're not living" is their motto.
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heh, i grew up in the late 90's when that ideology was set in stone. they used to tell us in school "the average american today has $10k in credit card debt" and that was considered OK.

and really, back then, it was. thats in tune to around $300 a month minimum payments, which doesnt come close to adding up to the rise of cost of living. between gas, food and utility bills i am paying well over $500 more a month then i used to for the same basic needs. so what was $10k debt back then is more like 3K debt today.
 
OP: I've got some 0% promotional balances expiring soon and I got a few credit transfer offers, but it's not nearly going to cover it. I'm making about the same as you and also owe on a car for the next few years. I had a 730 score at this time last year, but that was because I had paid down most with a loan that I still have and transferred the rest to new 0% promotional offers. I'm really right back where I was just before that but now with the car note to pay.

The plan is to transfer as much as I can to 0% promotional balances on new cards, close the accounts from a year ago (keeps my average account term length longer), and get a lower-interest loan to pay the remaining balances before the interest rates kick in. From there, I will focus on paying them down quickly without the interest penalties.

Does this sounds like a solid plan? What would you suggest?

Where I think I went wrong was focusing on putting my money on the long-term balances with low interest instead of paying down the 0% offers before the promotions expire. I was making double or triple payments on anything with interest and only rounding up my minimum payments on the others (example: $80 minimum due and I'd pay $100).
 
wirednuts said:
this is how my dad lives. when his ex wife ran up a $1500 cell phone bill on her way out, he called verizon and told them "no way in hell im paying this". they said "its going to go against your credit score" and he just laughed. "i dont use credit, go ahead and do whatever you think you need to do".

😛
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:colbert: He had a Verizon contract. That's using credit. I know a lot of people who can't get on contracts because they have no credit.
 
I paid off my credit card bill this month too. Just like every month for as long as I've had a credit card. Yay!
 
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