Personal Loan

[gjgodwin]

Hello,

I am trying to pay down my biggest credit card debt. It is a little bit over 10k. The personal loan option being given to me is a 10k loan, $409 monthly payment, 3 year term on 30% APR with 27% interest. The APR on the card is 22%. Would it make sense to take this loan or should I just lock the card down and make the payments. They are usually around $310 a month but I usually have to double that to make progress because of the interest fees.

[Bsch4477]

If I understand that you would be paying an interest rate of 27% for the loan and 22% for the card, I don’t see the advantage of taking the loan. 

[Opus 17]

If you can pay the same $409 per month on the 22% credit card, you would pay it off in 33 months instead of 36 months at 27%.  (If you only make the minimum payment of $310, it will take at least 48 months to pay off the credit card, but if you can really double the minimum and make it stick, that will get the card paid off in 20 months.)

The key is to stop borrowing money.  You mention "lock down the card" as if that is something you might not do.  If you are going to keep using the card and spending more than you can pay, you will never get out of debt.

[Joni1]

I have a few more credit cards to pay off as well