Doing the shuffle

Over the course of our debt pay-off journey we've shuffled debt around numerous times to take advantage of lower interest rates, to lower our monthly payments, and to consolidate debts. The last shuffle we did consolidated a high interest credit card with a defaulted loan at an 8.39% interest rate through Lending Club. Before that, we had done a balance transfer on another credit card debt to secure a 0% interest rate until June 2015. Now, with the promotional 0% rate coming to an end it’s time to come up with a plan to pay off the remaining $4,200.

Our options include:

1.   Doing another balance transfer on the credit card (we have two that we have just transferred debt back and forth between) which would secure a 0% rate for another year but cost us a transfer fee and potentially set us up for another transfer in the future if we can’t get it paid off in a year.

2.   Leaving it where it is and continuing to pay it off as quickly as possible. The interest rate would be high somewhere between 8.99% and 15.99%.

3.   Taking out another Lending Club loan. We could probably get a lower interest rate around 6% for a three year loan which would make payments affordable and easy enough. This would also cost us a fee.

4.   Consolidating it with the larger Lending Club loan for a lower rate for a three year loan. This would be a more aggressive pay-off for all consumer debt and would also cost us a fee.

My next step is to explore cost and feasibility of each option this weekend.