Debt Dumpers - 2019

[jen7233]

I added some more Disney touches to my kitchen yesterday. I went to the Disney store looking for the Gusteau journal I saw online (they had it but it was smaller than I thought it'd be) I found the cutest stuffed Mickey/Minnie cupcakes and a Minnie donut. Yesterday was also the last day of the friends and family sale so I got them a little cheaper than the sticker price. I also went to Hobby Lobby and found the "be our guest" sign/words and I couldn't pass it up.

Lol, also off topic shopping I did, was go to Payless to get several extra pairs of certain Airwalk shoes I replace every year to load up on their liquidation sale because I read this weekend they were going out of business soon! Not too great of a sale just 20%, 30 on certain others, I was expecting more, oh and no BOGO!

 

[jen7233]

I read this thread last year and this year also. I've gotten good tips. One tip I always read about is changing car insurance companies. I've done quotes from time to time and I've never received a quote cheaper than my current company.

So my DS18 got his license on Friday and my insurance went up by more than $1200 to a total of $2287 for one car (only liability) and both of us as drivers. I decided to get some quotes again and called USAA and got a quote of $1503!! I can't believe it!! Saving almost $800.

We are also working on dumping some debt. We are doing DR and going pretty well so far. We started DR last July but started going hard core in January. We do a monthly budget and snowball. Hoping to be done by the end of this year.

I use Debt Payoff Planner app to input all of my debts and it gives me an estimate on my payoff date if I follow the snowball.

I’ve done this too, but I’ll only get quotes from certain insurance companies. Sometimes Geico will beat out USAA for me, but then it ends up being a wash when I ask them to run a renter insurance quote to attach also like I currently have. I have had in my plans to check around again this year for insurance but I usually don’t get better quotes in general than USAA.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I’ve done this too, but I’ll only get quotes from certain insurance companies. Sometimes Geico will beat out USAA for me, but then it ends up being a wash when I ask them to run a renter insurance quote to attach also like I currently have. I have had in my plans to check around again this year for insurance but I usually don’t get better quotes in general than USAA.

Geico was around $1700 for the car insurance but their renters insurance is much cheaper than USAA. Even without bundling, Geico renters was about $100 cheaper than USAA and that was bundled. I have renters insurance until August so I'll price that out sometime in July. My current policy was bundled with my car insurance and will go up 15% since it won't be bundled. It may be the same price as Geico.

I live in NJ so car insurance is ridiculously expensive. Any little bit helps.

 

[DLgal]

I think that she had previously mentioned that it was more beneficial to file separately because it lowered her required monthly student loans payments that are subject to the loan forgiveness program.

Huh. Interesting. I assume the lowered monthly student loan payments are more savings than what the tax benefit would be then.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Out of curiosity, why do you file separately? When we were newly married and both working, before kids, it was always WAY more beneficial to file jointly than separately. Turbo Tax always ran it both ways and joint always won out with a significant tax savings. I'm wondering under what scenario does filing separately end up being beneficial? I was always under the impression that certain tax credits were only available to married joint filers, thus one of the reasons why LGBT people fight so hard for marriage equality laws...

Also wondering. I asked the same question to my tax lady this year as we will be married in November and was wondering the differences between married/joint and married/separate. She said it's always better to file together married.
We also have kids though too, so maybe that makes a difference?

I think that she had previously mentioned that it was more beneficial to file separately because it lowered her required monthly student loans payments that are subject to the loan forgiveness program.

@Jen and Ashwin is correct. I have a mortgage's worth of student loans which are all eligible to be forgiven under the public service loan forgiveness program, which completely clears out your loans after ten years of payments and does not result in you having to pay taxes on the forgiven amount. I'm four years into the program currently. I talked with a couple student loan advisers and they all recommended going on the lowest payment plan possible in order to maximize the amount forgiven.* DH and I filed our taxes jointly together one year and my payment was over $1000 each month. I literally thought we were going to starve to death before the end of the year. By filing separately, my monthly payment is about $300. I do have one loan that is not eligible for forgiveness and that is the one I am actively working to pay off.

