CCL
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Post by CCL on Jul 30, 2019 22:31:08 GMT -5
When we had a HELOC we had the option to pay interest only. If yours is like that you can be much more flexible on payments.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 30, 2019 22:40:44 GMT -5
I can't find much info on my account page and I'm sure I tossed the paperwork years ago. I guess I could stop in at the credit union tomorrow and ask.
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resolution
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Post by resolution on Jul 31, 2019 6:27:21 GMT -5
So it sounds like you have the cash to pay for the well pump in full, but you had intended to use the cash to pay off a credit card bill for your son's tuition? It looks like the chase slate card has 0% balance transfers with no transfer fees for the first 60 days that you own the card. Interest starts after 15 months. You may want to consider just paying for the well pump and then transferring your current credit card to the chase slate card, then really focus on paying it down before any interest kicks in. creditcards.chase.com/balance-transfer-credit-cards/chase-slate?CELL=6TKV
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raeoflyte
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Post by raeoflyte on Jul 31, 2019 10:34:06 GMT -5
What about refi'ing into a 30 year mortgage to free up cash flow? You can still save the rest and pay it toward your mortgage if everything goes swimmingly but might give you some wiggle room for when it doesn't.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2019 10:41:47 GMT -5
Well, I had a fleeting hope. There were crazy storms the night the pump went out (all that week actually) and the neighbor said their TV got fried that night. If the well was hit by lightening it would be covered by insurance, but I just talked to the guy and he tore it all apart and said it didn't look like it. He said normally if there's a lightning strike you can't turn the shaft easily and mine was fine. He said he can't say it wasn't lightening, but he can't say definitively it WAS either and if I have the insurance man call him, he'll tell him exactly the same thing. He said I could still try, but he only gives me about a 25% chance of it going through.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2019 10:45:48 GMT -5
So it sounds like you have the cash to pay for the well pump in full, but you had intended to use the cash to pay off a credit card bill for your son's tuition? It looks like the chase slate card has 0% balance transfers with no transfer fees for the first 60 days that you own the card. Interest starts after 15 months. You may want to consider just paying for the well pump and then transferring your current credit card to the chase slate card, then really focus on paying it down before any interest kicks in. creditcards.chase.com/balance-transfer-credit-cards/chase-slate?CELL=6TKVI already have all the other stuff on a 0% card until next April. I have the cash for everything. It will suck big time, but it's there.
I'm mainly just kind of depressed from getting hit with all this at once. The flood, the cars, the lawnmower, the lawnmower again and again. And now this. Everything just spiraled out of control so fast. I need a few months of even keel to regroup.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2019 10:52:37 GMT -5
What about refi'ing into a 30 year mortgage to free up cash flow? You can still save the rest and pay it toward your mortgage if everything goes swimmingly but might give you some wiggle room for when it doesn't. But...but...I'm so cloooose. Finally. Well, sort of close. 92 more months. 7 years, 8 months. But who's counting. Also, only about $250/month going to interest. I remember when that was what I was paying every month to principal!
I'm seriously thinking of just paying it off 1/2023 with Roth contributions money. That's about the time the two balances will line up.
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raeoflyte
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Post by raeoflyte on Jul 31, 2019 11:19:19 GMT -5
What about refi'ing into a 30 year mortgage to free up cash flow? You can still save the rest and pay it toward your mortgage if everything goes swimmingly but might give you some wiggle room for when it doesn't. But...but...I'm so cloooose. Finally. Well, sort of close. 92 more months. 7 years, 8 months. But who's counting. Also, only about $250/month going to interest. I remember when that was what I was paying every month to principal!
I'm seriously thinking of just paying it off 1/2023 with Roth contributions money. That's about the time the two balances will line up.
It will still mostly line up 1/2023 even if you refi'd to a 30 year. The refi fees would suck, and there would be more interest, but you are a person who would absolutely save that difference every month that didn't have something crazy come up. I get why you don't want to. I just feel like you have a lot of money stress that maybe doesn't have to be there.
