Stock market question

[280plus]

How do we think it will be performing short term. I ask because I just discovered that BOA raised my interest rate from 8.9 to 21.99 on a small balance on one of their cards. My inclination is to pull the remainder of my UTX stock which is much more that the debt and pay off the card but it would drop the account below their minimum balance if I draw just the funds to cover the card debt, meaning they'll withdraw the rest and send it to me anyways. My plan would be to take the remainder and put into an IRA for 08. Things look like they'll be trending upward in the short term so my question is should I hang in there till the near end of the card cycle before I draw it out in the hopes that it will recover a bit more in the interim or should I just go for it now and get it over with? Thanks

[280plus]

Follow up, Once paid off should I close the card?

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

It's extremely unlikely that stocks will rise by 22% in the short term.  I'd say pay off the 22% credit card debt.

[280plus]

Agreed, thanks. Actually, I just realized the card cycle is near end anyways. Effin BOA, what a bunch of dirtbags. I hope they all rot in hell. Or should I just write Bush and ask him to bail me out? 

[K Frame]

Did they give you a reason as to WHY they increased your rate that much? Other than Bank of America is a pack of aholes who should be boiled in oil and fed to hyenas?

How about getting a signature loan from your bank or credit union to pay off the card?

Personally, I hang on to the UTX. You probably bought it at a significantly higher price than what it's trading for right now, about $55 or so a share.

It's not done all that poorly in this bad market that we're having, and when then rebound does come, it's going to rebound along with everything else.

[280plus]

Thanks Mike, I agree 100% on hanging on to the UTX for the same reasons. I'm looking into different methods to cover this. I did call and they (BOA) fed me some BS about a balance cap which I was not quite able to understand. One thing is my used to be "Good" credit reating is now "Fair" even though my credit score has risen above the point at which it was once considered "Good" so there is a lot of BS going on out there and those of us who have paid our bills faithfully while others defaulted are taking it in the ass to cover for them. This is the second card to do this to me. CITI raped me for about the same fpr one month because one payment was 1 day late after years of paying ahead of time and more than the minimums. BOA got 3 months past me before I noticed. Anyways, I told BOA well, then I'm going to pay off the card and never use it again, is this what BOA wants? She says no but there's nothing I can do. So I said fine, you've lost my business. She says, "Well, thank you for your continued business" and I said, "No, you're not understanding, there will be no business between us again so there's no need to thank me. Have a nice day."

I just managed to transfer ~2/3 of it to another acct that will give me 8.99 for the life. I should be able to pay the rest of it off with available cash so crisis averted. Bastards...

[280plus]

Oh, I've had the UTX for years so it would not be an actual loss of money put in but it WAS up to ~$84 at one point so yea, I'd hate to sell at $55, that's for sure. 

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

How long would it take you to pay off the credit card out of pocket?  How much is UTX likely to increase in that time period?

[K Frame]

Do what I have done.

I had a company try to screw me like that once.

So, I immediately transferred the balance to another card (no fee to do so).

But, I've left the account open, and I switched back to paper statements.

Once a month, I charge a cup of coffee and some other trivial item.

That forces them to generate a statement.

Then I pay with a check.

That forces them to process it.

They'll eventually wise up some day and cancel the card, but until then, I'm costing them a LOT more money than what they're getting from me.

[Teknoid]

I haven't seen a credit card company that wasn't crooked yet. I've had two cancel me in the last three months. They complained I wasn't using them. Of course that was because they were some of the ones that manufactured reasons to raise rates. We only use one now, and pay it off monthly just so we have it "in case". It's 8.9%, and that's the only reason we use it (not that we're actually paying interest).

[280plus]

How long would it take you to pay off the credit card out of pocket?  How much is UTX likely to increase in that time period?

I'll have the card payed off in two months. I'll float maybe $500 till the next cycle most likely unless I say screw it and pay the rest off this month even though it'll leave me a little tight. I like the buy a coffee just to cost them money idea.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Two months, eh?  My thought was that you could sell just enough stock to pay off the credit card, then use your out of pocket money to repurchase the stock you sold.  Think of it as borrowing from the stock to pay off the credit card two months early.  There's very little chance that the stock would gain anything significant in the next two months.

[txgho1911]

The market is up and down. It reached up to 9k DJIA. Everything in my 401k that was not in the MM moved there at closing today. Next time it swings down I will reverse and move into the most neg funds available. I would not recommend anyone trying to do this unless they are willing to miss those down and up swings.
The banks and security / capital holding companies have more bad paper than the .gov has lipstick. (BAILOUT) The big three still have UAW with all these lifetime 90% pensions and medical. I feel bad about these retirees maybe losing benefits but if what they have is not cutback and reduced drastically that pension is only going to last for the union leadership.

Folks the market bottom felt so far is 7500 DJIA. From what I have seen and the losses these banks are not talking about this plus the losses a dozen or so banks just bought the bottom is much lower. The money has been leaking through Madoff's and 30-50 to 1 leverage. The bottom has not fallen out so yet. The .gov has made for damn sure this is as extended and painful as possible. I must confess that I do not like pain. Scared of the pain I do not understand. Really pissed over the pain that I do understand and am forced to experience or witness for so much longer than required.

Subject for study class google: great depression timeline

[txgho1911]

Call your creditor periodically and request/argue for lower rates. Have them convert your variable rates to fixed. When they decline close the account. They will probably change your card to a fixed rate to keep you.

[Archie]

Get rid of all 'credit cards'. 

Question:  Your UTX stock (whatever the heck that is), don't look at how much it might have been at some point, how much did you pay for it?
No matter it was once 'worth' $84 and only $55 now.  If you paid less than $55, you're ahead.  That other $30 never existed, it's not really there.

I have a debit card that looks like a credit card.  The money comes directly out of my account, so it's actually handy cash, there's no interest involved. 

If anyone reading this remembers nothing else, you are much better off doing without and paying cash later.  Get rid of the credit cards.

Here endeth the leccion.

[K Frame]

"Get rid of all 'credit cards'."

Because credit cards are super-duper evil, right? 


Credit cards are a tool, just like that debit card. Nothing more.

[Azrael256]

Two months is about the timeframe I would expect an early rebound to last.  Now would not be a good time to sell.  I know that's market timing, which is a no-no, but it's still a bad time to sell even without timing, so don't.

Aside from rebalancing, there are only a few reasons to sell: unemployment, house purchase, or serious financial hardship.  Huge medical bills qualify.  Sudden interest rate changes that can be dealt with do not.

[280plus]

Well, as it is righ now, without strapping myself too badly, I'll have all but $500 paid off on it this cycle. Most to another account with 8.9 and the rest out of pocket. So I don't see a whole lot of harm floating the last $500 one more cycle even though the scumbags get a little bit of their 21.99 for one more month so I'll leave the UTX alone and save it for another rainy day that may come along. My biggest fear now is how many other cards are going to pull this crap. Mike is right, CCs are a tool. I use them to keep my biz afloat and used them to start it to begin with. As long as they hold up their end of the bargain there's no problem, I am avid about sinking all the extra $ I make into paying them down and I buy very few "toys", but as soon as they start sticking it to me because they're havng problems it all falls apart. If it goes much further I will be looking at establishing that line of credit with a local bank and transfering the offending card balances there instead. It was a good run while it lasted because some of my loans are as low as 2.9 but now some of them seem to expect the good cardholders to pick up the slack for their lending to bad credit risks and I'm not about to help them stay afloat. Especially after this whole bailout fiasco. They've already received enough free money from me.