Hey r/personalfinance!
I recently moved to Germany with my husband for his job, which is a 3-year contract. We have some high interest credit card debt back in the US that we’re finally in a position to really tackle, but since it’s high interest, I feel like we’re working harder, unnecessarily, to make the minimum payment AND work off the principal.
(For context, we have about $8,000 on a Capital One Venture card with about 20% interest, [a series of unforeseen events made this debt this high and kept it that way. Glad to finally have a chance to pay it off!] and a Wells Fargo credit card with about $4,000 on it, interest rate unknown.)
I’d like to consolidate both debts and pay them off with a loan, and then pay off the loan (with a lower interest rate) instead.
My questions:
-Is this actually the best idea? Are there other options, aside from a loan, that I should consider? My timeframe to pay all $12,000 off is about 2 years or less.
-Since we’ve already moved, I’m wondering if it’s still possible to get a loan from a US bank. Do I need to apply in person, or do anything that I couldn’t easily do from abroad? (If getting a loan here is an option, I’d prefer not to take that route, just in case we, for some reason, aren’t able to fully pay it off before we head back to the US once this contract ends.)
Thanks in advance for any advice!
Submitted April 08, 2019 at 06:05AM by hungaryforchile http://bit.ly/2P0rBjS
