I live, write, and garden in the PNW with my husband of 28 years, disabled daughter, adult son, and my 84-year-old mother. We have paid off $250,000.00 worth of debt (if you include the interest) in the last fifteen years and as of 6/12/2020 are 100% DEBT FREE!!!!So, DH and I had a long chat last night. And here is what we decided. We're going to take everything on all of the BoA/MBNA cards and put them onto the Clean Sweep program. That's roughly $33,000, but we'll have to take $35,000 it looks like, just for the way it is set up at increments of $10,000, $25,000, $35,000 or $50,000. We can, of course, immediately pay the extra back.
We will not put all of the CC debt on there though. The one BoA card that is nearly maxed out has an offer on it of 0% until June of 2008. So after we clear everything off the BoA/MBNA cards with the Clean Sweep, we will transfer what is on the Citi and Chase cards onto the BoA card. It will be nowhere near maxed out and it will give us a chance to really plow a lot of money into paying down the Clean Sweep as fast as possible.
We are hoping that we can get the Clean Sweep for less time than 60 months. We can pay it at least $1000 a month which would pay it off in less than 48 months. But again, I don't know if that option is something they will allow.
DH is going to call them when he gets a chance. Of course, the offer is in his name so he has to do it. But he's in the middle of training his replacement and working the new job he was promoted into, so things are a little crazy. Hopefully he can get to it soon, though.
My job is to take all the automatic payments that we have going to the BoA card off of it. There are only 2 things, one is my Curves membership and the other is something I didn't even realize we were still being charged for that needs to be cancelled completely. So I will transfer Curves to another card, the one card we manage to pay off monthly.
Some of you may wonder why I keep the Curves membership. It is extremely important for me to keep my health up and the resistance training there helps me to bolster my immune system. Almost dying a few years back has made this a priority for me. And it helps with my stress levels, also. Which can get very high with DH gone as much as he is. So it keeps me healthier and saves my sanity.
Now, I am just waiting for DH to shoot me the final net numbers on the new job so I can make up our new budget. When he gets some time to do it.
Making Decisions
August 5th, 2007 at 09:41 pm
August 5th, 2007 at 10:37 pm 1186353459
August 5th, 2007 at 11:09 pm 1186355361
Can't imagine that any of us here would question the Curves membership ... health must always be a priority!
August 6th, 2007 at 12:23 am 1186359780
August 6th, 2007 at 11:45 am 1186400746
Still, a good debt consolidation program can be uplifting, doesn't it? My ex and I enrolled in one once, and for a while, it did help us keep things in order. Moreover, it gave me hope anyway.
So, here's to a great "clean sweep" of your debts.