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cktc
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Post by cktc on Jul 31, 2019 12:07:54 GMT -5
I always check what forms of payment are accepted in advance so I can transfer funds or find another company. I live in a big metro area though so my options aren't limited.
Is job hunting an option? Renting out the basement or boarding horses?
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souldoubt
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Post by souldoubt on Jul 31, 2019 12:23:09 GMT -5
I regularly get 0% APR balance transfer offers through my cards that are for up to 14 months. Rather than drain my savings for a trip we're taking I decided to use one of those offers. The offer I went with charges 4% of the balance transferred. I charged the trip on my 2% card (1% on purchases, 1% on payments) then transferred the balance so I'll end up paying the difference of 2%. That may be a no no to some on here but 2% to me is a small price to pay to keep cash on hand. I can pay the balance off over the course of the 0% period or pay it off at year-end from my bonus. There's no need for me to pay it all off early it's just a matter or preference and I likely will pay it off at year-end.
These types of offers you have to know that if you have two cards with the same company you can't transfer the balance from one to the other at least in my experience. If I wasn't able to do this I'd consider getting a new card as I still regularly get offers for cards with 0% APR for about a year or so.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2019 12:55:06 GMT -5
I regularly get 0% APR balance transfer offers through my cards that are for up to 14 months. Rather than drain my savings for a trip we're taking I decided to use one of those offers. The offer I went with charges 4% of the balance transferred. I charged the trip on my 2% card (1% on purchases, 1% on payments) then transferred the balance so I'll end up paying the difference of 2%. That may be a no no to some on here but 2% to me is a small price to pay to keep cash on hand. I can pay the balance off over the course of the 0% period or pay it off at year-end from my bonus. There's no need for me to pay it all off early it's just a matter or preference and I likely will pay it off at year-end. These types of offers you have to know that if you have two cards with the same company you can't transfer the balance from one to the other at least in my experience. If I wasn't able to do this I'd consider getting a new card as I still regularly get offers for cards with 0% APR for about a year or so. What good does a balance transfer offer do me if they don't take credit cards though?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2019 13:04:34 GMT -5
I always check what forms of payment are accepted in advance so I can transfer funds or find another company. I live in a big metro area though so my options aren't limited. Is job hunting an option? Renting out the basement or boarding horses? I was leaving for vacation in 12 hours when this happened on a weekend and had no water and livestock that needed to be taken care of. There really wasn't a lot of time to call around and all the work was done when I was gone. It would have sucked anyhow getting all these weekend calls for estimates...and with a well, nobody really knows what it's going to cost by looking at it. It could have just been a broken wire 10 feet down instead of having to pull 600 feet of pipe and replace the pump. I lucked out with worst case scenario.
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souldoubt
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Post by souldoubt on Jul 31, 2019 13:09:23 GMT -5
If one vendor wouldn't take a card I'd look for one that does. If none of them do then your options are take money from your emergency fund or savings, investment accounts, home equity line of credit, cash advance from cc/credit union, etc. If your plan was to use something that wasn't an option then it really wasn't a plan.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2019 13:19:48 GMT -5
I didn't have a "plan", I came home to a well bill.
To be clear, I have the cash to pay for this. My entire point of the thread was to point out that a CC isn't always the greatest emergency fund.
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souldoubt
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Post by souldoubt on Jul 31, 2019 13:25:29 GMT -5
That contradicts what you said in your previous post:
"I was leaving for vacation in 12 hours when this happened on a weekend and had no water and livestock that needed to be taken care of. There really wasn't a lot of time to call around and all the work was done when I was gone."
