Debt Dumpers - 2019

[DisneyMandC]

But now I have to stop and think. This might not work because DH already has another Ink card. I have to go check with the gurus on the credit card thread to ask if he could qualify for the bonus. Ugh.

I have Ink Preferred and Ink Unlimited. No issues.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

He has an Ink Cash, right? You can have all the Inks, no restrictions

I have Ink Preferred and Ink Unlimited. No issues.

Yeah, I haven't been keeping up with that thread, as it just moves too quickly. I have two Ink cards, but I wasn't sure if anything had changed in the last year or not. I applied for DH and got the 30 day message. Called the number and still 30 days about an hour later. I guess the obsessive calling shall now commence.

 

[jen7233]

Yeah, I haven't been keeping up with that thread, as it just moves too quickly. I have two Ink cards, but I wasn't sure if anything had changed in the last year or not. I applied for DH and got the 30 day message. Called the number and still 30 days about an hour later. I guess the obsessive calling shall now commence.

Hope you get an answer fast and get through to someone that can approve it.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

DH and I just got back from WDW yesterday. Not been a great week though for my family, though our trip itself was great. Last Tuesday, the day before we left, my 19 year old cousin was killed in a car accident while on duty (he was a Sheriff's Deputy). Then on Thursday his mother, her boyfriend and her sister were in a car accident after leaving from making the funeral plans for him. Thankfully they are all okay, his mother fractured her wrist but her car was totaled in the accident so they were quite lucky to be okay, physically at least. My cousin's funeral was Sunday, then Monday I fell while walking through the lobby of ASMo and got a huge lump and bruise on my knee. And that afternoon my mother fell and fractured her wrist in my parent's RV as they were driving back home from the funeral.

In good news, my state refund was deposited on Friday and federal was deposited today. State refund was pretty small but will cover our Valentines Day dinner next week and help offset the fact that neither my DH or I will get paid for the week we were at WDW. I'm an independent contractor so part of the federal will be used for paying estimated taxes for the first half of the year at least, part will be the rest of the offset from losing a week's pay and the rest (about $300) will go to debt payoff. And my DH found out today that his work has a quarterly meeting tomorrow that he will get a 4.5 hours pay for tomorrow along with free lunch. Oh, and I paid off my totaled car on Monday so that's one debt gone, and our Care Credit card will be paid off next month.

I'm so sorry for your loss. My youngest will be 19 in a few months. I can't imagine the pain his mom is going through. What an awful string of bad luck in your family lately. I hope things start getting better for you soon.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Yes, I feel like it is a very fair price. And it is very close to our house, which I think will help us go more often. I used to belong to an amazing gym with a pool, running track, sauna, hot tubs, basketball court, and lots of classes. But it cost a lot per month and was just too far from home. I didn't end up going as often as I had hoped. The gym by our house also has lots of classes that are included. I was looking over the schedule and most days they have a 8-9am class that I could catch right after DH and DD leave, then come home and start work.

That's awesome to be able to work from home. That time of day is when I have the most energy but my job is impossible to do at home. I used to belong to a gym and did a 60 mins aerobics class 3x/week until I had kids. After our first, I still did some videos but after having 2, I was living la vida loco. Eventually the gym closed but I really don't get a lot of free time. I get up at 5:30am and get home 5:30 pm. Dh has dinner ready shortly after I get home but by then I'm ready to drop. I refuse to get up at 4:30 am.
I'm just glad we don't have to spend half our night working on homework anymore!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Met with the retirement person at my work this morning. I maxed out my retirement contributions a while ago and just wanted to make sure I'd done everything correctly and didn't have anywhere else I should be contributing to. She confirmed that I was maxed out and everything looked good. The only other available retirement fund I could keep adding to through work is a 457 plan. I currently do $20 per paycheck. I'd like to up that, but want to pay off the student loans first. Plus, that currently has a -5% rate of return

Are you able to change which fund you contribute into? My Vanguard is doing pretty good.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

I like the Ally app so far and my initial deposit was in the account the next day, so that was fast!

Good job on the Roth funding!

