Women in Red Racers - Northeast Region

[kristin11]

So I had said at the end of the month that I had applied for a credit card with 0% on balance transfers for 15 months in hopes of transfering my Target card onto it. I received an email over the weekend that I was approved for the card and I would receive everything in the mail in the next 7 to 14 days. I am confused though because it didnt mention anything of the balance transfer and my Target card is still carrying the full balance so it doesnt look like anything was transfered. Does anyone know how things like this work? Was I approved for the card but denied the balance transfer?

[thriftymom]

Another update with a combined total of $900 in payments. I paid the minimum on the larger amount since the 1.99% is good till 2012, and the intro rate on the smaller amount runs out in June. My goal is actually to pay down the smaller amount as much as possible before we use it a month or two from now to buy more building supplies. Once those are all purchased, I'll be transferring that balance to the empty CapOne card to get a better interest rate. I hate the revolving wheel of three CCs and BTs, but in the end it'll save us scads of interest.

Our tax refund this year will be around $6500, and I'm still not decided on what to put where. I will use around $1500 right away for township and county taxes, and the rest of the $5000 DH and I still have to determine the future of. We'll owe roughly $4000 in real-estate taxes come November, so we could put that whole amount away, or we could use more of it now to pay down the CC debt and then as November approaches cut back a bit on the snowball to accrue the rest of our payment amount. The latter is what we did last year, and it worked out fine.

It is a bit exciting that I'm only about $876 from getting back to the starting balance. Unfortunately, that'll be short lived once we need to buy more building materials, but we'll just keep on paying down as much as possible each month. DH has just a couple truck payments left, and then he'll have extra cash to put toward the remodel, too. And I must say it was a very nice feeling to tell the tax preparer that, no, we didn't have any SL interest to claim because they'd been paid off!

DEBT	START	March 7, 2011
SL	755.58	0
CC1 (BOA)	7869.49	3117.19
CC2 (Citi)	9877.05	16261.67
CC3 (Cap 1)	0.00	0
TOTAL	$18502.12	19378.86

thriftymom[2] 3/07/2011 $19378.86 (3/25/10, $18502.12 NEU 160)

[chiver78]

Mar 7, 2011 16:11:51 GMT -5 kristin11 said:

So I had said at the end of the month that I had applied for a credit card with 0% on balance transfers for 15 months in hopes of transfering my Target card onto it. I received an email over the weekend that I was approved for the card and I would receive everything in the mail in the next 7 to 14 days. I am confused though because it didnt mention anything of the balance transfer and my Target card is still carrying the full balance so it doesnt look like anything was transfered. Does anyone know how things like this work? Was I approved for the card but denied the balance transfer?

did you apply with the information for the BT? BTs take a few business days to post to the accounts, but you may want to call the customer service line to double check that the Ts and Cs are what you had agreed to when you applied.

[freemen10]

Bills	Original	Jan 2011	Feb 2011	Mar 2011
CC1	$1,435.07	$1,294.54	$1242.54	$408.51
CC2	$4,730.84	$3,962.26	$4724.21	$4980.53
LOC	$962.70	$2,433.10	$2215.12	$2354.86

[/tr][tr][td]
CL#1[/td][tr][td] $10,685.96[/td][tr][td]$9,478.24[/td][tr][td] $9171.01[/td][tr][td]$9062.80[/td][/tr][tr][td]Change: -546.18 [/td][/tr][/table]


Not as much progress as I had expected, but it's going in the right direction. Hopefully CC1 will be gone by the beginning of April so I can roll into CC2.

[kristin11]

Chiver - I did include the credit card on the application with the amount in full for a balance transfer. I have never done one of them so I didnt know what I should expect to see if I did get it. I probably should be receiving the paperwork either this week or next so I guess I can just wait until then to find out but I just wanted to know if anyone that had done one would have some incite. My payment on the Target card is due on the 14th and I was not totally sure what I should be doing. Do you think I can call them and talk to them without an account number which I havent received yet or should I just calm down a minute and see what happens when the paperwork comes?

[lark1964]

Mar 8, 2011 9:56:18 GMT -5 kristin11 said:

Chiver - I did include the credit card on the application with the amount in full for a balance transfer. I have never done one of them so I didnt know what I should expect to see if I did get it. I probably should be receiving the paperwork either this week or next so I guess I can just wait until then to find out but I just wanted to know if anyone that had done one would have some incite. My payment on the Target card is due on the 14th and I was not totally sure what I should be doing. Do you think I can call them and talk to them without an account number which I havent received yet or should I just calm down a minute and see what happens when the paperwork comes?

