Congrats on the hard work, keep it up. Just one note, if you have any
extra money to put towards these, put it all on the smaller one and
chop that one down before adding to the other. It may be as much
psycological as mathmatical but the one more rapidly shrinking balance
would be a nice confidence boost.

Keep up the good work!

On Wed, 28 Sep 2005 17:28:22 CST, "DravenStone" <chiptricks[at]gmail.comwrote:

- quote -


Great job in attacking your debt!!
Have no additional adivce to add, but wanted to give you a word of
support. I know it's hard and the light at the end of the tunnel may
seem dim at times, but you will get there! When you do get there, it
will feel amazing.

Patrick


======================================= MODERATOR'S COMMENT:
Please trim the post to which you are responding. "Trim" means that except for a few lines to add context, the previous post is deleted.

I am nervous a little bit about these rumors that credit card companies
will be changing the minimium payments due,

In September 2004, federal bank regulators directed credit cards
issuers to make sure that minimum payments on credit cards are large
enough to reduce the cardholder's balance and not just cover finance
charges or fees, this may be between 2 to 5% more on a payment. more
infomation should be coming out soon. I am checking into it now and
will make a post.

I am glad you came back and told us how you are doing with your debt
elimination.

Vincent <A HREF="http://www.debt-elimination-program-reviews.com"> Debt
Elimination Programs Reviewed</A================================================= ===========

having this debt on one cc will pay it off sooner and allow more
flexibility. One thing we did when paying down debt is to remove as
many payments as quickly as possible. consolidating debt and paying it
off was an ongoing process.

DravenStone wrote:
- quote -

Nice job. We are in a similar situation where we are aggressively
paying off debt and are living without a lot of niceties that many
people enjoy these days. As an aside, you can do plenty of free things
for fun. You gotta keep some fun in it to help alleviate the stress of
your sprint toward debt freedom. Try doing a Google search on "free
family outing ideas" or something similar and you'll probably get some
good, new ideas.

Again, great work.

Ryan

In article <1127943884.685123.292860[at]g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com> ,
"DravenStone" <chiptricks[at]gmail.com> wrote:

- quote -

Yes, thanks for posting back. I think there were over 50 follow-ups
to your posting, and we all had a great time discussing your life
and arguing over what you should do.

- quote -

The interest rate for the life of the loan is huge. Despite being
in debt, you have surely been keeping up with bills and paying on
time. You wouldn't get that offer if you were late and trashed
your credit record. That is a benefit of realizing your situation
before it gets out of control--so many people totally trash their
credit record, then they have no options for doing a refi like this.

- quote -

You did the work and made the changes. You deserve to take a bow.
And give your wife some credit, too -- a thing like this can break
up a relationship. It is good that you have a partner in the battle
rather than a battle on two different fronts.

-john-

--
================================================== ====================
John A. Weeks III 952-432-2708 john[at]johnweeks.com
Newave Communications http://www.johnweeks.com
================================================== ====================

"DravenStone" <chiptricks[at]gmail.com> wrote
snip
- quote -

Way to make a dent in your debt and be alert to what is necessary for the
near future! Seems to me this is a huge first step.

Have you thought about that wonderful day three years hence when you'll be
debt free and so have to figure out what to do with your new, additional
monthly "income"?

No rush. Just a little something to maybe help you hang in there.

- quote -

Maybe some time ring the credit card companies and ask them what are the
chances of this.

I suspect if credit card companies started doing something this drastic,
Congress might step in.

Nice update.

Well I presume a lot of you long time partcipants get questions like
the one I asked in this thread (google link:
http://groups.google.com/group/misc....8387e9c5a6f425)

and then never hear from someone again.

I figured you might like to hear how I'm making out a few months down
the road.

I started with roughly 44K in debt that I needed to deal with, a
tremendous sum (and let me say, I appreciate not having had to listen
to all the lectures about how I had gotten there, and instead got some
real good advice on how to move forward).

In summary, I moved nearly all my CC debt onto 2 cards with rates under
4% until paid off (unless I'm late of course!) and have since been
whacking away at the debt.
It's amazing what a difference the interest rate makes. I've paid down
roughly 5K since I've made the changes and not incurred any additional
debt. I admit, I'm still living pretty much paycheck to paycheck, which
is scarry, but I've got as about as secure a job as one can have in
this day and age and we have enough money that we can eat and buy shoes
for our son when he needs them

What I was hoping to accomplish was a realistic way to get completely
out of debt in a few years, and if we continue at this pace, including
moving the money that goes towards car payments today towards the CC
debt once the cars are paid off (about another 18-20 months) it should
be around 3 years until we are completely free. I know it's not as fast
as if we made some more drastic changes in our lifestyle (like living
with out cable/internet and never ever doing anything just for "fun")
but I wanted to be a realist when it came to my plan and thus far I'm
satisfied.

I am nervous a little bit about these rumors that credit card companies
will be changing the minimium payments due, because while I'm paying a
bit more then my min's each month, I certainly couldn't double them
(both mins are around 400 a month, but the upshot is that roughly 350
of that goes to principal!) I've been paying 400 or 450 on each
depending on how much I have available the last few months, but if they
both doubled, I would be in trouble...

Well anyway, just wanted to say thanks and give you guys that helped me
out an update and say it's working... slowly, but working...

thanks.