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Grumpwagon posted:Make sure it doesn't have a balance transfer fee if you do choose to do that. Most do now. Or that it is lower than the interest you are currently being charged to carry the balance.
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Aug 9, 2011 14:24
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illamint posted:I've got a 0% balance transfer offer from Citi that can let me consolidate my higher-interest cards into one, so I can take what I would've been paying on those and put it towards some savings. Usually with the privilege of paying 4% right up front. Do the math first before doing that (and even then I don't like it because it leaves you with more open credit to dig further again).
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Aug 9, 2011 14:25
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Chin Strap posted:Usually with the privilege of paying 4% right up front. Do the math first before doing that (and even then I don't like it because it leaves you with more open credit to dig further again). Every once in a while I see 2% offers. Apparently some in the thread have gotten 1% offers too. When you get that low, it can start looking very favorable (hell I'm using it to pay off student loans).
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Aug 9, 2011 15:05
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illamint posted:Parents are probably worse off than me, but between other family members I could probably come up with something. Certainly not for more than a month or twos worth of expenses, though, hence the concern. I think I'll do what Dead Pressed said and work towards having $1000 on hand, and then I'll go from there. I've got a 0% balance transfer offer from Citi that can let me consolidate my higher-interest cards into one, so I can take what I would've been paying on those and put it towards some savings. I’ve gone on zero percent rants before in this thread if anyone is curious, but to reiterate, the cost only starts with the balance transfer fee. This can be hundreds of dollars up front. No one makes money by lending it out at zero percent, and these offers come from very sophisticated companies that make boatloads of money, so please put two and two together. No one ever intends to be late. You’re a goon which means you are smart and you probably have 27 different reminders from mint.com to make sure you are never late. The fact is that a certain percentage of people will for one reason or another, and they will likely pay 30% after. People move, get sick, get busy, get depressed, and I don’t need Citibank to kick me in the face after life has already whacked me hard. Also, like Chin Strap said, it reinforces negative behavior and implies there is an easy way to get out of debt through interest rate magic instead of changing your habits. I don’t agree with Dave 100% of the time, but he is right about the $1000 emergency fund before you start paying extra on debt. The amount of interest you will save by putting that on your debt is miniscule, and you are guaranteed to use your cards right after you make the payment because you won’t have any money left. If something comes up for $500, you will view it a lot different if you have to use half your emergency fund vs. put it on a card with $5000 in available credit. The former bites deeper. If it’s not an emergency you will figure out a cheaper way. If it is an emergency, your back will be against the wall and you will work hard to replenish it. Where I disagree with Dave is I wouldn’t actually close all your accounts until your emergency fund is fully established. Things can happen that cost more than $1000 and its probably better to view life as two steps forward, one step back, and be able live to fight another day.
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Aug 9, 2011 15:34
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baquerd posted:Every once in a while I see 2% offers. Apparently some in the thread have gotten 1% offers too. When you get that low, it can start looking very favorable (hell I'm using it to pay off student loans). Credit card balance transfer to pay off student loans? Please don’t give any more advice. I’m being serious.
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Aug 9, 2011 15:48
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Zeta Taskforce posted:Credit card balance transfer to pay off student loans? Please don’t give any more advice. I’m being serious. 2% fees for 0% interest for 12 months. Student loan interest during this time: 6.8% (or 6.9% I don't have it in front of me). Steady income and savings that would allow me to pay the entire balance down in an emergency. You do the math.
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Aug 9, 2011 15:56
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baquerd posted:2% fees for 0% interest for 12 months. If you can pay it off in 12 months. Maybe. But I'd argue that the after tax benefit rate on the loan is close to the balance transfer cost enough to not be worth the headache.
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Aug 9, 2011 16:04
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TraderStav posted:If you can pay it off in 12 months. Maybe. But I'd argue that the after tax benefit rate on the loan is close to the balance transfer cost enough to not be worth the headache. Eh, perhaps. Not much of a headache.
