I have about $5,000 in credit card debt from school and some medical expenses from a few years ago that I have not paid yet and in my current situation, I am unable to just dump that money into paying it off. I have an excellent credit rating and was looking into taking out a personal loan for $5,000 for 12-24 months to pay off the rates and consolidate into one payment each month.
Anyone ever taken one out? Who did you get it through? What was your rate and term?
Are you planning on throwing more then $300 / mo at the debt?
From what literally maybe 10 people told me, never pay off a loan with another loan.
I’d say just make what payments you can on it until you have an opportunity to pay them off quicker.
Well I was throwing $200 a month at it. My big concern is that of one bill, 50 is the min payment and 25 of that is interest. I have excellent credit so I am trying to knock off that card to a lower one, single payment.
True, however I am using another loan to reduce my payments and save on interest. Not for the cash to pay the loan off.
You can get CC offers with 0% on balance transfers for 12/24 months if you have good credit. Look around a bit then transfer them all to one card, and pay it down as you can. Worst comes to worst, if you havent paid it off by the end of the 0% term do it again with another card.
Only issue with that is you pay a fee to transfer them to the card and can only transfer one account to the card to get the 0% offer
The last one I did was a Citi card and it allowed me to transfer up to 5. There was a one fee, i think it was like x% up to a max of $50, but it was a lot cheaper than paying interest on an unsecured loan.
answering this question is just not that simple.
in general, my recommendation for you would be to open a 0% APR introductory rate credit card, balance transfer your targeted debt there, and pay it off interest free for 18months (or however long it is). this way you will be paying off all principle, and your debt costs you nothing. this approach requires personal restraint, because you defeat the purpose if you start hitting up that card for new purchases.
if you dont want to do that, then you can pretty much bet that a personal loan rate will be WAY better than a credit card rate (again, given that your credit score is as good as you have implied). the downfall to this is that you lock yourself into a structured payment that would hurt you if you fall into a cashflow problem.
constantly cycling consumer debt is never a good idea. cycling debt with a specific disciplined payment plan in mind is always a good idea. paying off debt is about discipline and planning, two things which most people between the ages of 20 and 30 seem to be lacking.
ummm thats not true^ at least for those i did it with…
i <3 being debt free 
that’s negotiable, and yes I have done this (with both chase and citi recently)…
search for like 5 companies offering 0% for a year. call each of them up and say you’ll sign up today if they allow the one time balance transfer with no fee and the 0%. If they say no way, then move on. BUT call back again if you run out as sometimes you just need to get the right manager in the right mood. say things like “you gave my coworker this deal recently”.
NOTE: you will still need to pay the minimum payment on time each month, but that will only be like $120
In theory you could play this game over and over again and avoid paying any interest or fees for several years.
trust me, they’ll bite to get you to sign up, but you must have good credit.
and my motto as always, “debt is something to be managed, not avoided”
How about some actual facts & numbers?
Well, a PLoan @ 10% for 24 mos will run you $230 /mo., if you pay the minimums, over the life og the loan you’ll have paid $537 to interest.
If you open a Card @ 0% for 12 months, and pay $230 to it for 12 mos you’ll have paid off $2760 in prin and no interest.
The rate can then adjust up (AS FAR AS) 29.99% but so long as you keep paying $230 / mo, you will pay the card off in 12 mos (24 total) and have only paid $360 in interest (before xfer & annual fees dependant upon your credit).
You have to have the discipline to do this without adding ANY new charges to the card, because that fucks up the balance tiers & where your extra pmts are applied.
Card for the win. AS LONG AS YOU DON’T START OPENING UP NEW CCARDS EVERY 3 MONTHS or something ridiculous, as this will lower your “average age of account” and start effecting your credit scores negatively.
BTW that is almost entirely correct for Auto loans… but def not mortgages, unsecured loans & lines of credit.