I will try to keep this short and appreciate any advice. We have roughly $20K of credit card debt over a few cards and I've tried various budgeting tools and payment plans (on my own) to pay them down. It's going much slower than expected and we are paying high interest rates. We make a decent living and feel we are disciplined enough to not rack up future debt (there are valid reasons for some of this debt).
After some research, it looks like a home equity loan or balance transfer to a 0% interest card(s) are the best options. Credit score is great and we definitely have quite a bit of equity in our home. AI has been helpful in laying out scenarios and potential payments – we truly don't want to open more credit cards even with 0% APR (plus you don't know if one card will cover the amount of debt so it would likely be more than one new card). We've never tapped into our home as a resource and wanted to get some opinions on that. I appreciate the feedback.
Credit Card Debt Payoff Question
byu/Adept-Angle-1095 inpersonalfinance
Posted by Adept-Angle-1095
2 Comments
0% apr card is maybe 3% transfer fee. Even if it’s only enough for 1 card, that’s better than 25-30% you’re paying.
A credit card is basically an unsecured loan on money already spent so anything with lower interest is a helpful tool unless you just use it to make more debt than you have already.
Do NOT tie your home to debt that is currently unsecured. Do the 0% transfer, get second jobs to attack the debt, cut your expenses until they scream. It’s only temporary.