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Aug 9, 2011 16:05
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baquerd posted:You do the math. I did and it’s not worth it. I imagine you can’t deduct the credit card interest either. I hope it works out well for you.
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Aug 9, 2011 16:06
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Zeta Taskforce posted:I did and it’s not worth it. I imagine you can’t deduct the credit card interest either. I hope it works out well for you. Fine I'll do it for you. $10,000 sitting in student loan account at 6.9% ~= $690 interest a year $10,000 balance transfer at 2% and 0% APR = $200 fees I looked up the tax rules, my income is too high to deduct student loans. Edit: I've used balance transfer offers in other ways in the past. It's like the easiest unsecured loan imaginable and if you can guarantee paying it back it's a great way to get liquidity quick. baquerd fucked around with this message at 16:17 on Aug 9, 2011 |
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Aug 9, 2011 16:09
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baquerd posted:Fine I'll do it for you. This isn’t a debate because you are obviously smarter than everyone here, smarter than the credit card company, smarter than me and along with your zero percent balance, there is a zero percent chance something will go wrong. You are guaranteed to pay off the entire $10,000 in exactly one year so you will not be subject to the normal rate. You are a perfect snowflake who will never experience a setback, your credit won’t be affected by increasing your revolving debt by $10,000. You are special. There is nothing left to talk about.
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Aug 9, 2011 16:22
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baquerd posted:2% fees for 0% interest for 12 months. If you have the income and savings to pay the entire balance without warning, why go through the trouble of a balance transfer in the first place? Why not just pay off the whole thing immediately?
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Aug 9, 2011 16:26
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Zeta Taskforce posted:This isn’t a debate because you are obviously smarter than everyone here, smarter than the credit card company, smarter than me and along with your zero percent balance, there is a zero percent chance something will go wrong. You are guaranteed to pay off the entire $10,000 in exactly one year so you will not be subject to the normal rate. You are a perfect snowflake who will never experience a setback, your credit won’t be affected by increasing your revolving debt by $10,000. You are special. There is nothing left to talk about. Admittedly, there is risk management involved here. If I experience a major disaster I could be tight in the wallet for a while, but I have $15k in liquid funds right this second as my emergency fund so paying this back isn't a problem. Though if I have any warning at all, I can cut expenses and start producing $2500 a month in savings instead of my normal $1500. $10k will effect my debt to income ratio but I have perfect credit and am not planning on any large loans (car, house) in the coming year. I know exactly what I'm doing, I'm not condoning this as a blanket strategy. Ashcans posted:If you have the income and savings to pay the entire balance without warning, why go through the trouble of a balance transfer in the first place? Why not just pay off the whole thing immediately? That's the whole idea of an emergency fund, it's for emergencies. Edit: also the balance transfer won't cover the entire loan, it's just mitigating it. baquerd fucked around with this message at 16:29 on Aug 9, 2011 |
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Aug 9, 2011 16:27
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What if the emergency is that you lose your job? I mean, you're right that it's a case of "how much risk am I willing to accept" but it seems like a really risky strategy to me for a minimal payout. If you're okay with it after weighing your options then that's totally fine for you, of course. But advising other people (particularly people who aren't very comfortable with financial concepts) to do it is sort of similar to telling people to put money into a risky stock with no other background.
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Aug 9, 2011 17:31
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It has been a while since I've posted, but you guys always give me such good advice. I am trying to figure out where to start investing so that I just don't have a pile of money in the bank earning poo poo interest. [...] We are doing some home improvements this summer that should dip into our cash on hand, but not too bad. Our short-term goal is to travel more, possibly taking a sabbatical from work to travel the country. I am extremely risk averse at this point, more than I need to be. We have worked hard for the financial security that we have, and I don't want to burn it up on poor investments that I don't understand. It is amazing that when I was younger, interest rates were really high, but I had no money to save. Now that I have enough money, there's no interest to be earned. When I look at stuff like Ally Bank CDs, the return is so awful that I never bother. Is there some relatively safe way to invest this money instead of the terrible return from our money market account? mike fictitious fucked around with this message at 20:50 on Sep 6, 2011 |
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Aug 9, 2011 21:01
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mike fictitious posted:
~1% at an online savings account is about the best you are going to see right now. Thats just the way things are.
