February Credit Card Update

CREDIT CARD	BALANCE		%	Paid down
	01/01/08	02/01/08	RATE
WaMu	$0.00	$0.00	27.74%	0
Well’s Fargo	$0.00	$0.00	23.50%	0
Express Store Card	$0.00	$0.00	22.80%	0
Lowe’s	$0.00	$0.00	21.99%	0
Home Depot	$602.52	$498.00	16.24%	$104.52
Orchard Bank	$72.96	$5.00	15.90%	$67.96
Capital One	$2917.10	$989.95	14.90%	$1927.15
Hanson’s Windows	$2476.34	$2,359.47	14.49%	$116.87
Bank of America	$2881.58	$4333.98	13.99%	-$1452.40
First Consumer’s	$5283.21	$0	13.95%	$5283.21
Bank of America 2	$0.00	$3601.68	13.45%	-$3601.68
	Total	Total		PAID DOWN
	$14,333.71	$11,788.08		$2545.63

We had some good results in debt reduction this month. We opened up a Bank of America line of credit. Maybe not so good for the credit report, but in time it will pay off. We payed off the First Consumer’s loan that we had for the windows installed in 2006. By utilizing the line of credit we accomplished two major things; saving over $1600 on the loan amount and removing the lien on our house.

In the upcoming months we can look at refinancing or mortgage. With the property values being sacked like Tom Brady in the Super Bowl, it was unfeasible to look at a refinance. The lien surely did NOT help. Now that it is eliminated, time to beat that ARM. Bad, bad ARM. I generally like most body parts, but this is one that must be severed.

We also moved some of the Capital One debt at 14.90 % to Bank of America at 13.99% Not a percentage savings, but every little bit helps.

We also started automatically sending an extra $20 – $30 weekly to Capital One. If you have some extra funds, send it to the credit cards. Pay down that debt! The daily balance will drop – that helps with the finance charge, and you probably will not even notice it missing from your account. But you will see it on your credit card statement. What a smile it brings to our faces.

I was able to contribute 5% this month to our IRA, and 3% to the emergency funds. Small numbers, but those too will grow as debt decreases.