*Please don't talk to me about the ethics of this lol. I've considered the options carefully and I can promise you that my cost of forgiveness is MORE than made up for in the 8% interest I pay to the government, in addition to the pitiful salary the government pays me at my current job, plus all the overtime work I do without overtime pay.

 

[DLgal]

@Jen and Ashwin

*Please don't talk to me about the ethics of this lol. I've considered the options carefully and I can promise you that my cost of forgiveness is MORE than made up for in the 8% interest I pay to the government, in addition to the pitiful salary the government pays me at my current job, plus all the overtime work I do without overtime pay.

No judgment here. If the program exists, I see no reason to not take advantage of it. Good for you!

 

[amalone1013]

I have a USAA question, since there's a few people on here with it. I was able to sign up for my own policy for auto because my step-father-in-law was military and my dad and stepmom signed up via him while I was still on their policy. I also carry a VPP policy on my engagement ring and a renter's policy through USAA. I've heard/been told that if I leave USAA that I wouldn't be able to come back since I am not military. Does anyone have any experience with this? Mainly I'm curious that if I would switch my auto but keep the VPP or renter's, would that keep me as a customer enough to come back some day? This is the main thing that has kept me from shopping around on auto insurance. Just playing with the GEICO quote right now looks significantly cheaper for the same coverage. I need to give them a call or send a message; I was just wondering if anyone else had been in a similar spot.

 

[DisneyMandC]

No judgment here. If the program exists, I see no reason to take advantage of it. Good for you!

Several of us in my office who graduated law school around the same time are all on the program and it's really a lifesaver. Even though I still have to make the monthly payments, it's a relief to know that all the hard work and low pay will eventually pay off in the form of forgiveness (even though I do get great job satisfaction out of the work I do as well). While there has been some political talk around the program, it appears through all of it that those of us who are already in it will be grandfathered in for forgiveness even though the program might eventually come to an end. If not, you guys will all know who I am because I'll be the named plaintiff on the class action lawsuit against the Dept of Education lol.

 

[DLgal]

I have a USAA question, since there's a few people on here with it. I was able to sign up for my own policy for auto because my step-father-in-law was military and my dad and stepmom signed up via him while I was still on their policy. I also carry a VPP policy on my engagement ring and a renter's policy through USAA. I've heard/been told that if I leave USAA that I wouldn't be able to come back since I am not military. Does anyone have any experience with this? Mainly I'm curious that if I would switch my auto but keep the VPP or renter's, would that keep me as a customer enough to come back some day? This is the main thing that has kept me from shopping around on auto insurance. Just playing with the GEICO quote right now looks significantly cheaper for the same coverage. I need to give them a call or send a message; I was just wondering if anyone else had been in a similar spot.

Just call USAA and ask. That will give you the most reliable answer. Be careful with Geico, though. I have heard that their prices are good, but their claims process leaves a lot to be desired. I have had to make 3 claims with USAA over the years and they have handled them all immediately, fairly, and my premiums never went up. I got exactly what coverage I paid for and it was zero hassle.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I have a USAA question, since there's a few people on here with it. I was able to sign up for my own policy for auto because my step-father-in-law was military and my dad and stepmom signed up via him while I was still on their policy. I also carry a VPP policy on my engagement ring and a renter's policy through USAA. I've heard/been told that if I leave USAA that I wouldn't be able to come back since I am not military. Does anyone have any experience with this? Mainly I'm curious that if I would switch my auto but keep the VPP or renter's, would that keep me as a customer enough to come back some day? This is the main thing that has kept me from shopping around on auto insurance. Just playing with the GEICO quote right now looks significantly cheaper for the same coverage. I need to give them a call or send a message; I was just wondering if anyone else had been in a similar spot.

It costs nothing to open a checking account. I would do that and then you will always be a customer.

