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

[David Kaufman]

Hi Fred, Ron,:

Fred Jones wrote:
>> I would suggest shopping around (in person) at a couple of your 
 >> local banks.  Ask about their debt consolidation services.  If that
 >> was an unsolicited offer (like in the mail) - put it on the table
 >> and ask them to beat it.  Drive the best deal you can get. All that
 >> stuff is negotiable.  Get several competing offers before signing
 >> up for anything.
> 
> Wouldja believe I called Bank of America and told them it's hard for
> me to make the min. payment on my two cards there (total of over $30K
> debt) and they sent me to Financial Pressure department and they gave
> me a deal--we closed both accounts, fixed them at less than 7% APR
> with fixed monthly payments for 60 months 'til they're paid off.
> 
> Pretty cool. Better deal than the bank too. :)

Now that was a great deal!  I'm gonna try that.  I'm not in quiiite as 
deep as you, but the (eight --wince!) cards my wife and I do have are 
all pretty close to maxed out, and their rates have all climbed up into 
the way-high teens in the last year or so.

I'd trade them all in for a single fixed 7% loan in a heartbeat!

-dave