Kristin, they never guarantee the transfer will occur before your next payment is due (buried in the fine print), you have to either pick up the transfer right after you've just made a payment, so the transfer happens over time and you don't have a problem or you have to figure you're just going to need to make a minimum payment to Target this month, and then the balance will go away.

Target will credit you back, btw, they're good about that, I always pay for whatever I buy there as soon as I get home, I just go straight online. Then one billing cycle I made the payment, but then my daughter returned something the next month, they sent me a check immediately! So if you can get away with... what do you owe, about $1000, right? If you can make a minimum payment of $15, just do it, and they'll refund it.

[kristin11]

Lark - I am not sure if the transfer even is going to go through because I have had no indication that it did or it didnt so I was still planning on making my regular payment. If I put the transfer in for the current account balance and then I make a payment because it comes through what happens then? Is the full amount of the card taken for the transfer or is it what I requested which would leave me with a credit on the Target card?

[chiver78]

Kristin, if Target will cut a check for a negative balance, just make the transfer for your last statement balance and continue to make payments until you know the BT has gone through. All cards will tell you do to that with a BT, because they don't guarantee their payment timing. Lark's dead-on with that.

as far as whether the BT was initiated, you should call the customer service for the new card. you can explain that you don't have your card yet, and they can look you up by SSN. make sure you have your Target account info handy, in case you need to re-initiate the BT. the last CC I opened for a BT didn't include the BT details in the first info packet I received. I ended up having to call to make sure it went through. it had, and the detail came a few days later.

the big thing is continuing to make your payments to Target as though nothing has changed.

[IrishMaude]

Morning all!

I have a quick question. Our mortgage broker gave us a VERY high estimate (IMO) on closing costs that DO NOT include the down payment. The estimate he gave us was $15,225 closing cost + our down payment. (This is also NOT including inspection, attoreny fees, binder, NYS bull sh*t insurance, etc). DH and I and our real estate agent think that is WAY high on a $155k mortgage. We were expecting around $10-$11k including down payment. The mortgage amount isn't a large amount to warrant such high closing costs...

Do this seem high to anyone else or is it on par? The home is a forclosure owned by Fannie Mae. Thanks for any insights...

[poohbiscit1]

Irish - That seems extremely high to me. I purchased by house 5 years ago and I think my closings costs were around 3-5K. and that included everything including prepayment for our house insurance for the year.

[rpprt]

Irish- That seems high to me, too. Check over the estimate. Lots of things go into it. I know PA has a transfer fee -- 1% -- I think. Does NY? Also, in PA some taxes are paid in advance, can't remember which, maybe school taxes. A lot of stuff goes into the closing amount -- taxes, escrow, insurance, points, appraisal, inspection, plus it seems every gov't agency has their hands in there for some $. Also, the lender probably has several places in there where they're "giving" themselves money. (credit report fee, application fee, notary fee, loan doc fee, etc.) All that being said, I think our original loan closing was around $5K, and our refinance was about $6-$7K. Check the estimate & let us know how you make out.

[mourningcloak]

So this is my first attempt at a table so we will see how it goes.

Account	Start (1/10/11)	Last (2/10/11)	Current (3/10/11)	Change this month
PenFed Visa Gold	$5,824	$4,036	$4,752	$716
PenFed Promise	$461	$446	$434	($12)
SunTrust Auto Loan	$16,078	$15,873	$15,353	($520)
Mortgage	$143,050	$142,847	$142,642	($205)
Total	$165,413	$163,202	$163,181	($21)

mourningcloak: 3/10/11 $163,181 (1/10/11 $165,413 NPT5)

It's been an interesting month. I'm actually surprised to see I still made positive movement. My credit card has been used for a mix of things lately as I try to conserve cash until Congress passes a budget and while waiting for my tax return. I usually file in January so expected to have my return last month but with the tax changes forcing me to wait until mid-February I didn't file until the end of February which forced me to charge things like my semi-annual insurance payment. I'm looking forward to my tax return so that I can pay off everything I charged this month and then some as well as build my EF. My EF would cover my mortgage payment and that's all so to feel comfortable I am going to have to build it to larger that Dave Ramsey says to. All this shutdown threats has made me realize that I need to worry about my finances first because Congress doesn't care if they put me without work or not. On top of all the financial stresses my boyfriend and I got engaged so now we need to start thinking more seriously about wedding plans and what we are and aren't willing to budget, pay cash, or borrow for. I've been buckling down to the point my fiancee complains that I need to go out and buy some new things, but I hate the idea of making my savings smaller when I know my tax return is now days away. Just trying to stay as financially safe and sound as I can in these crazy times!