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Aug 9, 2011 21:12
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Chin Strap posted:~1% at an online savings account is about the best you are going to see right now. Thats just the way things are.
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Aug 9, 2011 21:16
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mike fictitious posted:Which sucks. What is the next level beyond savings, money market, CDs, etc. that is actually worth doing? Inflation indexed treasury bonds, corporate bonds, equity index, there are a few options with varying risk/return from low to medium.
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Aug 9, 2011 21:36
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I'm looking for a financial tool to graph my income and expenses throughout the month. Quicken Online used to offer this before they moved to Mint. You would enter your income and expenses, including the dates of bills and paychecks, for the month and it would create a line graph for your month charting out where your cash reserves would be at any given time. So if you had $300 in the bank and had a 2 $50 bills coming up in the next 2 weeks before payday, you could see that on Thursday you would have $X and then next Tuesday you would have $X, but then come payday you would have $X and you could see how that would handle the next 2 weeks. It would do it visually in a line graph for the rest of the week. Is there anything online or in excel that could do this? I'm using Mint and Pearbudget but don't get that functionality that Quicken used to have. Edit: Here's what Quicken used to have:  I'm realizing how much more I used to love Quicken then Mint FCKGW fucked around with this message at 22:40 on Aug 9, 2011 |
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Aug 9, 2011 22:37
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Zeta Taskforce posted:I’ve gone on zero percent rants before in this thread if anyone is curious, but to reiterate, the cost only starts with the balance transfer fee. This can be hundreds of dollars up front.
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Aug 9, 2011 22:54
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FCKGW posted:I'm looking for a financial tool to graph my income and expenses throughout the month. The full desktop version of Quicken still does that (at least, I'm using Quicken Deluxe 2011 and it has that feature).
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Aug 10, 2011 04:40
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Am I committing insurance fraud by having a car that's registered in another state? Basically I don't own the car, my father does. My parents are letting me use while I'm in grad school, since I'm going to UConn which is quite rural. There is an understanding that I will buy the car whenever I can afford it (lol), but nevertheless for now the car is registered in MA and I am living with it in CT. Now what would happen if one of my new neighbors or my rear end in a top hat landlord reports the situation?
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Aug 10, 2011 12:30
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I'm not a lawyer, but if your dad is the one who owns the car and he lives in MA, then I believe it is correct the way it is. The fact that he's letting you borrow it it for an extended period doesn't really matter. I'm pretty sure it would actually be illegal for him to register it in CT, since he does not have residence there. Unless he owns the place you're living as well, in which case I guess he could choose either state. But again I'm no lawyer.
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Aug 10, 2011 13:16
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illamint posted:To be clear, it's a 0% balance transfer offer on my existing Citi card, coming from a Chase card at 18.24%. I'm not opening a new line of credit, and I plan on freezing that card rather than closing it, since it's my oldest open account. The balance transfer cost me $39, which was two months of interest for me on the Chase card. The interest may come out to be a wash in the end, but it's also nice to consolidate and be able to just be done with the Chase card. I don't see too much of a problem with this. Yeah, I think you are doing good. Maybe it’s a reflex with me, but when I see a zero percent credit card, something in my brain sends out danger signals. It’s reinforced when people pop out of the woodwork to say they are using these transfer offers to pay off student loans. There are many ways it can go wrong, and only one way it can go right, and even if everything goes perfect, we are looking at savings of $35/mo for someone making 6 figures or close to it, and he’s all  like he outsmarted the system.
