re: $12,000 credit card debt....

quote:

---

NEVER exchange unsecured debt for secured debt

---

For business borrowing, I agree with you.

But for private individual debt where the interest paid can be deducted and the interest rate can be less than half, I don't agree with you.

As the other poster said and especially with a CC balance as large as the OP said he has, it really doesn't matter if the debt is secured or not. The bank will go after him with a full court press to collect it, secured or unsecured.

He would be smart to reduce his rate and improve his after tax cash flow by switching to some type of home equity line if he has the equity to do so.

I'm glad you understood what I was saying, I was afraid it was too vague.

quote:

---

I'm glad you understood what I was saying, I was afraid it was too vague.

---

I'll admit I had to read it twice to see if you were for or against lowering the interest rate by securing the debt. But I finally got it.
I'm willing to bet 756 remains unconvinced. I just hope he uses Chase Bank since that is the bank I own the most stock of in my portfolio.

quote:

---

how the frick does that happen?

---

lifestyle and never seeing a pre-approved cc offer she didn't like

She lived on $10-15k a year more than she made for about 10 years. Used one to pay off another and so on until all available credit was used up and the house of cards fell down.

Sad thing is there is nothing to show for it but a bunch of junk that isn't worth a tenth of what she paid for it.

I am equally amazed at the error in judgement by her for doing it and the CC companies for extending that much credit.

quote:

---

I am equally amazed at the error in judgement by her for doing it and the CC companies for extending that much credit.

---

that's why they had the bankruptcy laws changed to make it harder to shed CC debt

quote:

---

She lived on $10-15k a year more than she made for about 10 years

---

wow...just..wow

i get mad at myself when i can't put money in savings in a month

I once got into about $25,000 debt but that was from being young, stupid, and gambling. I thought in the beginning I would never get these paid off with those high interest rates. I was mad at the credit card company for extending me that much credit. But in the end, it was my stupidity and the credit card company saw a fool coming.

Anyway, what I did was find credit card companies like chase and citi and opened a few cards with them with 0% balance transfers for a year. That saved me alot on interest and I paid them off well within a year. It is doable but you have to be disciplined and eliminate ALL unnecessary things. It was a hard and costly but good lesson learned.

quote:

---

13 seems like it would make your life absolutely miserable for two years.

---

five years

quote:

---

I thought 5 was the max and 2 was the min

---

Five is the max, I don't think there is a minimum.

I have a friend that is a BK attorney. He told me he had one client finish in like five months. The max is very common according to him.

quote:

---

This is why bankers are rich.

---

Rich in titles maybe. Lots of VP's that are low paid in the banking industry

quote:

---

i get mad at myself when i can't put money in savings in a month

---

Yeah and here I am mad at myself that I can't max out my 401k each month. Oh well I guess I'll take that over being 190K in the hole. If I add up my mortgage, my car loan, and the small cc balance I have it doesn't add up to 190K.