[rpprt]

mourningcloak - Congrats on the engagement! Hang in there - your refund should be coming soon, especially if you signed up for direct deposit. (I think they estimate 10-14 days.)

[IrishMaude]

mourningcloak: Congrats!! ;D That's very exciting news!! We had a (stressful at times) blast planning our wedding last October.

The lender sent over an itemized closing cost estimate and the attorney fee is included, but it's only $850. While I went over the estimate and the math adds up, I can't help but think we're still getting hosed. The closing costs say: $73xx and the reserve prepaid costs say: $79xx. I think I want to cry. I don't know what to do. The loan is a Renovation FHA loan - should we "shop" around? Can we shop around? These inflated costs are almost deal breaking and I REALLY don't want to loose this house.

Thanks again for all the insight.

[momofg]

Hi, here is this months update

Cards	06/04/2008	2/10/2010	03/10/2011
Citi	4145.23	6094.37	6149.59
Optima	14941.3	14547.11	14900.07
HELOC	34020.27	29249.54	29080.70
Totals	53106.80	50191.02	50130.36

Momofg 03/10/11 $50,130.36(6/4/08 $53,106.80 NE207)

Although the cc's went up a little the total went down again. I got my tax refund and I should be able to put some to the cc's as soon as I figure out where it all needs to go.

[constanz22]

Mar 10, 2011 15:25:23 GMT -5 IrishMaude said:

mourningcloak: Congrats!! ;D That's very exciting news!! We had a (stressful at times) blast planning our wedding last October.

The lender sent over an itemized closing cost estimate and the attorney fee is included, but it's only $850. While I went over the estimate and the math adds up, I can't help but think we're still getting hosed. The closing costs say: $73xx and the reserve prepaid costs say: $79xx. I think I want to cry. I don't know what to do. The loan is a Renovation FHA loan - should we "shop" around? Can we shop around? These inflated costs are almost deal breaking and I REALLY don't want to loose this house.

Thanks again for all the insight.

Are you paying any "points" on your mortgage? That could really increase your closing costs. 1 point would be $1500. Your prepaids are the property taxes, school taxes and homeowners insurance. You generally have to prepay an entire year, so, if you live in an area with high taxes, this could also be a substantial amount. I'm not sure how it works with a foreclosure, if any taxes paid have to be paid back to the bank as they do to the seller in a regular sale.
Having said all that, yes, the amount seems really high. Who is your lender? Wells Fargo tends to be really high, but, even they tend to run 8-9K for your mortgage amount.

[Maryland Monroe]

I have another ZERO!!!!

Update	02/24/08	03/11/11	Paid	% Paid
Card A	$9,746.38	$4,869.27	-$4,877.11	-50.04%
Card B	$1,218.41	$0.00	-$1,218.41	-100.00%
Card C	$5,656.86	$2,939.14	-$2,717.72	-48.04%
Card D	$1,813.97	$0.00	-$1,813.97	-100.00%
Total	$18,435.62	$7,808.41	-$10,627.21

[/color] [/td] [td] -57.64% [/td] [/tr]
[/table]

Maryland Monroe 3/11/11 $7808.41 (2/24/08 $18,435.62 NE 108)

[kristin11]

Hi everyone! I have a another small dilema that I wanted some advice on. I got a tax return of $150 from Federal that I had wanted to use to pay the State (I owe $95) and to buy a bridal shower gift for a friend of mine whose shower is coming up the first weekend in April. Of course Murphy had another idea and they money had to go to a heating problem we were having at my apartment. I had budgeted in $150 in case I had to pay taxes so I do have the money to pay off the state, the issue is what to do about the bridal shower now. The money isn't in my budget until the weekend before the shower and upon checking the registry today a lot of items have already been bought. Since I dont want to be left with no gift I want to get to the store and buy something as soon as possible. I do have a 20% off coupon for the store so that will help a lot. My question is: is it a bad idea to put it on a credit card and then just either pay it off when I have the money in my budget or continue to pay it off as I normally do and just take the slight increase for the month? Any advice would help!