Their bank to bank transfers are slow at first. 3 business days IIRC. They will move the speed to 1 business day after you transfer at least $200 cumulatively, not necessarily as a lump sum, into that Ally account, all initiated via Ally. Then wait 60 days and you will be able to schedule a transfer into that account as a 1 day transfer. (As long as you schedule it before 7:30 pm ET, by 6am it's all done.) You have to do this $200 transfer, then wait 60 days for transferring out of Ally also. So at some point, you might have 1 day transfers incoming but maybe not yet for outgoing.
Each time you link another bank account, you have to do the $200 transfers again. Instead of trying to accumulate $200 worth of transfers as needed, I just sent $250 back and forth asap to speed up the process.
I don't know if this is some safety feature, perhaps to allow time for someone to claim fraud if the linked account doesn't really belong to that person. Those first 2 months were torture but now that each sub-savings account has been through all of this, in both directions, they are all at 1 day transfers and I love it.
I also love that their great rate isn't some teaser rate that expires in a year or only gets applied to new customers.
You just log in and see a higher rate has been applied to your account. When I switched to Ally last June, it was at 1.5%. Gradually it's climbed up to 2.2%. My kids Capital One 360 accounts are still at 1%. Ugh. So glad I switched!

 

[kmc8826]

@Jen and Ashwin sounds like you have decided but the CIU is an excellent choice. The CIC also has 0% for like 15 months too so that is an option. If you or DH could get approved for Amex the Blue Business Preferred also has like 15 months 0% no interest. Honestly last June we opened a home equity loan (set amount with set interest rate here is a chunk of cash). Similar to the HELOC but interest rate not variable. At any rate I wish I had just focused on getting the 0% credit cards instead and not opening the equity loan at all. If you can get approved for the cards and then get them paid off within the 0% period I think it is a great deal.

Met with the retirement person at my work this morning. I maxed out my retirement contributions a while ago and just wanted to make sure I'd done everything correctly and didn't have anywhere else I should be contributing to. She confirmed that I was maxed out and everything looked good. The only other available retirement fund I could keep adding to through work is a 457 plan. I currently do $20 per paycheck. I'd like to up that, but want to pay off the student loans first. Plus, that currently has a -5% rate of return

This last year has been bad so I stopped contributing to my 401k. I never started a 457 (sad but true after working for government) for 18 years so early last week signed up online to begin the deduction. Yesterday in the mail I got notice from our retirement system that my contribution would be 100% on the next paycheck (next Friday). Panic. I ended up talking to someone who said it was what I set up a 4% contribution but by then my worry was too much and I had changed it back to no contribution. Not worth the risk. I need the paycheck now!

I haven’t done goals or anything on this thread because it basically all centers on my sweet husband not spending so much. He can retire now (he can retire at 20) and while I have talked him into going 21 years he won’t go 22. So he is trying as I keep getting across to him that if he wants to retire we need to get an emergency fund in place. We don’t have any debt other than the equity loan and mortgage but this past year has been so expensive I don’t feel good with any possible decrease in income without at least a chunk in savings. Pensions are great but they are still a decrease in a regular paycheck. And to retire and expect his “business” to become a bill paying full fledged business scares me to death.

 

[DLgal]

Their bank to bank transfers are slow at first. 3 business days IIRC. They will move the speed to 1 business day after you transfer at least $200 cumulatively, not necessarily as a lump sum, into that Ally account, all initiated via Ally. Then wait 60 days and you will be able to schedule a transfer into that account as a 1 day transfer. (As long as you schedule it before 7:30 pm ET, by 6am it's all done.) You have to do this $200 transfer, then wait 60 days for transferring out of Ally also. So at some point, you might have 1 day transfers incoming but maybe not yet for outgoing.
Each time you link another bank account, you have to do the $200 transfers again. Instead of trying to accumulate $200 worth of transfers as needed, I just sent $250 back and forth asap to speed up the process.
I don't know if this is some safety feature, perhaps to allow time for someone to claim fraud if the linked account doesn't really belong to that person. Those first 2 months were torture but now that each sub-savings account has been through all of this, in both directions, they are all at 1 day transfers and I love it.
I also love that their great rate isn't some teaser rate that expires in a year or only gets applied to new customers.
You just log in and see a higher rate has been applied to your account. When I switched to Ally last June, it was at 1.5%. Gradually it's climbed up to 2.2%. My kids Capital One 360 accounts are still at 1%. Ugh. So glad I switched!

Wait, what? I set up my initial deposit at night and it was in my Ally account the next day (and deducted appropriately from my checking). What are you talking about?

