Thanks, further question

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-01-2003
Thanks, further question
2
Sun, 12-19-2004 - 11:54pm

Thank you for the replies to my post re: CC debt and Christmas.

I agree wholeheartedly that I need to get control of my spending, not use a CC for more spending, and focus on taking care of that debt as quickly as possible. I should clarify, I *do* know how I maxed that card out, I'm just amazed that I let myself be so careless and irresponsible. Christmas isn't a huge deal and I know I can creat gifts without spending a lot of money. I have a couple of creative ideas. It's just depressing to find myself in this situation.

I would like to know... how do I go about opening up a new card and transferring the balance? How quickly can this be done? Since I'm currently job hunting and should be able to start putting payments toward the debt, I think going for a new, zero-interest card is the best way to go. Where do I start?

Thanks again,

Starfish

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-19-2004
Mon, 12-20-2004 - 12:04am

I usually wait to get the offers in the mail. Things to look for is if they charge a balance transfer fee, how long the zero interest period is, what the rate will be when the zero interest period is over, and any other fine print. I just transfered my card to a card that is zero interest for a year and then 9.5% after that. I did this once before and in both cases I made a plan to pay the balance by the time the zero interest period ended. It took me about a week to get the new card and another week for the transfer to occur.

The other thing to know about is do not make any purchases on the card. If you do, any payments will be applied to the zero interest balance, and that purchase you made will accumulate interest until you pay off the entire transferred balance and then you can begin to pay off the purchase.

Also, what will really ruin things is if you transfer the balance and then use your old card. It is SO easy to charge it up again without even trying, then you've got twice the debt.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Mon, 12-20-2004 - 9:04am

Hi Starfish.

All my best,
Danni