You were headed out of town and understandably it was probably the last thing you wanted to deal with. If you didn't have the cash for it then asking the vendor up front what form of payment they took could have had you move on to another one.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2019 13:42:42 GMT -5
I'm not sure how that contradicts what I said? There are only three companies in our area that service deep wells, and people at work have confirmed that for sure one of the other two does not take cards, I don't know about the third, but it's a smaller operation yet, so I doubt it. These are the guys that installed my well and the only ones that sell/service the brand of pump so, yeah, they're the ones I call when it breaks. Their business and personal cell phone numbers are on the tank in my basement, and except for the fact that this is costing me an arm and a leg, they're really good about getting out there any time day or night even though they are 50 miles from my house. I don't think they're ripping me off...I don't think anyhow.
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souldoubt
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Post by souldoubt on Jul 31, 2019 13:54:46 GMT -5
You came home to a well bill that you agreed to before you left on vacation or at least laid the groundwork for. You went with a vendor who may have cost more but you knew their work and that they would get it done and I would have done the same. If you were in a situation where you didn't have the cash then you probably would have asked what forms of payment they took and possibly looked at another vendor.
I don't think most people here advocate keeping zero savings and using just a CC for emergencies. Most everything I've come across in the way of articles recommends people have some kind of emergency fund. People like Phil might use an investment account because even if it drops by 50% they can still cover what if expenses.
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justme
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Post by justme on Jul 31, 2019 13:55:53 GMT -5
Well, I had a fleeting hope. There were crazy storms the night the pump went out (all that week actually) and the neighbor said their TV got fried that night. If the well was hit by lightening it would be covered by insurance, but I just talked to the guy and he tore it all apart and said it didn't look like it. He said normally if there's a lightning strike you can't turn the shaft easily and mine was fine. He said he can't say it wasn't lightening, but he can't say definitively it WAS either and if I have the insurance man call him, he'll tell him exactly the same thing. He said I could still try, but he only gives me about a 25% chance of it going through. I don't know how far out your well is or where the power comes from, but wherever that is would probably settle the lightning issue. I believe one time my parents well got hit and they had to redrill because it was a direct hit on the well itself. While there other two times it wasn't direct and traveled through the wires from where it was hit. Similar to how our cable got hit one time and then it fried anything hooked into the cable - including traveling from the cable through the modem and through the ethernet cords to computers. But the lightning strike was like 30 ft from the house itself.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2019 14:01:41 GMT -5
I didn't say most people, but I've heard it more than once, especially when paying down debt that credit cards can be the emergency fund. Or yes, investing, but until you have a big investment account that can be risky.
I could have come home to a 30K bill if they had to redrill. Then even the credit cards wouldn't have helped. So, I guess I can be grateful for that.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2019 14:03:36 GMT -5
Well, I had a fleeting hope. There were crazy storms the night the pump went out (all that week actually) and the neighbor said their TV got fried that night. If the well was hit by lightening it would be covered by insurance, but I just talked to the guy and he tore it all apart and said it didn't look like it. He said normally if there's a lightning strike you can't turn the shaft easily and mine was fine. He said he can't say it wasn't lightening, but he can't say definitively it WAS either and if I have the insurance man call him, he'll tell him exactly the same thing. He said I could still try, but he only gives me about a 25% chance of it going through. I don't know how far out your well is or where the power comes from, but wherever that is would probably settle the lightning issue. I believe one time my parents well got hit and they had to redrill because it was a direct hit on the well itself. While there other two times it wasn't direct and traveled through the wires from where it was hit. Similar to how our cable got hit one time and then it fried anything hooked into the cable - including traveling from the cable through the modem and through the ethernet cords to computers. But the lightning strike was like 30 ft from the house itself. The electric transformer box and the well are only maybe 20 or 30 feet away from one another. There weren't any issues with anything in the house.
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debthaven
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Post by debthaven on Jul 31, 2019 14:15:41 GMT -5
MPL I mentioned this on the WIR savers' thread, but might this be a good time to sell the first van? I know it's not worth much, but you don't need 3 vehicles for 2 drivers. It would be SOMETHING. This may sound insane but personally I think the universe keeps giving us similar problems because it's encouraging us to find another solution.
That could be a new job. Or, it could be moving. Or a refinance (maybe even 10 years would help?)