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Wait, what? I set up my initial deposit at night and it was in my Ally account the next day (and deducted appropriately from my checking). What are you talking about?

Yes they CAN be fast. If you log on tonight and schedule a transfer from your linked accout to your Ally savings, it will probably offer you Wed or Thursday for it to arrive.
Try it. You won’t be able to do 1 business day transfers for a while. 60 day minimum. Call their customer service and they can probably explain it better. They are there 24/7. Once the lady told me about it, I hurried up to exceed the $200 in transfers in each direction so that I’d only have to wait out the 60 days.
Maybe this has all changed since June.

 

[pblack]

Woke up this morning to our tax refunds being deposited in our account. I turned around and paid off our best buy card, all $1830 of it. That brings our total owed still on credit cards to $2225!

That last credit card should be paid off, on the high side, within the next 6 months but probably sooner. At that point we will be completely credit card debt free and I will work on paying off student loans.

 

[Eureka]

In the latest installment of “Boy, 2019 sure has been pricey,” the mold guy came yesterday and did his thing in the kitchen. Good news is the sub floor under the cabinet is just wet but not rotted. Next round of estimates (to replace the cabinet) can’t be done for almost two weeks bc of scheduling issues. Insurance check came yesterday so next week when we both get paid I can pay off this work. It’ll pay for 2/3 of what was done yesterday. Hope the next round is not too expensive.

Then DH went to start his car today and it didn’t. AAA came out and put in a new battery. More money that we didn’t plan on spending but at least it was easy and I didn’t have to take the car anywhere. But still, I think I am done with all these unexpected things!

 

[jen7233]

@ruadisneyfan2 So, eventually it could be just a 1 day transfer time with Ally?
For me, this month I submitted my request to transfer on Ally on Feb 1, a Friday, and it showed it was at least pending, but unavailable. It came out of my main bank on Monday, but on Ally's site it let me know was not available until Wed Feb 6. So overall, transfer over $200 initiated from Ally on a Friday, available by Wednesday. I thought that was good, considering another bank of mine PenFed is dinosaur-age slow with transfers, considering closing them out. If they move faster, I'd like to see it.

In the latest installment of “Boy, 2019 sure has been pricey,” the mold guy came yesterday and did his thing in the kitchen. Good news is the sub floor under the cabinet is just wet but not rotted. Next round of estimates (to replace the cabinet) can’t be don’t for almost two weeks bc of schduele issues. Insurance check came yesterday so next week when we both get paid I can pay off this work. Hope the next round is not too expensive.

Then DH went to start his car today and it didn’t. AAA came out and put in a new battery. More money that we didn’t plan on spending but at least it was easy and I didn’t have to take the car anywhere. But still, I think I am done with all these unexpected things!

Good your sub floor wasn't rotted, can't imagine how much that would cost and how long it would take to fix. Batteries aren't too bad usually, well they can get pricey if you go for the ones with longer warranty or labor costs. It's horrible though to get in a car expecting engine to start and then nothing!

Woke up this morning to our tax refunds being deposited in our account. I turned around and paid off our best buy card, all $1830 of it. That brings our total owed still on credit cards to $2225!

That's great!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

@ruadisneyfan2 So, eventually it could be just a 1 day transfer time with Ally?
For me, this month I submitted my request to transfer on Ally on Feb 1, a Friday, and it showed it was at least pending, but unavailable. It came out of my main bank on Monday, but on Ally's site it let me know was not available until Wed Feb 6. So overall, transfer over $200 initiated from Ally on a Friday, available by Wednesday. I thought that was good, considering another bank of mine PenFed is dinosaur-age slow with transfers, considering closing them out. If they move faster, I'd like to see it.

Yes exactly. BTW if you had initiated after 7:30pm ET, the clock wouldn't start counting until the next business day. So you've transferred at least $200 from main bank INTO Ally so all the transfers that you schedule via Ally will still be at the 3 business day speed for the next 60 days. By around April 6 if you were to repeat this same transaction it should all happen by the next day. This only counts for the main bank to Ally direction. You will still have to do $200+ for the other direction, Ally into main bank then wait 60 days to be able to transfer 1 day that way.

