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Personal Finances / Credit Cards and Consumer Debt


Subject:  Re: Credit Card Debt Question Date:  5/6/2013  8:04 PM
Author:  aj485 Number:  306981 of 308882

I currently have about $36,0000 in CC debt that I am paying roughly $350 interest on monthly. I am never past due or have any problems paying it I am just struggling to get the principal down. My question is if I should get a loan and pay it all off at once at 9% interest or just commit more $$ to paying it off on my own.

So, if you are paying $350/month in interest, the rate on your credit card debt is about 10% on average, right?

So from a strictly mathematical standpoint, it would make sense to get a fixed loan at 9%, assuming that you can afford the payments and that you can actually get an unsecured loan for a fixed 9% rate.

I know this might seem like an easy question I have just never found myself in a situation like this before

Actually, there's a lot more to answering the question than the 'simple' math part of it.

- How did you get this debt?
- Have you resolved/changed the issues that resulted in accumulating the debt?
- Have you stopped using the credit cards? (If not, or you say you "can't" stop using the credit cars, then you might want to just leave well enough alone, and pay the credit card debt off yourself, little by little.
- How will you use the credit cards after you pay them off? (Does no good to pay off the cards if you're just going to charge them up again.)
- Have you examined your budget/spending plan to see what additional funds you can funnel to the credit card debt each month?
- Will there be any fees associated with the new loan?