Since Yesenia and I both decided to go back to school at the same time, our credit cards have taken a hit - add to that the last-minute trip to Puerto Rico that Yesenia took last week (sick Grandfather), and it was time to figure out what to do about it. Thankfully, a few years back, we opened a line of credit with Washington Mutual, which we'd recently paid off.
To celebrate this momentous occasion, we took out another chunk, to be payable in fractional chunklets over the next couple of years. That money will all go towards eliminating our credit card debt - what our financial advisor calls 'bad debt' - and then we can pay WaMu instead. That would be the 'good debt.' It makes sense, certainly, when you realize that the credit card interest is what they call usurious - what is it, 372.8%, compounded hourly? - and the WaMu interest is civilized, in the mid-single digits.
I probably would have thought of this earlier, but since WaMu, you know, fucking collapsed a couple of months ago, it hadn't even crossed my mind that we could get anything from them. Anyway, I'm happy and relieved (in the global sense) that they're still functioning. Sure, the American economic train, she ain't what she used to be - but the wheels are still somewhat greased.
D.
2 comments:
I did the same thing a few years ago... I took out a loan with our credit union for 15000 which paid off all my debts (horrible interest rates on old credit cards)... I've paid back 14000 of it and will be paid off copletely sometime next year...
Thankfully, we're not that deep in it - but this is still a lousy time to be in debt.
D.
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