Comments on: Floating Credit Card Balances - Success #1

By: No Debt Plan

No Debt Plan — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 04:00:39 +0000

My only advice is to make sure you pay it off. I saw your goals were to reduce debt by $2000, and you are $3,000 in the hole on that goal. If you knocked out $5k, you would almost have all of this knocked off. Best of luck.

By: Mr. Debtbeater

Mr. Debtbeater — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 22:49:03 +0000

@kentuckyliz

Thanks for the warnings, but I’m fully aware that floating balances is not a solution to my debt. We’ve already had to deal with the whole spending outside the budget issue. Floating the balance is simply one of many things that we’re going to do to lower how much we’ve got going out each month to someone else instead of applying the money toward our debt.

By: kentuckyliz

kentuckyliz — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:34:38 +0000

You know NOT to make purchases on this card, right? Because whatever you purchase will be subject to the 12% interest rate, but all your payments will apply to your 0% transfer balance first, so your interest on the debt will snowball on and on…..

Also, the new FICO system will lower your score for account hopping/rate surfing like this, which might lower your score and jack your rates. CC companies can do this, under the “we can change the terms for whatever reason” clause, which is worse than universal default.

So, debtshifting isn’t solving your problem. You need to sell stuff, get extra jobs, snowflake, etc., and get intense about paying it OFF!!! Don’t be planning your next ratesurf. Plan how you’re going to PAY IT OFF during the promo period!

Good luck…you can do it!

By: Mr. Debtbeater

Mr. Debtbeater — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 13:33:25 +0000

Indeed, 12% is better than 30…but I have no intention on throwing that much interest at a credit card company ever again if I can help it.

In fact, I really don’t like doing any of this at all. It does save a lot of money though, so I’m gonna do it until I get rid of all of this nasty debt!

By: Amanda @ Me vs Debt

Amanda @ Me vs Debt — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 11:59:57 +0000

One more thing - 11.99% APR is still a huge savings from the 30% rate you were paying!

By: Amanda @ Me vs Debt

Amanda @ Me vs Debt — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 11:58:44 +0000

I got the same deal from Citi… I’ve been happy with it so far. Sure, be careful, but as long as you have a debt-beating attitude - you have made a smart move

By: Carnival of Debt Reduction #130

Carnival of Debt Reduction #130 — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:49:57 +0000

[…] DebtBeater is using lower interest credit cards to “float” or “surf” his higher-interest c… to save on finance charges (just be careful, Mr […]

By: Mr. Debtbeater

Mr. Debtbeater — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:16:31 +0000

That’s great news. I don’t like being pressured to get things out the month before expiration, but I fully expect to still have a balance…so I’ll probably just float the money again next year. Thanks for sharing that!

As for how long it took…I signed up on Feb. 12 and the actual amount showed up on the card Feb. 25. I can’t remember exactly which day I got the card in the mail. However, when I got it I immediately called the toll free number to activate it and the online account started working correctly. Once that happened I was able to make the transfer. (It wouldn’t show me anything until i got the card and activated it.)

Not sure how helpful that is, but it didn’t take too long.

By: Mrs. Accountability

Mrs. Accountability — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 16:18:37 +0000

Oh, one more thing. Did you keep track of how long it took for your transfer to happen? I did mine on Saturday and I’m still waiting it to move over and pay my other card.

By: Mrs. Accountability

Mrs. Accountability — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 16:15:41 +0000

Mr. Debtbeater - you got the same card I did, and I called and asked if they would add the back interest. They said some companies do, but they DON’T. You might want to call and confirm for yourself, but that is what they told me. Of course it is a good thing to move the card over to another 0% offer if you have a balance left in a year, but if you don’t do it in time for whatever reason, you won’t get slapped with a bunch of interest.