You have mentioned selling and moving closer to town several times. If DS1 is going to college in a year, do you want to be on the farm with just DS2, who is much younger, who can't help you with the chores, and whose dad can't/won't either? Just thinking out loud. You work so hard, you are so diligent, I am so sorry all this is happening. All the best to you, as always.
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resolution
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Post by resolution on Jul 31, 2019 14:43:49 GMT -5
I didn't have a "plan", I came home to a well bill.
To be clear, I have the cash to pay for this. My entire point of the thread was to point out that a CC isn't always the greatest emergency fund.
I have also heard plenty of people say that a credit card is their emergency fund, and I agree its not a good plan. Besides the contractors that don't take credit cards, there is also the possibility of having the cards cancelled and credit withdrawn if the emergency is due to a job loss or health issue that causes the person to fall behind on payments.
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haapai
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Post by haapai on Jul 31, 2019 16:08:07 GMT -5
I didn't say most people, but I've heard it more than once, especially when paying down debt that credit cards can be the emergency fund. Or yes, investing, but until you have a big investment account that can be risky.
I could have come home to a 30K bill if they had to redrill. Then even the credit cards wouldn't have helped. So, I guess I can be grateful for that.
I was one of those people. I made a conscious decision to pay down my 11.99% credit card debt without any kind of cash savings, not even the $500 mini EF that we hear about so often. I'm still pretty proud of the logic that I employed while coming to that decision.
I was in my early thirties, earning $7.35 an hour and I had about $50 a month in discretionary income and absolutely nothing to protect. I had no children, no pets, no houseplants, no retirement savings, and I was living with a friend who did not ask for rent. Having $500 in cash (which was going to take 10 months to accumulate) wasn't going to save me from many emergencies and charging more than another $2000 was going to tip me into insolvency. In other words, my parents were my backstop and I knew it. I wanted to change that dynamic as fast as possible.
Other relevant factors: The bank service charge for balances under $500 was $2 a month at the time and the charge for a cash advance on the credit card was $2 or $5 or 3% of the total amount borrowed and the interest rate was exactly the same as it was for balances.
I started building an EF the moment that the high interest debt was paid off.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2019 16:23:58 GMT -5
Well, I have a feeling I'm going to deeply regret this, but I filed a claim with insurance.
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geenamercile
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Post by geenamercile on Jul 31, 2019 16:53:10 GMT -5
To answer the orginal question. I have a credit card for emergency. I have a different emergency fund account, but that cane take a day or two to trasfer to the bank account to we spend out of. I get paid once a month so by the end of the month the spend account can be pretty low. For exampe today I have 10 dollars in it, I do get paid tomorrow. For me the emergency credit card is for things like if I am driving home and run over something and blow two tires. I can use the card until I can transfer the money vs waiting for the transfer to go thur to get new tires. I do have Netflix go on it so it stays open.
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geenamercile
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Post by geenamercile on Jul 31, 2019 16:53:29 GMT -5
Good luck with the claim
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Works4me
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Post by Works4me on Jul 31, 2019 19:39:38 GMT -5
MPL - any idea what the average life expectancy for a pump is?
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Works4me
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Post by Works4me on Jul 31, 2019 19:41:12 GMT -5
MPL - any idea what the average life expectancy for a pump is? The fact that your pump went out at the same time neighbor was hit really makes me think it was lightning related.
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CCL
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Post by CCL on Jul 31, 2019 20:23:47 GMT -5
Well, I have a feeling I'm going to deeply regret this, but I filed a claim with insurance. You might as well try. You don't have much to lose and potentially a lot to gain.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 31, 2019 20:50:16 GMT -5
Well, I have a feeling I'm going to deeply regret this, but I filed a claim with insurance. You might as well try. You don't have much to lose and potentially a lot to gain. I'm mostly afraid I'll lose my "no claims" discount and my rates will go way up. I finally found a company that gives me a decent price on homeowners and hasn't been raising it every year.
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