I am thinking of consolidating my debt..... does this sound good.

[The Stigenator]

I got an message on the home phone from some debt consolidation place. They are offering about 1.5% APR for the debt consolidation. I was just wondering should I call them and see the facts.

The thing is this, the way I look at it, if I pay say $250/mo for my debt consolidation for say 60 months.. its still better than what I am paying right now among my CC.
The thing is I dont have a stable job - Stargate might go bankrupt if they dont get any other projects, and hence they have put a few people on reduced work days and I am one of them. Its easier for me to pay 250/mo than say 500/mo that I am approximatly paying for bills now.

What do you think???

If any of you have done this debt consolidation before.. can you give me some pointers.

Roughly I am about 10K down the drain.. none of the cards are maxed out, but it came so fast.. that before i realised it I was in the hole.. for a long time I was so upkeep with my payments and then it hit.

TGG

 

[lawaris]

actually it would be better if u have a crd which offers you 0 % introductory offer on APR.

I get them all the time .......maybe if your card does not get a new one and try that.


I have about $ 4000 @ 0 %.

Hopefully my bro. who's coming here next week will help me wipe it all off !!!

At least he said so

 

[GooberPHX420]

blah blah blah. I used to work at discover card and we dealt with this junk all the time. I was a balance transfer guy. True the 0% apr is awesome - but it is usally for a year max. No way in hell is our boy here gonna pay that off in a year. and second of all, balance transfers look like crap on your credit report. DO NOT DO THEM AT ALL. WE WERE TAUGHT TO TELL PEOPLE THAT ITS JUST FINE, BUT BT's RUIN YOUR CREDIT. Other companies see that you like to skip around and dont like to pay when money is owed. Look into consolidation. 1.5 is pretty badass, especially if it is for a decent term. If you can lock that in for a few years, that would definately be the best way to go.

Now I know everyone says this, but PAY AS MUCH AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN EVERY MONTH and still be able to live comfortably. I know about debt and I know how to get out of it. Find the lowest, longest lasting rate you can. And theoretcally, yes this is one giant balance transfer, from your cc companies to your loan company, but still - one BT is better than 4 or 5, right?

Go with consolidation

 

[Ameesh]

some cc have good balance transfer options like 0.9% for 6 months you can keep moving the debt from card to card and pay what you can when you can if you are really strapped for cash,.

 

[kranky]

I can't imagine why someone would offer 1.5% on a debt consolidation loan. There's a catch there somewhere. By all means, call and get the facts, but if you are not resistant to high-pressure sales tactics or aren't comfortable reading through all the fine print, be careful.

Goober,I'd be interested in hearing why balance transfers would have any effect at all on your credit record. That makes no sense. One card balance goes up, the other goes down - how would that look bad? You owe the same amount, only to different companies.

 

[wyvrn]

I moved my CC debt to a 1 year, 0% interest card and had it paid off ahead of time. Well that was only one BT, so couldn't hurt me too much. And I don't think using this method should turn off creditors too much because I showed awareness of my credit situation and paid the debt in full, as opposed to claiming a bankruptcy.

 

[DaveSimmons]

This is very suspicious, the rate is way too low (far below what a homeowner pays on a mortgage or secured line of credit). If you get the details in writing there is probably a huge up-front fee folded into the loan, and/or the 1.5% is a teaser rate that goes away after a short time.

In your shoes I'd check the ads in the yellow pages for other companies that aren't sleazy enough to be resorting to telemarketers, maybe check the BBB and/or the state attorney general's office to find out about any complaints against the ones that look promising.

Pretend it's e-mail spam -- would you trust it then? Why trust phone spam any more?

 

[FelixDeCat]

blah blah blah. I used to work at discover card and we dealt with this junk all the time. I was a balance transfer guy.

No wonder I dropped Discover.

True the 0% apr is awesome - but it is usally for a year max. No way in hell is our boy here gonna pay that off in a year. and second of all, balance transfers look like crap on your credit report. DO NOT DO THEM AT ALL. WE WERE TAUGHT TO TELL PEOPLE THAT ITS JUST FINE, BUT BT's RUIN YOUR CREDIT. Other companies see that you like to skip around and dont like to pay when money is owed. Look into consolidation. 1.5 is pretty badass, especially if it is for a decent term. If you can lock that in for a few years, that would definately be the best way to go.

Complete BS. Balance transfer will not negatively impact your credit. Either you didnt mention all the facts to back up your opinion or this is just jibber-jabber from someone who doesnt know any better. Tell us exactly why it affects your credit. Was this company policy to deny credit based on this issue? Was it in writing? This could be a violation of the law.


Now I know everyone says this, but PAY AS MUCH AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN EVERY MONTH and still be able to live comfortably. I know about debt and I know how to get out of it. Find the lowest, longest lasting rate you can. And theoretcally, yes this is one giant balance transfer, from your cc companies to your loan company, but still - one BT is better than 4 or 5, right?

No. PAY YOURSELF AS MUCH AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN EVERY MONTH. When the next expense comes along use your debit card. When you have lots of money in your checking account, you dont have to rely on your stupid credit cards (whose balances slowly accrue). If you sent off all your money to them guess what your going to do?

I was able to avoid all credit cards for most of 2000 doing this. The only thing credit cards were used for since then was online shopping - for protection. Otherwise gas, groceries and Best Buy all go on the debit card.