Over the last month I already had the sinking feeling that we were swimming in debt. I would get the credit card statement each month and the only purchase listed was the periodic finance charge - which by the way was hitting $xx0.00 bucks a month.
Plus my monthly minimum was upwards of $x00, so I knew it was time for a change. I had to get out from under the finance charge so I decided to play Credit Card Roulette and transfer the balance to a couple of 0% APR balance transfer options.
We already have a high credit limit so I couldn't move it to just one card; instead, it's now spread across three but with zero interest through September 2009.
My goal is to pay all of it off before then! Auspicious? yes, doable? also yes.
I will have to wait until I get my first statements before I truly understand the payment requirements, but because I now have moved all my consumer debt to 0% interest payment options, I am going to squeeze everything I can from month to month and pay down one card, while paying just the minimums on the remaining cards.
My long term goal is to leverage this approach, I'll call it the "Snowball Approach", across all of my personal debt categories. I still don't have a complete picture so I'm not sure how long this will take, but I hope to be able to share my entire plan within the next few weeks.
I think the key to playing balance transfer roulette is staying organized and NOT NOT NOT using the cards. Otherwise, you find yourself in a doubly deep hole.
I'm going to spend this next year operating under Memaw's number one rule of personal finance, the rule credit card companies hope you never learn, which is don't buy it if you can't afford it.
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