I've had a Visa account with Providian (recently became WaMu) for 7 1/2 years. My limit is 20k. I have a balance of $19k. I have a great payment history... except last October, I got an over the limit and late pay from WaMu (just a couple of days, so not reported). WaMu upped my rate to 31% as a result. I called them and they refuse to negotiate the rate down. I've GOT to lower the rate as I am currently paying $500/mo in interest alone. My credit score is 647, due to high debt to income ratio. I recently got a decent raise. I can make the payment, but need to pay down my balance to improve my FICO. Is there any company out there that would open a new account for $19k and do a balance transfer? I really want to close the WaMu account. I'm not trying to buy anything, so this isn't urgent. It's just obsurd. Please offer any advise you can. Thanks.
If you have a house, take out a home equity loan, knowing you could lose the house. If you have a pricey car, sell it and move to a cheaper used car. It shouldn't be THAT hard to get a new credit card and transfer the balance. They probably will not do the full $19,000 but at least you can get SOME of it done. If it's really 31% you can also try complaining to the FBC or whoever looks at interest rates. That seems illegally high. But in the meantime I'd live like a serf and pay whatever I could, as fast as I could, because 31% is nasty.
I would recommend calling a debt specialist as davert's suggestion is BAD. NEVER take a home equity loan to pay down debt. There are ways to get rid of it without taking out MORE debt. Pm me if you want a good suggestion here in Florida, I work with clients everyday that deal with a similar situation.
Call them back and tell them you've been offered a balance transfer at 0% for 6 months. Tell them you're considering it, but would like to remain a loyal customer if they're willing to "Play ball" and lower your rate. If they ask who's offering that to you, tell them "I'm not comfortable revealing that information." The worst that can happen is they tell you no. Again. In which case you haven't really lost anything. Edit to add: I agree with DomainLoco, too. You *NEVER* want to turn an unsecured debt into a secured debt. You say you're fine with making the payments, but if something were to happen that caused your income to dry up, you'd lose your home.
If you have any savings that you have instant access to without any penalty, those savings will be much better invested in reducing your current outstanding balance. It is also advisable to look at drawing up a new budget and using a lower figure for your income than you actually receive. For example, if you had $2000 net income per month, use $1800. The budget will include your minimum payment required for your card as well as every other expense incurred. The surplus $200 would then also be used to make a payment towards your card to reduce the balance on it further. If you can make a complete budget, the overall debt level will reduce much quicker. I know it might be very difficult to do, but ANY money at the end of the month should go towards reducing your outstanding debt and lowering your repayment requirements. If you have a $20k limit on your card and have any savings in a savings account... you are losing money. The simple reason is that you are not getting 31% + interest on those savings... so put ALL your savings into reducing your credit card balance. If the worst comes to the worst and you need cash in an emergency, you would still have the option of paying the bill with your credit card.
Competition among credit card companies are fierce, try calling up other credit card companies, usually they can transfer the balance for free and charge a lower interest rate just to get you over. Received such calls from credit card companies almost daily.