Debt Dumpers - 2016

[Dentam]

Tomorrow I have to go get an emissions test on my car in order to renew the registration. Also need to renew my driver's license. Emissions Test: $25, Registration Fee: $70, Driver's License Fee: $25. Total cost: $120. Driving legally: Priceless? Grr...

 

[dayvewc]

Well, it's started. Days 0 - 2 are up. I'll try to get the rest of the week done by Tuesday evening.

The Solo Spring Break Getaway Trip

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

So, I got an offer in the mail today from the cc that I paid off last month. They are offering a 3.5% interest rate on any amount (up to my 2k limit) that I transfer from one of my other higher interest rate cards - until it is paid off. No time limit for the lower interest rate. It does charge a 5% balance transfer fee. I am thinking of transferring 2k from my cc that has the highest balance and therefore is last on my list to pay off. It currently has an interest rate of 11.24%. The only thing is that this means another balance on a card and one more payment every month, even if it is a small one.

Do you have a Disney visa?
They send me blank checks almost monthly for balance transfers or even just make it out to myself and deposit for anything. It's only a 2% fee and 0% interest for 12 months. I'm considering doing a couple thousand from our Parent Plus loan which is 6.something%. I can't transfer the whole thing because I can't afford to pay the whole thing in 12 months. Also if ds19 or myself should become disabled or die, the federal loan is forgiven. As a BT on the Disney visa, it isn't.

Anyway, I find the whole check thing to be very convenient. It forces me to crack down on myself to pay it off before the due date and it keeps interest from compounding month after month at some ridiculous rate. I only draw what I can reasonably expect to pay off in 12 months.
Yeah, I guess it's like charging more on a cc but not quite the same.

 

[Dentam]

Do you have a Disney visa?
They send me blank checks almost monthly for balance transfers or even just make it out to myself and deposit for anything. It's only a 2% fee and 0% interest for 12 months. I'm considering doing a couple thousand from our Parent Plus loan which is 6.something%. I can't transfer the whole thing because I can't afford to pay the whole thing in 12 months. Also if ds19 or myself should become disabled or die, the federal loan is forgiven. As a BT on the Disney visa, it isn't.

Anyway, I find the whole check thing to be very convenient. It forces me to crack down on myself to pay it off before the due date and it keeps interest from compounding month after month at some ridiculous rate.

I do have a Disney visa that I don't carry a balance on. I haven't received this offer from them though. I assume that as I continue to pay off more and more debt, I will get more and better offers.

 

[bababear_50]

Tomorrow I have to go get an emissions test on my car in order to renew the registration. Also need to renew my driver's license. Emissions Test: $25, Registration Fee: $70, Driver's License Fee: $25. Total cost: $120. Driving legally: Priceless? Grr...

Hi Hon
I feel for you
I just got mine,I'm in Ontario Canada
License renewal--$81.50
Plate renewal-$108.00--one year or $216.00 for two years
I'm not sure how much the clean air emission test is going to be.
There goes my emergency fund I just started.
Hugs Mel

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I do have a Disney visa that I don't carry a balance on. I haven't received this offer from them though. I assume that as I continue to pay off more and more debt, I will get more and better offers.

I hope you get them soon! Somehow dh and I both get them. (We both got our own accounts when they were offering some kind of promo.)

 

[momtosam]

Happy Easter Debt Dumpers Family!

DH goes back to work tomorrow!!

 

[bcwife76]

@momtosam that's fantastic news!! Happy Easter!!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Happy Easter Debt Dumpers Family!

DH goes back to work tomorrow!!

That's wonderful!!
Happy Easter!

 

[SirDuff]

Very excited. If you recall, I just moved to the US and my credit score was showing as 0 (which makes life somewhat difficult). The free credit score estimate that I get from my bank (which is great - we don't have that in Canada (or, at least, I've never seen it)) is now 700! Not stellar, but I have no plans for getting a mortgage, loan, buying car, etc. in the near future. At least now, Macy's should give me a card (though I'll wait until I have a big purchase to maximize the sign up bonus).

Also, starting to get near to having a YNAB cushion, which makes me happy (since I moved with little US currency, I've been fairly paycheque-to-paycheque until now.

momtosam - Congratulations on your DH going back to work!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Well, my new student loan payment officially came out of our account this morning It feels good to know I'm paying more than the interest that accrues on it every month now, but holy moly is it a lot of money.

Also, my tax return is scheduled to go towards DH's car payment this Friday! I told him he better put it towards his car before I booked a Disney vacation with it, and he went ahead and got rid of it quick after that!

 

[MrsTurnerLovesDisney]

Last week was such a hot mess but I am back and things are going well.

Wednesday afternoon DH called saying he had been let go from his job...I had a full blown panic attack from it thinking what on earth would we do money wise. Sure we have some savings but I was terrified.

Then not 2 hours later the job he interviewed for called saying he had gotten the job. Talk about an emotional roller coaster in a 2 hour time span.

His pay is going up significantly and with the extra money we are throwing another $100 a month to his truck note. Once he gets his up in pay next year we can really snow ball payments and have a 6 year loan done in about 2 1/2 years!

Now just to redo our budget and make sure we are saving and not blowing this money. Sure I can loosen the purse strings some but I don't want to go wild. Thanks everyone out here for all of the prayers and pixie dust!!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Last week was such a hot mess but I am back and things are going well.

