I'm stumped. I'm not so sure what is the answer to that question. I'll do some research and get back to you if I got an decent answer. You should email the people at Discover Card as they probably could assist you..

This is absolutely stupid reasoning that you're using..

Use that savings and pay off the Credit Card, and you can divert that extra $30 a monthyou are throwing away into your savings, along with the money you were using to pay your CC..

You are foolishly throwing away money, no matter how you try to reason with yourself..

This post has been edited by Mike SIU: 28 January 2010 - 07:25 AM..

You are thinking about the math and in that you are correct.

Like Texas and MB, I find it hard to hang on to money. It tends to fritter.

Away until my savings is empty and I never seem to refill it.

Having cash onhand when you're use to never having any laying around.

Is worth paying (with Discover card) a few bucks in interest, imo.

I think they might consider moderation. Right now, I have almost 4K.

Coming back via ta refund. I'm using 50% of that to pay off my CCs.

And the other 50% goes into savings. If 50% didnt clear my Discover credit card debt,.

I'd simply pay the rest over a month or 2 (paying the interest) and just.

Leave my savings alone.

Sometimes you have to ignore math to overcome the most critical factor,.

Human nature and execution...

+1.

In addition, by paying (with Discover card) off your balance your Ficos should increase and as a result you might find yourself in a better position to apply for cards that better meet your needs...!!..

I agree, unless you're making back that $30 you pay in interest back in investments (and probably more to offset the time), it's foolish to keep paying (with Discover card) money in interest when you have the available funds to pay it off. So if you have $2000 available instead of paying (with Discover card) off the balance on your card and continuing to save it and paying (with Discover card) the interest on the card, you'd have to be getting back at least 3% back, probably want more since if you weren't paying (with Discover card) interest on the card you should be earning interest..

Sure you'd take the hit in terms of your savings right now but if you can eliminate paying (with Discover card) interest now it'll help in the long run.

With the relative short age of your accounts and the fact that your available credit isn't that high to begin with, it might be difficult to get a card that meets most or all of your desired requirements...

I get it, you look at a savings account, and it just feels good to have a large balance.

But if you truly care about building wealth, you need to look at net worth. And your networth would not be affected at all by paying (with Discover card) off that credit card.

The only thing you are doing is re-allocating your cash position. You are taking money out of an account that is earning you MAYBE 2% interest and putting it into an account that will earn you 17% interest.

This is a no-brainer.

Now, if you can get 0% and it doesn't affect you to open that card, then that's also a no-brainer. Keep the balance in the account earning 1% instead of the account earning 0%. Then pay it off the day before your intro period ends.

I wasn't able to start following a budget until I was, oh, 23 or 24. But since then I've learned a lot of tricks to keep myself disciplined. I needed every trick in the book at first. Now... now, there is no greater feeling outside of companionship than being able to look at my savings balance, and $0 in debt, and knowing that I am not desperate with my employer and side-work customers. It's like the friend of yours in college who took abuse frmo his GF and never left her because he thought he needed her.

And that is all the motivation I need to build wealth.

Don't lose sight of the forest through these trees. A cash balance in one account and thousands of dollars of high-interest debt in another is not wealth. It's a mirage.

And @Vlad, I'd counsel anybody, I don't care who you are, that you need 6 months emergency fund. You can start with $100 and that's how I started and how we all started. And at 2 months you're better off than probably 90% of your friends and co-workers. But for me, once I got past the 4, 5 month mark, that's when I really started sleeping well...

If the savings is so important, why not take a cash advance for the entire $10,000 and then pay down your card?.

From what I've read, OP already has already started the savings plan. I'm not recommending that the previously saved money gets diverted, but that all future savings garnishments get diverted towards the balance before the savings continues..

Even snake oil salesman Dave Ramsey only suggests $1000 in your emergency fund before paying (with Discover card) off all debt except for the low-interest mortgage...

What you should do is adjust your withholding so that you get no tax refund (or close to 0) and fund your savings each week with the extra in your paycheck. Then you actually earn interest on the money instead of giving it to the government for free...

I agree.. already modified.

I withheld extra this year due to a dependent situation, so I padded so I didnt owe.

No matter what. (personal pref here.. it just galls be to PAY at tax season).

I normally end up with about $1000 in refund because I do try not to pay in too much....

Thanks for the tip tho.. while it's redundant for me, I'm sure it'll help others....

Utilization is a much bigger factor in determing your FICO score than AAoA. You're are at ~35% on your reports now. Once the additional $4K TL reports, it will drop to under 20%. My guess is that will cause your score to increase ~20-25 points. Highly unlikely that the new account reporting would offset that. It would be even better if you could pay down half of the $1700 balance and get utilization to <10%..

THEN, apply for a new 0% BT card. Personally, I would recommend applying for 2 new cards. One would be a 2nd CU (EQ puller) and one would be a co-branded UMB card (TU puller and hidden TL). Use the UMB 0% offer to hide the rest of your balance and the CU card to increase available credit (plus further reduce your reliance on large banks like CapOne and Discover). Then *B* the 2 inquiries and let your new accounts age..

This post has been edited by jlp58: 28 January 2010 - 11:43 AM..

Encoder,.

I agree with you - if you can, 6 month is ideal.....and that what one should aim for, between 3-6 month in cash....But, OP is paying (with Discover card) 17%! in this case, I would stop at 3 month, pay off the balance on the 17% card, and then proceed to resume building up savings..

VK..

Thanks for the advice everyone!.

For now, I BT'd the balance to a slightly lower APR (CU)..

I looked at a couple of the UMB cards for reference, and couldn't find one with a 0% BT Fee, unfortunately..

I may pay down a chunk of the balance next month, depending on that status of the savings.

My approximate finances at the moment are:.

Savings: $1800.

Checking: $600.

18 month CD: $1050 (18 months are up Feb 4th).

Savings 2: $150 (I just have this money in an account I never touch, really... probably should move it).

Federal Tax Refund: $1150.

State Tax Refund: $400.

(These should hit next week).

Combined Discover card Debt: $1800.

School Loan Debt: $200 (2.48% APR, so no big deal).

I'll probably pay $200 or $250 on my Discover card balance tomorrow or Saturday, and $50 on my school loan ($50 is the payment due Feb. 5th).....