[raven64]

Irishmaude - $15,225 is WAY high for sure. When DH and I bought our house we paid $3,000-$4000 and that included everything. Did they give you a breakdown on how they arrived at that total?

Oops, should of read a bit farther. I am wondering if it had to do with rhe foreclosure as well. Are they making you pay back taxes or interest maybe?

[raven64]

Today I have good news and bad news. The good news in I received my IRS refund and paid of my car!! It was non-racing debt but it now frees up $325 a month to help ease the budget and put toward debt. The rest of the refund is going in the bank to pay my car insurance in full sometime in June rahter than making payments every 3 months that mess up my budget.

The bad news is I had to put my dog to sleep this week. The cancer became too painful and he was suffering terribly. I really miss him bad. My other dog is so sad, too, but fortunately I've been able to bring him to work with me for a few days so he doesn't feel abandoned.

[rpprt]

Raven - So sorry to hear about your dog. Our dog is going thru the same thing, it just breaks your heart.
I couldn't find a broken heart, but you know we are all thinking of you.
Congrat's on owning your car! $325/months is a nice boost!

[mom2-4monkeys]

Irish echoing everyone else that is really high. go through each of the "charges" on the break down and question each one. Along with the group my closing (with down payment) was 6-7k.

Raven
Sooo Sorry to hear about your Pup.. it must be difficult, but know that he is not suffering anymore. My thoughts are with you.

[constanz22]

Mar 11, 2011 9:35:41 GMT -5 kristin11 said:

Hi everyone! I have a another small dilema that I wanted some advice on. I got a tax return of $150 from Federal that I had wanted to use to pay the State (I owe $95) and to buy a bridal shower gift for a friend of mine whose shower is coming up the first weekend in April. Of course Murphy had another idea and they money had to go to a heating problem we were having at my apartment. I had budgeted in $150 in case I had to pay taxes so I do have the money to pay off the state, the issue is what to do about the bridal shower now. The money isn't in my budget until the weekend before the shower and upon checking the registry today a lot of items have already been bought. Since I dont want to be left with no gift I want to get to the store and buy something as soon as possible. I do have a 20% off coupon for the store so that will help a lot. My question is: is it a bad idea to put it on a credit card and then just either pay it off when I have the money in my budget or continue to pay it off as I normally do and just take the slight increase for the month? Any advice would help!

No, No, No...you should NOT put the shower gift on a credit card! You do not have to buy something from the registry. Go to Target, buy a $10 package of diapers, a $2 tub of wipes and a $5 toy or onesie and you have a perfectly acceptable gift for under $20.

[wantanewjob]

UPDATE WANTANEWJOB

3/12/11 $9,793.46 (1/19/10 $19,492.75 NEU60/198)
Difference: -$9,699.29
Percentage pay off: 50.24%

Debt	Current 3/12/2011	Last 2/8//2011	First 01/19/2010
Citibank	$9,715.70	$10,215.20	$3,613.24
Chase	$0.00	$0.00	$15,214.53
Chase Dentist	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Banana Republic	$77.76	$0.00	$464.00
J. Crew	$0.00	$0.00	$119.24
Macys	$0.00	$0.00	$81.74
Total	$9,793.46	$10,215.20	$19,492.75

[/b]
[/table]
Progress

Difference	From Last Update	From First Post
Citibank	-$499.50	$6,102.46
Chase	$0.00	-$15,214.53
Chase Dentist	$0.00	$0.00
Banana Republic	$77.76	-$386.24
J. Crew	$0.00	-$119.24
Macys	$0.00	-$81.74
Total	-$421.74	-$9,699.29

[/b][/table]

Savings

Savings	$6,437.35
Emergency	$181.06
Insurance	$105.00

Still making progress and I'm happy to see that I've paid off over 50% of my debt in just over a year. I'm also now reporting our savings. The savings category is just that, and isn't earmarked for anything (hopefully). Emergency fund is for unforeseen events (home repairs, etc.) and insurance is to cover our twice yearly insurance payment. We seem to be on the right track.

