The Credit Card Offer

Written by David Berky


One day I got a call from my credit card company asking me if I would like to increase my credit limit by borrowing up to $9000 at their special rate of 15.9%.

The operator stated, "Your credit card rate will then be a low 15.9%. How much would you like to transfer today to take advantage of this offer? Do you have any high interest loans you would like to pay off and reduce your payments?"

The previous day I had called them to get two bogus late payment charges taken off my statement. I also had to get my interest rate lowered back to my usual rate rather thanrepparttar "penalty rate" (22.9%) they charge to anyone who is late, misses a payment or goes over their credit limit.

Wondering if my rate got changed back to my usual rate, I askedrepparttar 112686 operator what my current rate was. She said that it was at 12.9%, which was my usual rate for this card.

I do carry some debt on other cards (it helps with my credit rating to be making regular payments) but allrepparttar 112687 other debt I have is at lower rates than this card. I mentioned that I had no other debt that was at a higher rate than what she was offering.

She then replied that I could just takerepparttar 112688 money as a cash advance and do whatever I wanted with it.

So I asked her if I understood correctly what she was offering. "So you are offering to raise my interest rate if I get further into debt by getting a cash advance?"

"Yes, you can have up to $9000 and do whatever you like withrepparttar 112689 extra cash," she replied. I was amused that she said that I could "have" not "borrow"repparttar 112690 money and it would be "extra cash" rather than "additional debt". But after all, she is in sales andrepparttar 112691 words "have" and "extra cash" are much more enticing thanrepparttar 112692 more realistic alternatives - "borrow" and "additional debt".

How To Save Thousands On A Mortgage Or Any Other Loan

Written by David Berky


Interest onrepparttar average home mortgage will costrepparttar 112685 homeowner nearly TWO TIMESrepparttar 112686 cost ofrepparttar 112687 home.

If you were to purchase a $150,000 home with a $120,000 mortgage (80%), and you paid an interest rate of 9% for 30 years, you will have paid over $227,500 just in interest (in addition torepparttar 112688 original $120,000). That's nearly two timesrepparttar 112689 cost ofrepparttar 112690 home!

A credit card debt of $7000 (nowrepparttar 112691 average) at 18% being paid atrepparttar 112692 rate of $20 principal plus interest each month will take over 29 YEARS to pay off, almost as long as a home mortgage. Interest charged on this credit card debt will top $18,400, more than 2.6 TIMESrepparttar 112693 original debt!

If you work for a living, you know that when you are not working, you are not getting paid. But interest never gets sick, never takes a vacation and never sleeps. It is working against you 24 hours a day, seven days a week, each and every day ofrepparttar 112694 year.

So what can you do?

You may not be able to pay off your debts or mortgage now. You may not have enough equity in your home for a loan. You may not be able to affordrepparttar 112695 refinancing costs or home equity loan costs. You may not be able to lower your credit card interest rates.

But you can make additional or extra payments.

So how does making an extra payment help lower your interest charges? Is it going to make next month's bill smaller? You can't scrape together too much for an extra payment so how is just $10 going to help when you owe tens of thousands?

The secret is in making early and consistent extra payments. For example, onrepparttar 112696 home mortgage shown above, if you pay an additional $100 each month you will save over $82,000 in interest payments. Not only that, but you will also have your home paid off nine years and two months earlier. You knock nearly 10 years off your mortgage just by paying an extra $100 a month.

How does that work?

Well, that $100 extra you payrepparttar 112697 first month would have cost you about $270 in interest to borrow for 30 years. Since you have paid it already, you can reduce your last mortgage payment by $270. The next month's extra payment will reduce your last mortgage payment by $268. Each month as you pay that extra $100, your final mortgage payment will be reduced until you won't need to make a final payment, thenrepparttar 112698 second to last payment, then third to last and so forth. Soon you will have shaved years and thousands of dollars in interest charges off your mortgage.

That's great, but maybe you can't spare $100 each month. How about $50, $25, or even $10? An additional payment of $50 each month will save you five years and seven months and about $52,000 dollars. $25 each month will cut your time by three years and three months saving you about $30,000. Just $10 a month will reduce your time by one year and three months and save you over $13,500.

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