Thursday, October 30, 2008

Gotta love those 0% balance transfers

I've worked really hard this year to pay off my credit cards and I've made a lot of progress. Despite my progress, I still had three large balances on cards with ridiculously high interest rates. I tried calling the companies to ask for a lower rate but I was told they didn't have a lower rate to offer me. So, you know what I did? I double-timed my payments for one card and lowered the balance from over $1600 to just $200 in a little over a month. I'll pay off the remaining $200 by next week.

As for the other two cards, I took a risk and applied for an 0% interest balance transfer card. I was a little nervous about applying because I wasn't sure if I'd get approved or if would get a high enough line of credit. But things worked out for the best! Once I was approved, I called the companies again to see if they could work with me. My reasoning? I'd been with one company for over 5 years! Surely they could lower the interest rate to something reasonable. I told them about my 0% balance transfer offer (which has a very low APR after the promo period expires). No luck. After ending the call with bad credit card company, I immediately transferred the balance. So much for customer service.

The rest of my credit card debt will be paid off before the 0% interest rate expires. In the meantime, every cent of my payments each month go to lowering the balance. No more ridiculously high interest charges! I'm telling my money what to do!

No comments: