09 March 2008

PSA: Read your credit card statements!

At the beginning of the YOFL, I did a balance transfer at 1.99% and put the money in my checking account. I had a bunch of debts that were literally keeping me awake at night- 130 bucks to my therapist, little medical bills that were past due, the $500 car tax bill. I was feeling really anxious about them- I'd have this feeling that something was wrong, and I'd realize I was worrying about them . So I decided to take out this loan and pay them off, so that I would start the year off on a clean slate.

Since then, I've been paying $200 a month to this card. Well, yesterday I got the statement for this card and realized that they are applying my payments to the balance transfer in it's entirety- meaning my initial balance is BIGGER than before taking the loan! Most cards will put a large percentage towards the balance transfer and then put what's left onto the larger balance. So I ran over to my excel spreadsheet that I use for budgeting and switched things around so that I'm paying off that balance transfer this month. Yikes!

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