Now the bad news. We budgeted for my dog's annual vet appt this month and the bill came in about $25 under budget which was great. Then we got home from the vet and my poor pup had an allergic reaction to one of the vaccinations. Her face was blown up about twice its size. I called our vet immediately and in the 20 minutes it took me to get home, all of the doctors had left for the day. So I had to take her up to an emergency clinic. Thankfully she was fine (just exhausted ... and mad at me for putting me through all this) but the bill was $180 which we hadn't planned for. We did have some extra cash in the budget this month so it didn't put us into further debt but that was cash that could have been used for other things. I swear it's impossible to get ahead!

In more important bad news, my company announced this week that they are dissolving. It's a huge, multinational company and many, many people are now out of work as a result ... including me. I guess I should be glad I didn't change my handle from wantanewjob after I signed up for the boards! I am back in the job market only a year after starting at my current position and only 2 years after being laid off from a prior job. I have been looking aggressively for the past two months and, though I have a few interviews lined up, I won't feel secure until I have a job offer in hand. I am hoping that it will all work out before my last paycheck from my current job is deposited and for now we are going on that assumption. If it doesn't, then we are going to have to revamp our budget and my numbers will most likely freeze (or go up ... ugh).

I'm going to be putting a little bit of money on either my Macy's or Banana Republic cards this weekend to take advantage of coupon savings to buy myself a new interview suit. It won't be a problem to pay that off with my next paycheck. The only problem will be if there is no paycheck! It really is time for a new suit though so I'm just going to have to suck it up either way.

Sigh.

[mm4nodebt]

Debt	Amount 2/23/09	1/8/2011	Current 2/25
MBVT CC	$3,450.00	$-	$1,480.00
Mom 0%	$-	$4,680.00	$4,680.00
Ford 6.5%	$5,930.00	$4,717.00	$2,265.78
Chevy 6.5%	$8,646.00	$4,289.31	$-
Harley 5%	$15,807.00	$11,098.15	$-
Tractor 5%	$-	$-	$19,610.00
Totals	$33,833.00	$24,784.46	$28,035.78

mm4nodebt 03/12/11 $28,035.78 (2/23/09 $33,833 NE496)

Ok, some explaining to do on the increase. We sold the motorcycle, but replaced it with a tractor which increased the debt load. However with some good news, we paid off the truck. Now with that payment snowballed I will be paying off the SUV faster, hope to have it paid in full by mid-June. Then mom and working to pay off the new/used tractor. I feel really good about the progress of the loan being paid off and the others getting knocked down too. I've changed my federal withholdings which will free up $70 a month, that will go directly as an extra payment to the mortgage. This will save over $23,000 on the mortgage!! As things get paid off, I will increase the extra mortgage payment to be even more. Looking forward to the day that I can put more into the Emergency Fund, regular savings, etc. Downward from here!!

[justpayit]

Update:
justpayit: 3/12/2011 $21,250 (11/22/2007 $91585 N791,NE329)

Spring is coming!

[lark1964]

It's that time...

	1/6/2009	1/1/2010	1/3/2011	3/1/2011
Car	5,027.43	0.00	0.00	0.00
Disney	11,667.01	10,062.75	8,458.55	8,242.32
Chase	5,695.13	5,120.95	4,287.72	4,173.47
Discover	5,699.99	6,023.48	7,398.71	7,312.72
Sears	585.00	564.81	0.00	0.00
Goodyear	1,332.69	2,228.71	1,499.91	1,434.55
Prepgate	40,716.67	40,380.98	39,971.01	39,932.44
CFS	7,079.39	6,691.91	6,252.99	6,170.95
Taxman			0.00	0.00
Mortgage	153,320.00	154,859.03	152,285.75	151,818.60
BA Visa	29,056.39	29,056.39	29,056.39	29,056.39
AmExBlu	32,489.18	32,489.18	6,122.01	5,247.47
Total	292,668.88	287,478.19	255,333.04	253,388.91

*sigh*

lark_1964 3/1/2011 253,388.91 (1/6/09 $270674.42 NE417)

$979.35 difference. From $12,000 goal, that puts me about 16% to goal. I don't even want to discuss how unhappy I am right now, maybe next posting...

[bankergurl]

$100K + Club
Updated as of 3/13/11! $3,239.34 paid off this week!
- New Member, mawmawandlovingit from the South!


notmsnmoney.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=wir&thread=2929&page=1

[raven64]

rpprt and mom2-4monkeys - Thanks you so much for your kinds words about my dog. I really appreciate it.

[raven64]

wantanewjob - paying off 50% of your debt in a little over a year is incredible! Way to go!

Sorry about your job. I hope you find a new one soon.