Debt Balances as of the End of August 2010:
- First Mortgage: $169.862.98
- Second Mortgage: $31,228.81
- Rental Property: $107,637.56
Total Debt: $308,729.35
This is a difference of -$574.67 in principle from the $309,304.02 owed in primary and rental mortgage debt at the end of July.
Yes, our debt snowball is still in limbo until we sell this house.
Reminder: Regular Payments Breakdown:
- First Mortgage: $1538.63
- Second Mortgage: $283.90
- Rental Property: $758.00
Total Monthly Payments: $2580.53.
$2,005.86 of this was toward interest alone. That is still so, so wrong.
Changes coming to the Second Mortgage
We’re looking at transferring the second mortgage debt to a credit card offering 0% APR for 12 months, with a $75 transfer fee.
Yes, just $75. Normally a transfer fee is 3% of the transfer amount! We received this offer from USAA, and I did a double-take when I read the fine print. Right now we pay a little over $7 every day in interest on our second mortgage, so this transfer is a no-brainer. And it has the added bonus of simplifying the sale of our home when the time comes. Which is any day now…
We have successfully used credit card transfers in the past. That’s how we paid off our car and our home improvements. We were gazelle intense and saved loads on interest. We have a very good “I Love Debt” aka FICO score, what can I say.
In other news
We lowered the price of our home. From $231,850 to $225,000. Two houses on our street recently lowered their prices and both received offers soon after. Let’s hope it works for us.
*****
Now go add your own update to the linky-linky below! Remember to link to the post that details your debt and/or net worth update, and not just to your blog url.
More from Jolyn
Yakezie Posts
- How to be Financially Responsible in 2012 By Tom Drake
- Last Minute Valentine’s Day Ideas to Keep You Out of the Store By FruGal
- Valentine’s Is Tomorrow: What Are Your Plans? By Kevin
- Stop Blaming the Economy For Your Hardships By Derek
- What Is an IPO? By Neal Frankle
{ 1 trackback }
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
The 0% CC is a really cool idea! Do you have a 0% Card with 30K of limit on it? You need some hardcore intesity to pay that off in a year. I have no idea the answer but it may not matter – what does it do to your score taking it from an installment over 30 years to a CC revolving debt (it may not matter if you aren’t applying for anything in the near future)?
[Reply]
jolyn Reply:
September 15th, 2010 at 11:21 am
We are “only” able to do $24k of it to the card, and that s/b doable in a year… And no, we do not plan on applying for anything in the near future! We’re certainly laying off the house ownership plan for awhile, anyway.
[Reply]
I hear you on putting your debt snowball on hold. Mine has been on hold all summer. Why? Because it’s summer:) Multiple beach trips, among other things, have caused me to spend quite a bit more money on fun stuff recently. Fall is just about here, I’ll be getting back to it soon enough:)
The second mortgage transfer sounds like a good idea. Though if you cannot pay off $1 grand in 12 months what does the interest rate jump to? Just something to keep in mind
[Reply]
I haven’t heard of transferring mortgages to a credit card, but if 0% + $75 then you could make massive progress toward paying it off. What happens to the rates afterwards?
Hope you find a buyer soon and continue making progress on that snowball.
[Reply]
jolyn Reply:
September 8th, 2010 at 9:51 pm
Technically it’s not a transfer: we’ll be issued a convenience check which we will write to ourselves, then use the cash to pay down the 2nd. And yes, the $75 fee is for using the check, too. It’s a really good offer, so long as we mind our p’s and q’s: pay on time; don’t use the card for anything else; pay it off before the 12 months is up, when the rate goes to 8.9, I believe. (Not much higher than our 2nd is now.)
We’ve done this before with “transfers” and quite successfully, so I know we can do it again. I was just surprised at the low fee. Hopefully, we’ll sell the house and pay off the debt and be done that way. Otherwise, we’ll snowball the heck out of it.
[Reply]
I just can’t face it yet. I will soon, though. The good news/bad news is that since my husband’s bankruptcy and foreclosure, we don’t have mortgage debt. But I still have (bad) debt from credit cards, one of which I received a court notice yesterday. I will call them and work it out, but I have others behind them. Debt stinks. We will also have to reckon with the IRS soon over some old stuff. We don’t have much debt, relatively speaking, but we don’t have much income, either, so the stress is still there.
That’s a great transfer deal!
[Reply]