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one thing you could try is calling your current card carrier and asking for a lower interest rate.

by kkina

excellent advice,

I did that on my discover card and they gave me no interest , for a year

I had not used it in 30 months ,

I've used it more in the last three months , than I have in the last 6 years

( BUT ! it will be paid off , prior to the deadline )

That is a lot for a small loan. Like others have said, transferring to a new/zero interest rate is good or get a loan from the bank. With the bank loan, you may be able to write of the interest depending on the loan type.

The only way I would think about taking out this loan is if I could pay what I am currently paying. This would amount to extra principle being paid and the loan being paid off faster than the term.

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Originally posted by Skins2881:

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Originally posted by 1s1k:

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Originally posted by Johnny 3eagles:
It's difficult borrowing into prosperity.

This. It's a terrible idea. 3 years tells me he's not mad enough about it.

Why? Nothing wrong with stretching it out, except the horrendous rate. Just bought new kitchen cabinets, did zero percent for two years even though we had money in bank to pay cash.

Your situation has nothing to do with his. He has a loan that will have a high interest rate and plans on stretching it out for three years.

Is Lending Club legit? For that matter, Lending Tree, where I found it? Better APR (albeit with a fee, and may require auto-pay to get that rate) and $127 payment.

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Originally posted by egregore:
Is Lending Club legit? For that matter, Lending Tree, where I found it? Better APR (albeit with a fee, and may require auto-pay to get that rate) and $127 payment.

I used lending club in the past. It's super easy. They take whatever loan you want and sell it in chunks to investors who then fund your loan. When I used it a few years back with a slightly better credit score than you, I ended up at just shy of 7% with an APR just over 7% after adding in their 25 or 50 badis point fee.

My loan had no prepayment penalty, so I was able to pay it off slightly faster than agreed upon terms.

I'm sticking with the original plan. Better to deal with the devil I know than the devil I don't.

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Originally posted by egregore:
I'm sticking with the original plan. Better to deal with the devil I know than the devil I don't.

Not to be an ass, but why did you even bother asking then? We have given you tremendous real world actual data. Things we have actually done to help get ourselves out of the same mess. There are years and thousands of dollars of education we passed along to help guide you down a path most of us have already taken. And then to just dismiss it out of hand? That doesn't make any sense.

Nothing was dismissed, let alone out of hand. Maybe it seemed that way because of my "devil" comment. Something just rubbed me the wrong way about Lending Club. Some suggestions didn't work out (SoFi shot me down in flames, for example), were no better, were (or seemed) impractical, or were not applicable.

Thanks to everybody who responded.

Gotcha. Dont give up on the credit cards. Keep hounding them. It’s a game. They have a good lead on you right now but it’s not over. Every credit card is competing against every other card for your business. They will give you zero percent to transfer because most people wont pay it off and they think they will earn their money back ten fold. Use that to your advantage. Don't worry about your credit score, yet. Worry about getting out of debt, losing as little money as possible. Your credit score is just a reflection of how well you stay in debt. A few credit card inquiries will be cancelled out by paying off this debt as soon as possible. Don't settle for 13%. Keep playing till you win.

FWIW, Lending Club is very above-board. I've used them for short term financing of various things (including a bit of debt consolidation early on).

Lending Tree is not a lender. They're more like a loan broker, only they don't actually broker anything, so maybe more like a loan match-maker? You still have to qualify with the lenders they refer you to.

Otherwise, there's Sofi, Prosper, BestEgg, Upstart, and a host of other web-based direct lenders whose underwriting standards vary wildly. None of them are shady, but you'll have to shop around to find the best terms.

If you have a good relationship with a credit union, that's still going to be a good place to start.

-Rob

I maxed out two credit cards in the early '90's to a total of $12K. I was working corrections at the time so I signed up for over time on all available shifts.

I was able to make a $1K payment a month on each CC.

It took just over a year to pay them off and I shredded one card and lowered the limit on the other.

I now use just one card and I pay off the balance each month to avoid paying interest.

After aggressively paying it down, helped by the March 2021 stimulus direct payment, I sent the last payment today, cutting the 3 years down to a little over a year and a half.

Congratulations!