Uh... Thought this was flame free zone.

sherrynews said:Prenup?
Marriage is up there with the farmers almanac and appendices -- vestigial remnants serving no useful purpose but for ancient industries that profit from their sale/care/removal. The best outcome is they cause no additional problems. A better outcome is when the costs, pain and scars can be covered. Often the outcomes are toxic and frequently even fatal.

michal1980 said:going to need a c.c. or 2 this year with 0% purchases for all the deposits/ wedding expensives. points would be a plus. But want to put all the wedding expenses on a card. (esspically all the upfront desposits). They will all be paid off by the wedding (end of august).

but the cash flow for it is month to month at this point.

would it be better to get a card or 2 upfront. or one now, and one later in case we need a longer0% apr?What credit card should I get thread.

Not knowing what you have/plan to spend, AMEX has good 0% purchase promos and can usually be gotten with $20k+ credit lines using the online increase button. Plus $30-$60 bonus if gotten via cardselection.com.

AMEX Blue Cash will get you 1.5% CashBack on everything over $6500 (but only .5% up to $6500), and if you can get a Biz card, the Blue Cash Biz has even higher tiers up to $15k (and 1% over $15k). Unfortunately, each only has a 6-month 0% promo, but they have numerous other Biz cards with 12-month promos that give a straight 1% reward (points or CashBack).

Not knowing anything about your credit history and assuming everything is 'good', I'd get both an AMEX card to make the purchases, and a Citi card (suggestion) with a 0%/no fee BT offer that you have up to a year to take advantage of. Make the purchases on the AMEX for the CashBack, then after the 6-month promo is up, BT the balance to the Citi card at 0% for another full year. Spending $15k, you'd get: $225 CashBack from the AMEX Biz, $60 from cardselection.com, $150 from Citi (15k TYPs opening bonus), and 18 months to pay it all off.

kissmy said:Hi

I have a BofA mortgage at 129K...purchase price of property being 138K bought 5 months ago at a interest rate of 6.75%

I paid only 5% down and have only one mortgage without any PMI

Should I consider refinancing hearing all this rates going down thing?

Also i paid 1500 for points

thanks

The 1500 that you paid in points should not factor into your refinance calculations at all - it is a sunk cost, and as such, does not matter at all anymore.

Has your property depreciated at all? If so, you might not be able to get a a new mortgage for the full amount that you want to replace.

What are the terms of your 6.75% mortgage? That is a fairly high rate, and you might be able to do better. But, after factoring in closing costs and the fact that you only have 5% down, I would imagine that you would not come out that far ahead (if you keep the same terms, e.g. replace a 30 yr with another 30 yr. If you change to an ARM in that scenario, you could save some money).

therivler1 said:kissmy said:Hi

I have a BofA mortgage at 129K...purchase price of property being 138K bought 5 months ago at a interest rate of 6.75%

I paid only 5% down and have only one mortgage without any PMI

Should I consider refinancing hearing all this rates going down thing?

Also i paid 1500 for points

thanks

The 1500 that you paid in points should not factor into your refinance calculations at all - it is a sunk cost, and as such, does not matter at all anymore.

Has your property depreciated at all? If so, you might not be able to get a a new mortgage for the full amount that you want to replace.

What are the terms of your 6.75% mortgage? That is a fairly high rate, and you might be able to do better. But, after factoring in closing costs and the fact that you only have 5% down, I would imagine that you would not come out that far ahead (if you keep the same terms, e.g. replace a 30 yr with another 30 yr. If you change to an ARM in that scenario, you could save some money).

Thanks for your reply.

The property hasnt depreciated and properties around are going for 2-4K more and zillow value is around 160K(if that matters at all)

Could you please clarify what do you mean by terms on mortgage? I have a 30 year fixed at 6.75%. I have the BofA No fee mortgage plus mortgage which allowed me to put 5% down and get a 95% loan without PMI

Ive seen a ton of banks offering cash for opening a new account. I understand there are hoops to jump thru, etc. But my question is are these profitable in the long term? Earning a quick $100 sounds nice but what would I do with 6 or 9 bank accounts? Not to mention any sort of eventual service or maintanence fees. The best scenario I can come up with is a rotating set of direct deposits to cycle cash thru the accounts every month. Am I just being lazy or does this seem like alot of maintanence for a few bucks?

Any info on this is appreciated.

urage said:Hey everyone,

In the end of 2006 I financed a 2003 Honda Civic with an interest rate of 13% and a not a very good credit due to only having one secure credit card and a collection at the time.

Today I currently owe about 7500 and I have about a 700 Credit score, no collections and never late. I have about $8k in cash for emergency money and I was wondering if I
should refinance or pay off the loan?

Well, given your improved credit score, the real question is: What are the odds you'll need that emergency $$$ in the near future?

If you're in a fairly stable situation, I'd pay off that 13% loan and earmark the monthly payments to be paid to your emergency fund. I'd also make sure you had a decent low-interest credit card to use in case of a true emergency.

Why pay the creditors 13% when you can pay yourself?

I have a couple BT/Utilization questions.

I hear alot of %s being tossed around, stay below 35%,50%,70%,80%,90%, etc... Are these utilization %s specific to each CC? each lender? or all cards?

The reason I ask:
I am considering transferring my car loan to a 0% card.
If i transfer it to a single card my utilization % on that card will probably be in the 80% range, however my utilization % for that lender will be below 50% and for all cards below 35%.
I am trying to determine my score impact and make a determination if this transfer is worth it for me or not.

whirr said:I have a couple BT/Utilization questions.

I hear alot of %s being tossed around, stay below 35%,50%,70%,80%,90%, etc... Are these utilization %s specific to each CC? each lender? or all cards?

The reason I ask:
I am considering transferring my car loan to a 0% card.
If i transfer it to a single card my utilization % on that card will probably be in the 80% range, however my utilization % for that lender will be below 50% and for all cards below 35%.
I am trying to determine my score impact and make a determination if this transfer is worth it for me or not.There is no real rule - those numbers are what people have found seem to have a consistant effect on scores, but its more hypothetical with minimal hard evidence. The only thing you can be sure of is that the higher the utilization, the more it will lower your score. So the question is rather what do you plan on doing in the next year where a high score will be important? If you have the 80/50/35 percentages you mention you should be fine as far as adverse action, but your score may drop to the point of hindering any new applications (the debt balance itself will also hurt more on a credit card as opposed to a car loan). Assuming you dont have any major purchases upcoming (like a house), the interest savings would be well worth the short-term hit to your credit score.

kissmy said:Could you please clarify what do you mean by terms on mortgage? I have a 30 year fixed at 6.75%. I have the BofA No fee mortgage plus mortgage which allowed me to put 5% down and get a 95% loan without PMI

You saying that it was a 30yr fixed answered my question about the terms. One thing you need to check is if there is a pre-payment penalty. Call your lender up and ask them, they should be able to tell you very quickly. If so, that complicates things.

IF you have a reasonable credit score, you can probably get a 30 yr at 6% and a HEL for the 15% at around 8%. That gives a combined rate of 6.3%. So, you can probably do better than what you have now, but not by much.

Don't be afraid to call around and see what kind of loan you can get. No harm in trying (just don't give them your SSN or let them pull your credit until you have made a decision).

lagomorph said:Are interest rates on credit cards calculated the same as interest rates on car loans?

An example: I currently have a $5000 balance on my car loan at 7.49%. If I transfer that balance to a credit card that has a 7.49% interest rate, and make the same payments as I currently make to the bank, would I end up paying the same amount?In general, yes. But the required minimum payment on the credit card will likely be much higher than the car loan payment.