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Confusion and Extra Payments

January 12th, 2007 at 08:03 pm

It seems like everyone is a little confused this morning! (well, its morning for ME!)

Ive been thinking about that troublesome Chase card with the 29.99% APR. I applied for a USAA AmEx with a 0% APR on balance transfer for 6 months, which Im happy about. But..the limit is $1000, whereas we have $2800ish on the Chase. Should I call USAA and explain the situation (and that we just got raises, YAY!), and see if they will raise the limit so I can switch the full amount over to the new USAA card? Or should I transfer as much as I can, and then pay on both cards, paying special attention to the Chase?

There is a 3% transfer fee, but really, thats not much money compared to the extreme APR going on here. Last month, I paid JUST the minimum payment (as an experiment), and only $7.42 went toward the balance, thanks to finance charges!

Im stumped as to my next step. *sigh*

Also, we currently have a $380/month car payment (yes, I know its high. Its Brandus's car, his baby, and its the one he REALLY WANTED). I have an automatic payment of $400/month set up - I always figured it would help if we were ever really behind and couldnt pay the whole thing. Should I keep it at $400, or should I pay just the basic payment and add that $20 to a credit card?

The paying extra came in handy this last month, when things were REALLY tight thanks to Christmas and traveling. I only owed $50 for the month, which was nice. But, its probably not the best way to go about getting everything paid off.

Gah. Its all so complicated!

But, hey, I DID learn that our teaching contracts for this school year have FINALLY been approved. Yes, 4 months after starting teaching! And along with that, both myself and Brandus are getting a raise of about $1200 a year, retroactively. WHOO!

Posted in Alaska Budget, Retail Hell | 4 Comments »

4 Responses to “Confusion and Extra Payments”

  1. threebeansalad Says:
    January 12th, 2007 at 09:32 pm 1168637554
    1168637554

    Assuming the car loan interest is lower than the Chase CC (I imagine it is much lower), put the extra $20 (and whatever else you can scrape up) towards the debt with the highest interest-- in your case, the Chase CC.

  2. debtfreeme Says:
    January 12th, 2007 at 11:51 pm 1168645894
    1168645894

    take all of the retro pay you get and drop it to the chase card.

  3. baselle Says:
    January 15th, 2007 at 01:23 am 1168824229
    1168824229

    This happened to me. I transferred what I could onto the new credit card and then hammered payments on the rest. Get rid of that Chase card by any means necessary.

  4. alianora Says:
    January 15th, 2007 at 01:28 am 1168824520
    1168824520

    baselle, that's what I decided to do. I talked to the new card, and they approved my limit for $1500, so I transferred $1475 (leaving myself a little wiggle room, if needed), and then Im going to talk to my Discover card people on Monday (card Ive had since I was 18, plus my lowest interest rate) to see if they would raise my limit so I could transfer the rest onto it.

    Its complicated, but I am DYING to get rid of this stupid Chase card!

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