Need ideas for eliminating credit cards

[rik8144]

Okay, so i have had the same CC for 9 years and they have been the best people to me.....never raised rates, lowered rates when I called and asked, etc. Anyway, they recently went through and raised rates on thousands of cards for no apparent reason and I was one of them! My rate went up 8 points!!!:They said I could request they look at my individual credit situation and base a new APR off of that.

My other card did the same thing right before that.....this one went up 7 points for again no apparent reason. (this was according to the customer service woman I called from both cards)

So, I have decided that they are not getting my business anymore. I want to pay off both cards and get rid of them for good!

DH is going to give me all the money he can every month (we have individual accounts and we like it that way!) and I am going to put in as much as I can after I go back to work from maternity leave. We are also going to send all income tax return to them.

I am sooooo ashamed to admit that I owe $11,000 in CC debt. I seriously didn't realize that until this happened. I haven't used either card for months. So, should I pay them down to a smaller amount and combine them onto one card (that I would have to apply for) with the 0% for 12 months and pay that off? Just keep paying them until they are paid off? Get the new card now and put as much as I can on that one so I can save myself the interest? Do I cancel them afterward? My SIL said it looks bad on your credit to cancel the cards but I don't want to have them anymore.

FYI - the interest rates on them are below 18% but it ticks me off that they raised them for no reason and I wanted to get out of them anyway.....this just pushed me over the edge!

I am just angry, upset and stressed about this and it is time for it to end!!

[ItyBty]

The way I figure it, it doesn't cost me anything to just not use my cards, but I keep them to have them because it looks good on your credit report, and I prefer to put online purchases or car rentals (which is very rare, but does happen) on a credit card. So they do come in handy once in a while. What I did to get rid of my balance was to transfer as much as I could from 1 card with an obscene interest rate, to another card I already had at a 1.99% balance transfer special rate, pay that off and a few months later when they did the special balance transfer rate again, I transfered the remainder again and paid that off at 1.99% instead of the outrageous rates that I had on the original card. If you have decent credit though, I would apply for a card with a very low introductory interest rate, and transfer the balance to that new card and just keep the old one Unless there is a yearly fee or something, it doesnt cost you anything to keep an account open you don't use, unless you are one of those people that can't not use a credit card, or if you have too many accounts open at once, which I think also hurts your credit score.

[LilMama23]

I would apply for a new card with 0% for 12 months or something and transfer everything onto that only if you feel that you can pay them off within 12 months. We are also in the process of working on our credit card debt and we are working slowly and using the snowball method. Good for you for starting the process!

[rik8144]

I think we could pay it off quickly. Just to give you an idea, I was able to save up $8000 in less than a year for my maternity leave......and that was just me saving up the money. So, I think with DHs help we can do this in less than a year.