Money/Credit Smarties?

Spiky Bugger · Oct 18, 2017

Too much personal information, but I'm not experienced with this stuff, so I'm asking...

So I need to buy some stuff, plus I WANT to buy some stuff. The stuff is mostly fences, gates and redoing (new plaster, tile, plumbing to pump, an auto-fill, a hand rail, and "shallowing" the entire thing to 3.5-4.0' deep) the pool.

So, thousands of dollars.

And, I am soooo cheap, I don't wanna take money out of retirement funds or actually pay interest on borrowed money. I like free loans better. And my FICO score is through the roof high, so I should be able to get most any card I want. So maybe I can do this. Let's start with the fence.

Here's the plan...see if you can improve on it or warn me of the error of my ways:

1--How about I slam the entire cost of the fence (about $8k) onto my double points credit card? That would give me a credit, not much, but every little bit...
2--AND THEN, how about I transfer that purchase to a NEW credit card that has $0 fees for transfers (if I do it w/in 60 days of opening the account) and then will allow 12-15 (depending on which card) months, interest free, to pay off that transfer at someplace around $525 to $650 per month...which kind of matches what we will save on Medical Insurance when Mr. Sue goes on Medicare. So, I wouldn't be comfortable with that big a payment THIS month...but NEXT month I might be.

Kinda scared.

Munchkin · Oct 18, 2017

You are on the right track. A couple months ago I got a credit card offer for $200 free if I spent $500 on the card. My house taxes were due in August so I put them on the credit card and spent more than $500. The bill came and I paid it in full. Then the credit card company credited my account $200 which I had them transfer to my checking account! In effect, I got $200 off my house taxes! Score!

And then guess what.... That same stupid company sent me another offer for $200 free! Boneheads!

JackieOnLine · Oct 20, 2017

it sure sounds like it would work - but I am so bad with money that might be a bad sign. :cautious:

so, your pool doesn't have a shallow end and you want one? ?? meanwhile, time to use the Halloween emojis it's that season :flyingwitch:

Spiky Bugger · Jan 1, 2018

And then there was the heater...

This credit card debt thing is new-ish, in that it is something we have avoided like the plague. And I could take $ out of savings...but I'm pretty sure I'd have trouble putting it back.

And all this mental torture was BEFORE we had to buy a new furnace.

Anyway, tell me if I screwed up.

I got two new, zero interest cards...paid for the furnace, the fence, pool plumbing, paid the property taxes that weren't due 'til April, but only deductible if paid now, and moved all current balances (mostly living expenses, we charge everything)...to those two cards.

We got ONE bill. It looks like if we pay the (original) minimum, at tbe end of the zero interest period we'd still owe about 80% of tne amount charged. So, unless we transfer to yet other zero interest cards every year, paying the minimum is silly. And expensive.

So maybe...we'll pay the minimum for a few months? And then increase the payments to try to pay it all off during the zero interest period? And then, either pay off lower balances from savings or move to another zero interest card?

Did I mention that I want/will need to redo my entire bathoom? (It's a "want" right now, but it is rather rapidly falling-the-hell-apart and will soon be a need.)

I wonder what @Munchkin will think.

Spiky Bugger · Jan 1, 2018

By the way, this is not bragging about having a savings account.

It is what happens to the mind after retirement, when you...daily...live with the knowledge tbat you will never earn another cent. (Except the way Munchkin describes above...lol)

And when the fiduciary dudes insist you have to budget what you have as though you might live to age 99, even though you hope you won't...lol

Spiky Bugger · Jan 1, 2018

JackieOnLine said:
it sure sounds like it would work - but I am so bad with money that might be a bad sign.

so, your pool doesn't have a shallow end and you want one? ?? meanwhile, time to use the Halloween emojis it's that season

The pool is way too big...built for the former owner's then-high-school-swim-team son. With a diving board, which nobody's homeowners' insurance likes. The board is long gone. But the "shallow end" starts at almost 4' and rapidly drops until it gets to 10' or so. It would cost a fortune to heat and it is not good for what we need...a pool to WALK in.

If it were one of those new-ish Game Pool things, built for water volleyball and such, maybe 3.5' at each end and 4-5' in the middle, we could walk and we could afford heating it. (And MiniSue says she can handle flip turns at those depths.) It would take a little less in energy/chemicals to maintain it, too.

So, January emoji?