need some motivation to pay off moderate-sized credit card debt today!

[emaye_to_2]

Hi Ladies,

We received our tax refund on Tuesday. It was a nice sum of about $6.7K. But we have very little in the bank now ($1K total). Besides our mortgage payment we have two credit cards. I paid one off but the other one has a high balance of $3.4 K and a high interest rate at 15%. I know I should pay off the credit card completely now while I have the money to do so. I just need a little pep talk LOL!

Give thanks for any words of advice or encouragement.

[laohaire]

How about this?

OPTION A: You keep the cash, spend it on whatever, maybe have a nice vacation. You pay $100 a month on the credit card. Assuming you don't add to it, you'll take 45 months (3 years 9 months) to pay it off. And pay an extra $1,054.85 for the privilege.

OPTION B: You pay off the cc, cut it up, and put that $100 a month you would have paid to the cc, to other debt (or even savings if you want), and find yourself at least $1,054.85 better off.

I gotta say, I would definitely not want to pay a thousand bucks for the privilege of keeping my cc account open.

So, does that help?

[eirual]

DO IT!!!

You would still have $3,300 to play with (and by play with maybe that means banking $2,800 for an emergency fund, and planning thoughtfully how to best use the other $500 you'll have left over).

Those are GREAT sums to be able to play with!! Put them to use and RUN to FREEDOM!!!

[MariaMadly]

If you put it in the bank, would you get 15%?  Another vote for paying it off!

[Narawen]

Pay it off, use $360 for fun, and drop the rest in the bank. 

[emaye_to_2]

Big thanks everyone!!! I paid off my entire balance, just now! I like the idea of using $400 or so of the return as we please. The rest is going into savings. It feels good to have no debt (besides mortgage). You all really helped me to execute it.

[iowaorganic]

Good Job!  We went through the same thing when we paid off our vehicles.  It was hard to make a big payment to get it over with- but boy does it feel good not having it loom over us!  

[JudiAU]

If you want to keep the line of credit open, with occasional purchases but no tempation. Write down the card number and then cut it up. If you really need to use it for random stuff you'll have to replace it.