Line Of Credit, should I open one?

[ashedfc]

Its pure, basic & simple financial management. I am surprised, by the ignorance -
Its always beneficial to transfer all high interest debt to a low interest, & then pay as much as you can.

[lekate]

Its pure, basic & simple financial management. I am surprised, by the ignorance -
Its always beneficial to transfer all high interest debt to a low interest, & then pay as much as you can.

Sorry, I'm not ignorant, I'd just never considered getting a LOC. Not everyone here works in banks.

[travelgeek]

Okay, I've been thinking of getting one to pay off my MC card, it's at 5000$ but realistically, at the rate I'm going it will take me about 4 years to pay off. Just curious to know whether it's a good idea to get a line of credit to pay it off with, then pay off the LOC? My interest is currently at 18.5%....

Absolutely. Just make sure you don't add any further debt onto the credit card otherwise you might be worse off. Cut up the MC if you're tempted to spend.

[travelgeek]

Its pure, basic & simple financial management. I am surprised, by the ignorance -
Its always beneficial to transfer all high interest debt to a low interest, & then pay as much as you can.

Such ignorance. If one is not disciplined to stop spending, giving them access to more debt options will only cause them to dig themselves into deeper debt.

[lekate]

Absolutely. Just make sure you don't add any further debt onto the credit card otherwise you might be worse off. Cut up the MC if you're tempted to spend.

Thanks! I think I'll set up an appt. with a financial advisor for next week

[nadiabreckon]

Such ignorance. If one is not disciplined to stop spending, giving them access to more debt options will only cause them to dig themselves into deeper debt.

I completely agree...some people assume it's free money (not saying anybody on SC), and don't understand that they eventually have to pay the banks back for the credit they've been using.

I'm not saying having a credit card or LOC "just-in-case" is a bad idea, but some people are getting credit in order to pay for groceries, utilities, gas, etc... just because it's money that's available...

Sure, getting a low interest LOC and paying off all your high interest credit cards with it will save you money in the long run, and if that's all you need it for, then by all means go for it. But getting it just for the sake of having it is probably not a good idea. IMHO.

[nadiabreckon]

Its pure, basic & simple financial management. I am surprised, by the ignorance -
Its always beneficial to transfer all high interest debt to a low interest, & then pay as much as you can.

And calling people ignorant probably isn't your best choice of words in our SC family...you have to know we're all going to stick up your each other when it comes to name-calling!

[brunt]

Such ignorance. If one is not disciplined to stop spending, giving them access to more debt options will only cause them to dig themselves into deeper debt.

There's the rub.

There are many times when an otherwise good idea can simply open to door to a greater disaster. A line of credit is indeed a siren and should likely be avoided in my opinion. I honestly believe that one of the greatest problems with society right now is that credit is far too easy to obtain, and far too easy to take on to the point where it strains the finances to pay it off.

If one really wanted to pay off a loan with a set of lower interest loans (which if ashedfc had checked the original post, he would see that this was not the original poster's position), then one could get a loan that is not so easy to make into a bigger loan.

[mulock]

I opened a line of credit a few months ago when I went to buy a car. The rate on the line of credit was better than what the dealership would offer.