Wednesday afternoon DH called saying he had been let go from his job...I had a full blown panic attack from it thinking what on earth would we do money wise. Sure we have some savings but I was terrified.

Then not 2 hours later the job he interviewed for called saying he had gotten the job. Talk about an emotional roller coaster in a 2 hour time span.

His pay is going up significantly and with the extra money we are throwing another $100 a month to his truck note. Once he gets his up in pay next year we can really snow ball payments and have a 6 year loan done in about 2 1/2 years!

Now just to redo our budget and make sure we are saving and not blowing this money. Sure I can loosen the purse strings some but I don't want to go wild. Thanks everyone out here for all of the prayers and pixie dust!!

Talk about a roller coaster ride! But so glad it worked out! Sounds like you're on the right track for the car, that's awesome!

 

[DnA2010]

Got our taxes done- getting a refund- yay! Not a super huge one, but a couple of K's is always a good thing. I didn't think we would be paying, but always good to know for sure.

 

[dayvewc]

Irritation alert.

Just got an email from the BBB that the complaint I filed last week was being transferred to a different office. Apparently, I had filed with the Southern California office and it was supposed to be with the Nevada. Even though I had searched for the BBB office that would cover the corporate headquarters and they directed me to the other office. Grrrrr.

According to the email, it can take 4-6 weeks to hear from the new office about anything.

 

[dayvewc]

And, I just called to talk to DRI again, because I STILL haven't heard anything back, and the customer service rep I talked to was really apologetic, but doesn't know when the supervisor will have time to try to talk to me, or why he hasn't contacted me.

Guess it's time to try to find a lawyer, and start contacting the state attorney generals.

 

[AquaDame]

Looks like my husband decided to go ahead and get the Chase Sapphire... after we decided not to and I took the offer to up the limit on my Freedom. He didn't tell me until it was approved, guess we'll get the card in a couple of weeks. Oh well... looks like we will have 55,000 airline miles to blow through!

 

[stayhomemom77]

Well, it's started. Days 0 - 2 are up. I'll try to get the rest of the week done by Tuesday evening.

The Solo Spring Break Getaway Trip

Hi Hon
I feel for you
I just got mine,I'm in Ontario Canada
License renewal--$81.50
Plate renewal-$108.00--one year or $216.00 for two years
I'm not sure how much the clean air emission test is going to be.
There goes my emergency fund I just started.
Hugs Mel

$81.50 for license renewal?? I don't have to renew mine until the summer of 2018 but that is ridiculous!!

Last week was such a hot mess but I am back and things are going well.

Wednesday afternoon DH called saying he had been let go from his job...I had a full blown panic attack from it thinking what on earth would we do money wise. Sure we have some savings but I was terrified.

Then not 2 hours later the job he interviewed for called saying he had gotten the job. Talk about an emotional roller coaster in a 2 hour time span.

His pay is going up significantly and with the extra money we are throwing another $100 a month to his truck note. Once he gets his up in pay next year we can really snow ball payments and have a 6 year loan done in about 2 1/2 years!

Now just to redo our budget and make sure we are saving and not blowing this money. Sure I can loosen the purse strings some but I don't want to go wild. Thanks everyone out here for all of the prayers and pixie dust!!

Congrats on the new job for DH...sorry that you had to sweat it out for two hours though.

Got our taxes done- getting a refund- yay! Not a super huge one, but a couple of K's is always a good thing. I didn't think we would be paying, but always good to know for sure.

The stupid UCCB money that started last summer sucked about $500 off of our return...which would have gone a long way on our upcoming trip. Ah well...a refund, no matter what the amount is better than a kick in the a$$ with a frozen boot, am I right?

 

[LinderInWonderland]

Just wanted to clarify the FSA doesn't always have to be spent by Dec 31. Employers are permitted to extend to March 15 (IIRC). My employer does but dh's doesn't. With a family of 4 it's always something and we still plow through it all in no time, even without braces. You can still submit receipts for reimbursement until June 30 but by then we're long done with the previous year's funds and almost done with the current year's funds.
YMMV.

I am a bit late, but I am glad this came up in the discussion. DH needed some pretty heft dental work, so we planned the bulk of it to occur while we had the overlap of 2015 FSA balance and the new 2016 balance. Well, his dentist changed his mind on what needed to be done and it ended up costing us barely anything. Then I had to scramble to see how we could use up that money. Fortunately for our balance (unfortunately for DH), he got pneumonia in early February. We didn't get the bills for it until after March 15th and I paid them with the FSA debit card - which then applied it to our 2016 balance and not 2015! Fortunately they are working with me to correct it, but that was an unpleasant shock. We will be switching at our next open enrollment to the low premium/high deductible version of our current insurance. My employer funds the HSA at $1400/annually for the two of us, plus I get a $125 bonus for participating in the wellness program. If all I put in the HSA is the difference between our current premium and the new premium, that more than covers our deductible for the whole year and we get to keep the balance instead of worrying about using it up timely. I can take the money I used to put in the FSA and open a Deferred Compensation account at work and add to my retirement while keeping my taxable income similar to what we had last year.

 

[Dentam]

Hi Hon
I feel for you
I just got mine,I'm in Ontario Canada
License renewal--$81.50
Plate renewal-$108.00--one year or $216.00 for two years
I'm not sure how much the clean air emission test is going to be.
There goes my emergency fund I just started.
Hugs Mel

Yikes! Canada is definitely more spendy than here I guess. Sorry to hear about your emergency fund, but at least you had it to fall back on!