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Aug 10, 2011 14:31
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Sophia posted:I'm not a lawyer, but if your dad is the one who owns the car and he lives in MA, then I believe it is correct the way it is. The fact that he's letting you borrow it it for an extended period doesn't really matter. I am. (I'm not your lawyer though, so consult Connecticut law and a Connecticut Attorney if you want real non-internet advice) Your insurance or your parents? How old are you? Individual insurance companies have different policy rules on what they will and won't cover. If at all possible, I would just call your insurance agent and tell her. You'll likely get a discount as a student. What you are doing now is not fraud. It would only be fraud if you need coverage and have to change the facts of the story to get coverage. The insurance company will let you keep paying a policy even though you aren't covered on it. It's free money from their perspective.
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Aug 11, 2011 20:50
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It's my parents' insurance, though I believe I am listed on their plan. Come to think of it, if that's the case (and I think it is) I am probably listed as living at their address. Is that fraud (since I don't actually live there)? Besides that, though - what you're telling me is that the real problem might be that I may not be covered. Correct? That wouldn't be good. Time to talk to the agency, I guess. \/ \/ \/ I plan to find out if I am still able to do that, but I should clarify that it's grad school so I will be here throughout the summers and have no intention of returning home to live. The address listed with all my banks, etc, is my current one, although my parents' is on my drivers license and passport. SurgicalOntologist fucked around with this message at 23:22 on Aug 11, 2011 |
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Aug 11, 2011 23:06
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I could very well be in the wrong here, but throughout college I did the same thing. I would think its understood that your residence in CT is temporary as a student if you're OOS. At least, I would hope so. I listed my parents address as my 'permanent' address for everything, and my collegiate home was 'current' or 'temporary' address. Who knows? It would definitely be best to just call your agent and find out. imo
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Aug 11, 2011 23:09
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Regarding the recommended 3-9 months of safety money, is it acceptable to open a line of credit to deal with that, or is that a Terrible Idea? Context: I have no debt, maxing out RRSP/TFSA in Canada, and want to start playing with stocks perhaps (no particular goal other than profit). But my cash reserves are fairly low. I could build my safety money back up, and then build up money to use for stocks. Or, I could use a line of credit as my emergency money, and build up my money to invest in stocks sooner.
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Aug 12, 2011 19:45
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Your line of credit can be limited or revoked, your cash is a bit harder to impinge on.
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Aug 12, 2011 19:50
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A "line of credit" is not an emergency fund. The last thing you want to do if you were to say, lose your job, is to start raking up tens of thousands of dollars of credit card debt. Not only do you now have no money coming in, you have increased your spending and have additional bills on top of that.
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Aug 12, 2011 20:14
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Also because most lines of credit are ongoing, they are usually adjustable rate. This means that it could be possible for them, just when you need it the most, to jack your rate. This is beyond a bad idea.
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Aug 12, 2011 21:08
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Okay cool, scratch that idea then, thanks. Turns out I still have a line of credit that I got (and never used) as a student. FYI it's Prime + 3% (so, not variable). Going to build up a proper emergency fund, but I left the line of credit open as it can't hurt.
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Aug 12, 2011 21:31
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Vehementi posted:FYI it's Prime + 3% (so, not variable) That's very much variable.
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Aug 12, 2011 21:33
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Guinness posted:That's very much variable. Sorry, I meant in the context of the other poster who said they could jack up the interest rate to gently caress me over when I need it. Of course it's variable as prime varies, in that sense.