This is why I say to link any/all accounts right away and just send $200+ back and forth via Ally.com to get it over with. I didn't know this since a lot of my transfers were <$200. (For our quarterly sewer bill I transfer $9 every Thursday.) Also I have around 8 savings accounts with Ally so I had to do this with all of them. Once it was explained to me I scheduled these random transfers to expedite me on the path to 1 day transfers in either direction for all accounts.
Now that it's all done, I can get home from work at 6pm and schedule a transfer from local bank to Ally and by 6 am it's showing in my Ally account as available and shows it was debited out of my local account.

I know it sounds utterly stupid but please don't shoot the messenger. They must have some rational plan as to why it's done this way. It's frustrating but I can say at Cap One 360, if I transfer into a savings account, it's on hold, as in unavailable, for 7 days. This is even after being with them over 10 yrs. Now THAT is annoying.

I also LOVE that I can have an online chat transcript emailed to me so I have proof of answers that were given to me. This has saved me from an overdraft fee already. I could have prevented the overdraft by transferring $ from one account to another but I was told in the chat that NSF due to transfer won't incur a fee. I was shocked when I was charged a fee so I sent them a copy of the transcript and they reversed it. (Stupid me scheduled a duplicate transfer.)

Anyhoo, it's annoyingly slow in the beginning but once that hurdle is in the past, they are so easy to love.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Woke up this morning to our tax refunds being deposited in our account. I turned around and paid off our best buy card, all $1830 of it. That brings our total owed still on credit cards to $2225!

That last credit card should be paid off, on the high side, within the next 6 months but probably sooner. At that point we will be completely credit card debt free and I will work on paying off student loans.

That is awesome!
We are in a high tax state so this $10k limitation for property tax + state income tax + local income tax is killing us. We usually get at least $1000 back. Now we owe $2300+. Right now I hate ALL politicians.

 

[Ngwira]

Color me shocked that we’re actually getting a refund. I thought we owed. It’s not much, $419 but it’s better than owing. I’ll take it. Now to file state... we got back $650 last year..hoping for the same.

 

[MamaBelleRN]

Yes exactly. BTW if you had initiated after 7:30pm ET, the clock wouldn't start counting until the next business day. So you've transferred at least $200 from main bank INTO Ally so all the transfers that you schedule via Ally will still be at the 3 business day speed for the next 60 days. By around April 6 if you were to repeat this same transaction it should all happen by the next day. This only counts for the main bank to Ally direction. You will still have to do $200+ for the other direction, Ally into main bank then wait 60 days to be able to transfer 1 day that way.

This is why I say to link any/all accounts right away and just send $200+ back and forth via Ally.com to get it over with. I didn't know this since a lot of my transfers were <$200. (For our quarterly sewer bill I transfer $9 every Thursday.) Also I have around 8 savings accounts with Ally so I had to do this with all of them. Once it was explained to me I scheduled these random transfers to expedite me on the path to 1 day transfers in either direction for all accounts.
Now that it's all done, I can get home from work at 6pm and schedule a transfer from local bank to Ally and by 6 am it's showing in my Ally account as available and shows it was debited out of my local account.

I know it sounds utterly stupid but please don't shoot the messenger. They must have some rational plan as to why it's done this way. It's frustrating but I can say at Cap One 360, if I transfer into a savings account, it's on hold, as in unavailable, for 7 days. This is even after being with them over 10 yrs. Now THAT is annoying.

I also LOVE that I can have an online chat transcript emailed to me so I have proof of answers that were given to me. This has saved me from an overdraft fee already. I could have prevented the overdraft by transferring $ from one account to another but I was told in the chat that NSF due to transfer won't incur a fee. I was shocked when I was charged a fee so I sent them a copy of the transcript and they reversed it. (Stupid me scheduled a duplicate transfer.)

Anyhoo, it's annoyingly slow in the beginning but once that hurdle is in the past, they are so easy to love.

This is good to know! Thanks for the tip

 

[TashK]

@PhoenixStrength thinking of you and your family.

 

[DCLfam]

Wahoo! Finished tax return today and was pleasantly surprised. The plan for now is to move it to vacation fund for Hawaii vacation next year.
Will pay off car loan by September with side jobs I work over the summer.

 

[StacyStrong]

My daily use credit card bumped my limit another 2k. That's a 6k jump in less than a year

Jokes on them, I haven't paid a penny in interest.

Also, I finally filed my taxes. After paying to file them, I'll be getting a bit over 2300 back.

I can't decide what I want to do with it though.