[thechat] Hey Buddy, Can you Spare a Dime?

[Matt Warden]

On Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 1:34 PM, Fred Jones<fredthejonester at gmail.com> wrote:
>> That works out to be (roughly) an 11.15% interest rate.
>
> Really? I don't follow how. Because after 5 years I'm only paying
> 130%. Am I missing something?

No, he's right. The interest rate is 11.15%. I hadn't checked it before

> Today I pay each month over $500. Actually it's going UP a lot
> lately--not the balance (that's going down) but the monthly payment.
> Once it was ~ $500 but last month they wanted $682 and this month they
> want $738!

Did you get a notice that they changed their terms? The formula for
figuring the monthly payment is not arbitrary. It is defined in the
terms of your agreement. If your balance is not increasing and they
have not sent you notice of changing terms, I don't see how your min
payment could be increasing.

> So let's say it's $600. If my balance was to be a quarter of what it
> is today, then my payment would be around a quarter of that which is
> $150. So I would be paying that plus the $380 to my bank for a total
> of $530. So that's first of all BETTER than what I pay today (600 or
> 700) AND I am losing each month a huge finance charge to Visa--it used
> to be around $250, but now it's going way up the past 2 months. Same
> as my payments I guess--even though the balance is going down, the
> finance charge goes UP, as in to over $500. Maybe their terms changed.
>
> Anyhow even if I can't find a better deal, this now seems definitely
> better for me than Visa.

What is the rate on your Visa debt?

> PS: To defend myself so that I wont' appear to be a complete loser, I
> will share that I financed a large part of my home purchase on credit
> cards. I took out $70K in very low interest credit cards, as in 1.9%
> or lower. It ended up not having enough and so I have this $25K
> regular interest card. Overall, however, it worked out better than a
> traditional mortgage. :)

So you took a cash advance?

-- 
Matt Warden
Cincinnati, OH, USA
http://mattwarden.com


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