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Aug 12, 2011 21:35
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P.D.B. Fishsticks posted:The full desktop version of Quicken still does that (at least, I'm using Quicken Deluxe 2011 and it has that feature). Along that line I have a Quicken vs. Mint topic I'd like to discuss. I've started to get very serious about budgeting my money better and have bought and fiddled with Quicken 2011 Deluxe on my home desktop. I've only gotten as far as setting up all my accounts for tracking, but even then the reporting feature has really given me some insights into my true spending habits. I place 90% of my expenses on my credit card that I always pay in full. This is so I can rack up the mileage rewards. It's a BoA card, and unfortunately it will not real time update in Quicken like my AMEX card (used exclusively at Costco) does. I can only download my monthly statements. I've not found a good solution for real-time tracking of my expenses because of this, besides switching to using my debit card for everything (which means I miss out on the mileage). Can mint.com query a BoA credit card account real time as transactions are posted?
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Aug 13, 2011 00:28
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Vehementi posted:Sorry, I meant in the context of the other poster who said they could jack up the interest rate to gently caress me over when I need it. Of course it's variable as prime varies, in that sense. My point is that, if you read the 40+ page document that governs the terms of the line of credit, if they reassess your credit worthiness and deem you a higher risk than today, they can unilaterally raise that rate without adjusting prime. It may be prime +3 today, but tomorrow it may be Prime +5 or Prime +9. Beware. Your only recourse would be to repay the credit line and not continue having one with that institution. If you were using it for an emergency fund, it wouldn't really be an option at that time. If you actually read some of those 'agreements' you would be scared shitless at the things you 'agreed' to and the power that they have over you.
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Aug 13, 2011 02:45
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I've got a $9,500 car note at a nearly 11% interest rate I can't refinance because of my credit. I have about $1,500 in unpaid medical bills I neglected to pay some five years ago on my credit. If I'm getting back $3,000 from my school loans, would it be advisable to pay off those medical bills? How long until my credit would improve to refinance? I'm on unemployment so I really wanted to hang onto the extra money from school loans for dear life, but I have to do something to improve my situation, too. I've been paying on the car for 2 years and only paid off $4,000.
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Aug 13, 2011 10:47
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I mean, you'd be paying debt with debt, which isn't a great idea... But if either way you'll be taking out that extra $3k, then yeah I guess spending it on your debt would be an okay idea. For those medical bills, you need to find out who owns the debt and contact them. Is it in collections, or still with the original creditor? You might be able to get a settlement for less than the total amount if you can pay it now. So if they'd be willing to take $1000 or $750 rather than $1500 and call it a day, you'd be able to get rid of that debt. If you do this, do your research, and I wouldn't suggest trusting a debt consolidation service. They tend to be rackets. eta: For some reason I read it originally as being $4500 medical bills. It may or may not be worth your time to negotiate it down if it's $1500, especially if you can just get rid of it now and consider it part of your student loan too. Someone who knows more about student loans might want to chime in about whether you CAN use that money for this... Eggplant Wizard fucked around with this message at 13:16 on Aug 13, 2011 |
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Aug 13, 2011 13:14
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Eggplant Wizard posted:Someone who knows more about student loans might want to chime in about whether you CAN use that money for this... Student loans can be used to cover life expenses and other outside school costs (food, shelter, etc.), so they can absolutely be used to pay down debt. Once the school certifies that you can get the amount, you can go bet the money on black for all they care. Whether it's a good idea to trade non-secured, dischargeable debt for debt that you can essentially NEVER get away from (besides paying it off, obviously) is debatable, but you absolutely have the ability do it.
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Aug 13, 2011 13:51
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Red Monkey posted:I've got a $9,500 car note at a nearly 11% interest rate I can't refinance because of my credit. I have about $1,500 in unpaid medical bills I neglected to pay some five years ago on my credit. If I'm getting back $3,000 from my school loans, would it be advisable to pay off those medical bills? How long until my credit would improve to refinance? Either way you aren't going to be able to refi that car loan anytime soon. You may be ahead just paying down the car loan. As Zeta and many others would comment, it's not the 11% that's killing your finances right now. What is the status of the medical bills? Are they still accuring interest/penalties? KennyG fucked around with this message at 00:46 on Aug 14, 2011 |
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Aug 13, 2011 19:08
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