 

[dina444444]

Just call USAA and ask. That will give you the most reliable answer. Be careful with Geico, though. I have heard that their prices are good, but their claims process leaves a lot to be desired. I have had to make 3 claims with USAA over the years and they have handled them all immediately, fairly, and my premiums never went up. I got exactly what coverage I paid for and it was zero hassle.

I’ll complain about geico on the other end. I had property damage from a geico driver and geico doesn’t have their own adjusters to fix the damage so we have to do all the leg work. Difficult when you work full time.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

It costs nothing to open a checking account. I would do that and then you will always be a customer.

@amalone1013 I will add that I started out with just a checking account when I went off to college. I have since gotten my mortgage, auto insurance, renter's insurance, an auto loan and an RV loan through USAA. Though unfortunately, due to a stupid quirk of Michigan law, I can't have auto insurance through USAA anymore. USAA recommended Progressive and I have been happy with them. We use Progressive for auto, home and RV insurance now.

 

[DLgal]

It costs nothing to open a checking account. I would do that and then you will always be a customer.

Can you keep a bank account active if you drop the insurance policies and are not military? From my understanding, the only people eligible for JUST banking are active/former military members. In order to extend membership to family members, an auto policy needs to be added, and those members who "earn" USAA membership via family must ALSO maintain auto policy coverage in order to have bank accounts with USAA.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Can you keep a bank account active if you drop the insurance policies and are not military? From my understanding, the only people eligible for JUST banking are active/former military members. In order to extend membership to family members, an auto policy needs to be added, and those members who "earn" USAA membership via family must ALSO maintain auto policy coverage in order to have bank accounts with USAA.

Yes, you can. I don't have USAA insurance anymore but have access to all of their banking services.

ETA: I was able to get my husband (also not military) signed up for his own USAA membership after we were married and he is eligible for all of the banking services too.

 

[amalone1013]

Just call USAA and ask. That will give you the most reliable answer. Be careful with Geico, though. I have heard that their prices are good, but their claims process leaves a lot to be desired. I have had to make 3 claims with USAA over the years and they have handled them all immediately, fairly, and my premiums never went up. I got exactly what coverage I paid for and it was zero hassle.

I need to add them to my giant To Do list of phone calls to make - I hate making phone calls...

DH had Geico originally and they weren't super fun to deal with when his car got hit in a parking lot. We went through a whole thing though where there was an eyewitness that gave a statement and it was a teenager in his mom's minivan and they impounded the vehicle... I had a really good experience with my first hail claim with USAA, but last summer when we both had hail damage I had a horrible time with my car. We were told that USAA doesn't have their own adjusters for auto claims anymore, they use 3rd party ones and I got some awful lady who would not respond to me/my shop or send payment for the work that she had okayed. My car sat in the shop for an additional 2 weeks after it was done because of all this, and then I started to get hassled by the rental car company about the vehicle I was using. I called and clarified with USAA on the rental, they said when the adjuster did her stuff then they would get it and the rental company would get updated by them so I'd be fine overall, no charges, but that did not stop the rental company from hassling me/starting to charge the rental on my credit card ($350 a week for the extra 2 weeks) - yes at the end I owed nothing, and the charges were reversed, but all I got from USAA was can't do anything, waiting on adjuster, and rental company was just this is our policy, we don't have an update from your insurance so car is basically considered stolen in our system. Then USAA also tried to blame it on my shop for not responding to the adjuster - my shop had sent me their previous unanswered emails and started copying me on all new ones. Overall it was really frustrating. But we didn't have trouble with DHs vehicle, go figure. The first year I took in my car for hail damage my shop was like USAA, we love working with them. Then last summer they were like, we hate them now because they use third party people who are mostly terrible to work with... obviously I got one of those.

When we got married I added DH to my USAA policy because it was $10 less a month for more coverage than his GEICO policy. Right now the GEICO quote shows $600 less for the 6mth premium for the same coverage.

It costs nothing to open a checking account. I would do that and then you will always be a customer.

