Not Impressed With Our Debt – Still working on It

I can’t believe it’s been almost a year since my last official Not Impressed post.

Paying off our debt is still a struggle and sometimes I just want to give up but we have to keep at it right?

In March I came home on a Sunday after church and sat at the computer and something just gave way inside my brain. I needed to make a big move with our debt. I got on line with my credit card company and applied for a credit increase and the response was immediate. Seriously, it was!

I now had enough credit to transfer my husband’s credit card balance to my credit card. Whoa…that doesn’t sound like the greatest idea MM. I’ll admit, I have been contemplating this move for a while but when I came home that day I had had enough of fearing it. If you want results sometimes you have to make a bold move and accept the risk.

I then called my credit card company and asked the very nice woman to help me with transferring $10,000 from my husband’s credit card to mine. She said no problem she would get the process started but first he needed to put my name on his credit card account. She set everything up and she said once my name was added to his account the process of the balance transfer would happen automatically. The rate of interest would be 0% through February 2026.

I told my husband what I had done. He looked a bit concerned but he got on the phone with his CC company and added my name to his account. It took about one extra billing cycle to go through but in the end his balance was transferred to mine and I added his name to my account also.

His rate of interest was 28% and only once did they have a promotional lowering of interest. Mine on the other hand would lower the rate of interest significantly IF you called and asked. I did that also this time.

Here is the breakdown on this:

  • $10,000 was transferred from his to mine
  • I finished paying his by making one last small payment of about $130
  • His interest rate was 28%
  • After asking for a better rate mine is now 15.99% for 6 months
  • We were paying over $250 per month just in interest on my husband’s card!
  • We are now only paying about $60 a month for the balance I had on the card and zero interest on the $10,000 I transferred from his.
  • Doing this balance transfer and asking for a lower interest rate has saved us about $300/month!

To date I have made three $1000 payments to our combined credit card balance. It currently stands at $12,781 from $15,500.

Keep moving forward even when you have to take a step back to see your progress. Don’t give up!

Until next time -MM

Published by marymargaretripley

Welcome to my Blog! My world is my husband and son (soon to be moving into his own home) and my step-children (fully grown) and our two cats who are definitely ying and yang. My day job is as Deputy Clerk of my home town in Western, NY but when I get home I have two side gigs, one as a professional private baker, and two, as an Etsy shop owner selling vintage and antique dishes and accessories. I have been gardening and growing my own food since my grandfather taught me at the ripe old age of 5. I stitch, I bake, I grow food, I can and preserve, I grocery shop to save money and eat well and boy do I have massive to-do lists. I hope you enjoy my day to day writings.

4 thoughts on “Not Impressed With Our Debt – Still working on It

  1. I remember taking a big risk that way once. I applied for a loan from Lending Tree way back when they first started. You had to explain yourself to the potential borrowers, and then they would either agree to put their funds into your loan or not. DH was not happy because we had to promise a $650 payment each month, but the interest was significantly lower than the credit card, and we were able to zero it out and cut them up. We still had the account, but for about 9 months, no cards in our possession. It was difficult at first, but it got us on the right path. Keep after it, you are on the right path; just make sure you pay as much as possible before the 6 months hits so you make the most of it. (I know you will!)

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