Using credit to get out of credit card debt

Posted by a conscious life on July 31st, 2008 filed in Money

I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true. Those 0% APR on Balance Transfer offers that you get in the mail can help you get out of credit card debt BUT you have to be diligent about payments, pay more than you would normally pay per month, and NEVER pay late (even a day late will cause you to lose your 0% APR).

Check out #4 in this article on getting out of credit card debt:

Got Credit Card Debt? Ten Tactics to Use Right Now to Get It Under Control

I have done this a few times. The first time I transfered almost $4,000 from a few cards onto one card, and when that 0% APR time ran out, I moved that balance to another card. Today, I did it again, I’m determined to be out of credit card debt by the end of this 0% APR period. I started this quest to pay off our credit about a year and a half ago and we’re down to almost $1,000 now. As we get my DH’s student loan debt down to a transferable amount, we may transfer his balance to a 0% APR credit card, too. The extra time that the 0% APR period gives is such an advantage to getting the card paid off, without all of those extra fees tacked on to the balance.


One Response to “Using credit to get out of credit card debt”

  1. Don from Springfield Says:
    August 1st, 2008 at 7:28 am

    Interesting. Good luck with that!! For us, getting out of debt was, like, one of the first baby steps toward freedom. (That and not watching TV any more.) I certainly have no qualms about using the predatory usurers’ pseudo-generous offers against them!

    Years ago we signed up with Consumer Credit Counseling (they have a different name now). We weren’t in trouble, we weren’t on the verge of bankruptcy, we just saw that the way things were going we wouldn’t really ever be reducing our debt much. We cut up our cards and never looked back.

    The only trouble was getting a home loan! Every institution treated us like we were bankrupt, even though we were just trying to be fiscally responsible! It was supremely frustrating. But it’s water under the bridge now. Or dollars into the funnel. And the dollar’s value has decreased about 40% in that time, if I understand correctly.