See, I wouldn't have thought of that

 

[jen7233]

I have a USAA question, since there's a few people on here with it. I was able to sign up for my own policy for auto because my step-father-in-law was military and my dad and stepmom signed up via him while I was still on their policy. I also carry a VPP policy on my engagement ring and a renter's policy through USAA. I've heard/been told that if I leave USAA that I wouldn't be able to come back since I am not military. Does anyone have any experience with this? Mainly I'm curious that if I would switch my auto but keep the VPP or renter's, would that keep me as a customer enough to come back some day? This is the main thing that has kept me from shopping around on auto insurance. Just playing with the GEICO quote right now looks significantly cheaper for the same coverage. I need to give them a call or send a message; I was just wondering if anyone else had been in a similar spot.

Yeah, I’m not sure, I thought it was if eligible for membership, membership for life. But, I’m retired mil status myself, so I don’t have a need to look further into it, and DH is active duty. Now, with Geico I’ve had them before and did a claim, from what I remember it went fine, but their rates went up quite a bit and so I switched, and haven’t been back. When I have tried to get quotes elsewhere, it just hasn’t been a cost savings. I will +one on the USAA checking and savings, I’ve had zero in savings and they never closed me out, never had a fee, haven’t needed to keep a minimum. I don’t direct deposit to them though, kind of stuck in my ways with another bank and don’t feel like moving it. I currently keep a checking and savings there in USAA along with the auto/renters/life and anyway they are lighting fast posting bank transfers unlike the other banks I bank with.

 

[StacyStrong]

In non-debt dumping news, I just put a deposit down on an October trip to get one last use out of APs. On the plus side, the room is cheap because I'm splitting with a friend and there's no ticket costs. I won't go into any debt for this and all my consumer debt should be paid off by then. So Wooooo.

 

[Tygerlilly]

Feeling kinda frustrated. So, if anyone remembers we have a current garnishment for a car we gave back a few years ago. It's $340ish a check, so about $700 a month and we owe approximately $7000 on it (already paid $8000). I got a letter in the mail saying with tax refunds coming, we could try and settle the account. Awesome right? So I called and talked to someone. I said I was wondering what the settlement offer was.

$4000! I said my tax refund isn't even that much! I said at most I could offer $1500. She said she'd submit the offer and let me know. We've already paid over half of it off, so I'm hoping they either accept or counter with something cheaper than $4000. I might be able to swing $2000, even possibly $2500. I just want this gone.

 

[MN_Andi]

Several of us in my office who graduated law school around the same time are all on the program and it's really a lifesaver. Even though I still have to make the monthly payments, it's a relief to know that all the hard work and low pay will eventually pay off in the form of forgiveness (even though I do get great job satisfaction out of the work I do as well). While there has been some political talk around the program, it appears through all of it that those of us who are already in it will be grandfathered in for forgiveness even though the program might eventually come to an end. If not, you guys will all know who I am because I'll be the named plaintiff on the class action lawsuit against the Dept of Education lol.

I've been reading a LOT of stuff about student loans, as reading other people's stories motivates me to pay them down as quickly as I can. If I recall correctly, PSLF is guaranteed under your Master Promissory Note, and if the government was to take the program away, it would be to new borrowers only, and that's even if they take that option away. I can't imagine that happening; with so much student debt around, people would not be too pleased!

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

So after a year, DH finally got a letter from USCIS regarding his green card status. When you get a green card via marriage and have been married less than 2 years, they give you a conditional green card and you have to spend a bunch of money after 2 years to file to have the conditional status removed. We filed a year ago. It usually takes 3-4 months for this type of thing to get processed, but given all of this administration’s problems with immigration issues, it seems they have fewer people processing such things. Usually they make you come in for an interview to prove you are in a legitimate marriage before they approve the removal of conditions. Well, the letter just said he was approved, so I guess the upside of an immigration system that is stretched too thin is that they don’t have the manpower to bring us in for an interview. His application was just approved and we don’t have to appear for an interview.

He is now eligible for citizenship but we will probably wait until a change in administration until we file.