Long story short, my wife and I collectively have around $27,000 in credit card debt, and about a year ago was when we realized "HOLY SHIT WE HAVE SO MUCH DEBT".
It was at that point that we stopped using our cards and began an effort to pay it down, but the interest rates were killing us (one card had a 27% APR!!!!). We never had a problem making the payments and have never defaulted, but it felt like we were spraying a bonfire with a squirt gun.
So we ended up talking to a local FCU about getting a debt consolidation loan.
I know there's a lot of controversy in this sub about these types of loans, but honestly, it's the best route for us and it will save us around $10,000 in interest, even if we only pay the loan's minimum payment.
Not sure if you guys care about the details, but we actually ended up getting two loans. One was using our car as collateral and giving the title to the bank. In return they gave us a car loan for $6,000 at 4.9%, with a minimum payment of around $160. The rest was put on a personal loan at 9.9% with a minimum payment of $460.
If we just pay the minimum, it will take around four years to fully pay off, which isn't bad at all. However, we plan to throw more money at it per month since we'll be able to afford it, so hopefully we'll get it paid off even sooner and pay even less interest.
Anyway, just thought I'd share this and say that I'm glad we're finally getting our credit card debt under control! It makes me happy.
Submitted April 13, 2017 at 09:11PM by Crrrrraig http://ift.tt/2ox0j93
