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What are you saving? Most card companies charge 3 to 4% of the total and while there are free ones you'll exhaust those quickly.
I weep for the reading comprehension of this country. The proposal in question is a zero percent and zero fee credit card. It is nonsense that those are limited. Any financial site can point you to seven or eight of them. Currently Chase Slate and Discovery IT offer them to pretty much anyone. The HELOC works because of a number of tricks in the way interest is calculated. So you are still saving some interest though not a heck of a lot.
I have never understood the fear of credit cards. If you have discipline it is a god send and also, I would far prefer to default on credit card debt than a secured loan like a HELOC.
By paying ahead and changing the allocation of your interest to principle for every payment thereafter, it hasens how quickly you can pay it off. But also means that you still have some money around should you need it and for investing. No matter what the bottom line is that you have use of someone else's money in substantial amounts for a reasonably long time period.
I like this calculator. It also tells you how much interest you save.
I weep for the reading comprehension of this country. The proposal in question is a zero percent and zero fee credit card. .
I assumed they were talking about the cash advance fees. Are you saying these zero percent offers allow you to take cash advances with no fees? I honestly don't know. I know they used to.
I used to work in the credit industry. It was not unusual for creditors to raise the interest rates on other accounts if you suddenly utilized a large amount of credit.
I assumed they were talking about the cash advance fees. Are you saying these zero percent offers allow you to take cash advances with no fees?
Yes that is what I am saying. ZERO.. nada, nothing - you get free money. I am almost wondering if I should tell you this as clearly you don't know about it. Chase Slate is offering this right now as far as I know.. for everyone.
0%; 0% fees for 18 months. When I first applied I had only a $5000 credit limit. But I transferred credit from my other chase cards and now I have 23K available to me on this card.
I paid off my student loans this way so I am pretty sure that these offers are common. I believe they do them for two reasons (1) If you forget after 18 months you get hit on the 19th month (but I have set up reminders in my google calendar); and (2) once you go to the hassle of opening a card, you are unlikely to cancel it.
Assuming that they do raise rates on other cards.. I don't care. I pay them off each month anyway.
Chase has informed me they will not do a "balance transfer" into my checking account until I had the card open 3 months (which makes sense) But as I mentioned there are ways around that by transferring way more than you need to another card and asking that card for a cash refund.
I often suggest to interns at my work that they pay off their student loans this way. If you "pay off" your loan with the credit card -- credit card debt is dischargeable in bankruptcy. Student loans are not. So if you have 35K in student loans and you put some or all of it on credit cards... well.
I assumed they were talking about the cash advance fees. Are you saying these zero percent offers allow you to take cash advances with no fees? I honestly don't know. I know they used to.
I used to work in the credit industry. It was not unusual for creditors to raise the interest rates on other accounts if you suddenly utilized a large amount of credit.
I look at most of he ones talked about here. They all have balance transfer fees unless I'm not understanding some thing?
Yes that is what I am saying. ZERO.. nada, nothing - you get free money. I am almost wondering if I should tell you this as clearly you don't know about it. Chase Slate is offering this right now as far as I know.. for everyone.
0%; 0% fees for 18 months. When I first applied I had only a $5000 credit limit. But I transferred credit from my other chase cards and now I have 23K available to me on this card.
I paid off my student loans this way so I am pretty sure that these offers are common. I believe they do them for two reasons (1) If you forget after 18 months you get hit on the 19th month (but I have set up reminders in my google calendar); and (2) once you go to the hassle of opening a card, you are unlikely to cancel it.
Assuming that they do raise rates on other cards.. I don't care. I pay them off each month anyway.
Chase has informed me they will not do a "balance transfer" into my checking account until I had the card open 3 months (which makes sense) But as I mentioned there are ways around that by transferring way more than you need to another card and asking that card for a cash refund.
I often suggest to interns at my work that they pay off their student loans this way. If you "pay off" your loan with the credit card -- credit card debt is dischargeable in bankruptcy. Student loans are not. So if you have 35K in student loans and you put some or all of it on credit cards... well.
If you payoff your student loans with credit cards and then file bankruptcy let me know how well that goes when it's overly obvious to the judge and creditors what you did
The banks have profitable reasons for offering 0-percent introductory CC's, since they do not make a profit on 0-percent loans. Quite simply, they depend on human nature and impulse buying, to keep them in the black.
I've used HELOC's over the years for various short-term reasons -(and am looking at a fixed rate HELOC now at prime less 1%) to avoid using tax-deferred money. I've never heard or thought of using a HELOC to pay-down one's mortgage interest (in addition to paying down the HELOC). But, I've not had a mortgage for many years.
The only way that seems to make sense is if the HELOC rate is less than one's mortgage rate. But, if that is the case, why not simply RE-FI the base loan (Closing costs generally have a 2-3-year breakeven point). Otherwise, reduce the loan term to save interests. (ie; reducing a 30-year to a 15-year mortgage (officially or artificially) saves a boatload of interest - without proportionately increasing the mortgage payment).
The only way that seems to make sense is if the HELOC rate is less than one's mortgage rate. But, if that is the case, why not simply RE-FI the base loan (Closing costs generally have a 2-3-year breakeven point). Otherwise, reduce the loan term to save interests. (ie; reducing a 30-year to a 15-year mortgage (officially or artificially) saves a boatload of interest - without proportionately increasing the mortgage payment).
But haven't we already covered this? You give 10K to the mortgage but by putting your pay check into the HELOC the interest accrues on a lot less.. typically like 5K. So the HELOC will be calculating interest on less than you threw at the mortgage all of the time.
So interest on 10K of a mortgage is say $40 (4%). But interest on 5K HELOC is $20 (roughly similar interest rate). So yes, you are not making a TON of difference... but the numbers do no harm and offer subtle improvements. And as a bonus it changes the make up of your future mortgage payments so that more of your payment goes to principle and less to interest leading to a quicker pay off than if you just did your normal payments. This also saves a boatload of interest.
In addition, during the HELOC draw period, 10 years usually you only pay interest.
If you payoff your student loans with credit cards and then file bankruptcy let me know how well that goes when it's overly obvious to the judge and creditors what you did
Err what difference does it make? Your student loans have been paid. Whether it is from your cash or your credit cards... no one would care. The law doesn't care. There is no "look back" back period with regard to student loans. Student loans are not dischargeable in bankruptcy. Credit card debt is. That is the law. There is nothing wrong with this.
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