I might need $5,000 to spend on a trip in the near future… Should I put it all on a credit card or should I take out a personal loan? What’s the lesser of two evils and which route will put the LEAST damage on my credit rating?
Thanks for the input, everyone!

as 17 years old without car and money can i have credit card? or loan without a job>?

I used to get those offers all of the time for stuff like $50,000, etc. I have what I feel is great/excellent credit, have a decent credit history and 4 major credit cards (2 of which have no balance, but high credit limits that help my score). I’ve had a couple of emergencies and ended up using my other two cards. One has around $7,700 on it and is currently under a no-interest offer that they gave me. It has probably 8 months or so remaining on that offer. The other has around $7,500 on it and is at about 12% APR. That one I ended up putting some dental procedures and such on, which were very much needed. Last credit score of 763.

So without someone bashing on me for having balances on credit cards, I’m simply curious about these “personal loans” that I get pre-qualifications for in the mail on a regular basis. Usually from my bank (Bank of America) or from Discover (which I have a credit card with, with no balance). I know that these “pre-qualified” offers do not mean I will be approved for the loan, and it’s not a guarantee. I also know that they probably carry some pretty stiff interest.

I still live at home with family and we kind of band together to make things not as bad financially on one another. So I do not pay “rent” per se, and I do not currently have my own vehicle, etc. The typical things that zap most people’s income. I usually make about $1,100 – $1,200 a month after taxes. I know that’s not a lot in today’s economy and may very well be scrutinized if I were to apply for a loan.

Currently, I have $6,000 cash in a checking account with my bank. It seems that this does not help in any way as collateral even with my current bank (BofA), because they recently slashed my credit limit on a credit card that I have a balance on with them. They cut it down to within $300 of my credit limit, which of course made that look bad. In reality, I was thousands of dollars from my credit limit. They did it because I called with a simply question (someone at their company screwed up and I was trying to get something fixed) and they ended up screwing me over not once, but twice. They canceled one of my cards with them completely (it had no balance and I had it for 5 years with them, with no late payments, etc.) The second card had the credit limit slashed.

So basically my idea is the approach of trying to get approved for a $15K loan through one of these offers (if they approve it) and pay off both credit cards. Then pay around $800 a month on the loan, trying to pay it down as quickly as possible to avoid as much interest as I can. With these personal loans, they say “XXX amount per month for X or XX years” in order to pay back certain amounts. Is the payment amount per month fixed? Say for instance, you can only pay $450 a month for the set repayment amount and can’t overpay the amount, so they can charge you more interest over time? Or can you pay as much as you want on it each month?
Of course, I already know about the catch-22 of today. Credit card companies are telling people, “Hey, we have this great balance transfer offer! But wait, you have balances on other cards, and we know that’s what the balance transfer offer is for, but we can’t approve you because of those balances on the other cards.”

Also, loan companies are doing the same thing, apparently…but duh, why would people take out loans to pay stuff otherwise?

I have bad credit but I want to take a vaction to mexico. I am disabled and am haveing a hard time finding any type of laon a credit card, so I can go. does anyone know of a way I can get some kinda loan or credit card for it?

Will i be denied a secret clearance?
I have less than $3000 in credit card debt and I have a Direct Loan(student loan) for $7000.
I have been late a few times on my credit cards, but all my balances are current and below the balance line.
I also had a collector call me for an $86 payment that was due to a doctor. I was two months over the age of 18 when I went to the doctors, the insurance was supposed to cover it but my parents never took care of it…so since I was over 18 the collector contacted me about it. I paid as soon as they called over the phone.

I’m just worried I will get denied for my clearance. I ship out to BCT at the end of may.

So will these factors deny me from obtaining my secret clearance?

the interest rate for subsidized stafford loans are 5.6% and I’m sure the interest rate to my credit cards are 20 to 30%. I owe about 10,000 dollars.

she owes 25K on credit cards and unsecured loans. 1 option is Debt management, a higher payment over more time but less credit damage. Another is a settlement, less $ paid off sooner but seriously dinged credit. She still may move once in her life, meaning a lease or purchase. Suggestions?