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I'm not big on credit cards except you about have to have one to rent a car or go on vacation but I was surprised at an offer we got in the mail on Friday.

I have no idea why they keep raising our limits but now my wife has a $25K limit on hers. Was thinking about closing it since we never use it.

Anyway, they had the usual junk in the statement along with some balance transfer checks. They are offering a O% APR through the 9-2013 statement with only a 1% balance transfer fee. I just called out of curiosity to see if I could cut myself a check and they said that was fine but the total couldn't be over 80% of the credit limit.

$200 for access for 20K for a year ain't to shabby but I think I will just close it out and be done with it. I was honestly thinking about buying some SLV in my Scotttrade account but time will tell if that would have been a wise move or not. If we see low 20's during the next month I may just do that.

I would say the banks are drowning in cash to be offering deals like this. If anyone is needing some cash it may be something to look into.

interesting!

This could help mitigate some of the student loan damage assuming it is repaid before the interest starts posting...I will have to look into this

Buying silver on margin is not a good idea. Ask the Hunt brothers

mbailey1234 wrote:I would say the banks are drowning in cash to be offering deals like this. If anyone is needing some cash it may be something to look into.

...or it could be that they're afraid to put it in the markets.

Slaphot wrote:Buying silver on margin is not a good idea. Ask the Hunt brothers

Totally agree. I think when the offer goes off they are at 12.25% which would be a bad thing. I have some cash sitting around that I am thinking of investing in our business but like the banks, I am afraid as well. But on the other hand, inflation is eating it up!

Just thought it would be kind of cool to use some of JP's cheap money to buy more of the stuff that could bring them down!

mbailey1234 wrote: Was thinking about closing it since we never use it.

Closing a credit account can ding your credit score. It makes the banks nervous that you might be encountering financial difficulties.

I don't think that the impact to your credit score is anything more than negligible.

Regarding the original $200 for $20,000, I would actually do it myself. And I don't need $20,000 nor does the OP. But it is practically free money NOW. That's not a bad thing. If the OP has a mortgage it's defintiely at over 1% interest. And if not then there are still many other benefits of money now vs in the future.

This is a rare time when I am on the side of "borrowing" but it just seems like this is too cheap to pass up.

Since I rarely side on the side of the bane that is borrowing it gets my creative juices flowing even more thinking of "buying the $20k" off the OP and doing some sort of investment separate from other things just to see how it plays out.

I have a line of credit I use with my business, they just sent me a 3.99% for one year. I payed off the line and then wrote double back to me. so for the year I will pay less then what I had was costing and now have a lot of cash to build the business. once the year is up the rate goes back to 10%

Twice I have thought about PM with it, but keep telling me no.

you could take the loan, find a friend (that you trust) that has a high interest credit card rate and a similar balance and offer to split the difference with them. You must have your financial affairs in pretty good order not to be tempted by this.

beauanderos wrote:you could take the loan, find a friend (that you trust) that has a high interest credit card rate and a similar balance and offer to split the difference with them. You must have your financial affairs in pretty good order not to be tempted by this.

Here is a nice formula for you:

A friend that you trust + Debt of $20,000 = A former friend

That's the one thing you definitely do NOT want to do as it ends badly most of the time.


In case you are not convinced here is another formula:

A friend that you trust + someone that has high interest credit card debt of at least $20,000 = Someone that is very unlikely to be able to repay a $20,000 loan to you within 1 year

Never loan money to friends or family. The outcome is almost never good.

Hades12 wrote:Never loan money to friends or family. The outcome is almost never good.

+1 I lost a friend over $300. He was a shithead though. Seriously, our friendship was worth $300? Apparently so. That is what I get for feeling sorry for him.
F' him.

ETA: OP, if you time it right, you could make out very well. It's not like silver will drop to $10/toz. Watch out for an open-ended QEIII sometime soon. You could do very well. It's your choice... Best of luck!

IdahoCopper wrote:

mbailey1234 wrote: Was thinking about closing it since we never use it.

Closing a credit account can ding your credit score. It makes the banks nervous that you might be encountering financial difficulties.

Seems like there is no way to win with credit scores....too many accounts, dings on your credit....too few? Dings on your credit. Close an existing account? More dings on your credit! WTF??

They want to you have credit, but yet, at the same time they don't!

I personally would not dump it in PMs - only because TPTB change the rules when convenient, and nobody knows what and how much