Do you owe more than $26k, not including a mortgage?

[Thorin]

I take it parking is prohibitively expensive, too?  If I went to work downtown full-time, parking would be about $240 a month and gas about $40-$60 a month (depending on what vehicle I took).  So about $300 a month.  A bus pass from where I live is now $110 a month, I think, but bussing to work and back makes it a lot more difficult for me to attend early afternoon practices and stuff like that.

[Tom]

I think the commute is longer if he drives too

[Lazybones]

If I could some how get through the wait list for office parking it would only be $50/mo in our company lot, other wise the local day rate is $14.

However there is the issue of traffic:

Ideal drive time is about 30-35min
Morning commute time tends to be about 45min.
The drive home tends to be grid lock at some time over 1hr, it is highly variable and frustrating.

Also we are a one vehicle house hold so the car is now in use when I am in work. So insuring and fueling even a free second car would be more than my monthly transit pass..

Gas prices also are around $1.30 to $1.40/L around here due to transit and environmental fees so it is best if I am not doing a long distance drive every day.

[Mr. Analog]

IF ONLY they added more bridges to Vancouver! (just kidding )

[Lazybones]

IF ONLY they added more bridges to Vancouver! (just kidding )

On the plus side there are no toll bridges between me and the office.

[Mr. Analog]

IF ONLY they added more bridges to Vancouver! (just kidding )

On the plus side there are no toll bridges between me and the office.

Man, first pass I read that as "troll bridges" which I guess would also be bad (and annoying, imagine rolling over a bridge and hearing YouTube comments...)

[Tom]

IF ONLY they added more bridges to Vancouver! (just kidding )

On the plus side there are no toll bridges between me and the office.

Man, first pass I read that as "troll bridges" which I guess would also be bad (and annoying, imagine rolling over a bridge and hearing YouTube comments...)

Or "What is your favorite color?"

[Thorin]

Yeah, gotta say when I read "troll bridges" I immediately tried to remember the what the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow is.

I understand the gridlock frustration.  Traffic gets real slow here if you leave at 4:30pm.  It's better to leave before 4pm or after 5pm.  But it's best not to have to travel at all

[Darren Dirt]

Not A Joke Page: http://style.org/unladenswallow/ *

found via http://10000birds.com/air-speed-velocity-of-an-unladen-swallow.htm (found via Google)




* "a  brilliant webpage devoted to a thorough explanation of this confounding question. This site, which employs Strouhal numbers, simplified flight waveforms, and an obvious reverence for the source material, is an absolute masterpiece, and a fancy bit of physics footwork to boot."

[Thorin]

Not A Joke Page: http://style.org/unladenswallow/

Final answer: 11 meters per second, rounded off to 39 km/h, rounded off to 24 mph.  For the European Swallow.

Anyway, what was this thread about?

Oh yes, got the new truck, got the cheque that came with it, paid off a credit card, now I owe about $78.2k without the mortgage ($9.8k at 19.99%, $6.7k at 13.65%, $11.7k at 5.99%, $3k at 3.00%, $47k at 0%, monthly interest cost $305.36).  Then I'll use a balance transfer (super-low interest for 12 months), and the insurance cheque will come in, and that'll get down to about $65.7k ($8.8k at 5.99%, $9.9k at 0.99%, $47k at 0.00%, monthly interest cost $52.10).

So I guess for a while I'll owe more than the average Canadian non-mortgage debt of $26k.  Although $40k of my $65.7k will be secured by my new vehicle, so really I'm looking at $25.7k unsecured debt.

[Tom]

Put it all on that 0% credit.

[Thorin]

I'd like to but I can't.  That's a car loan through GM (but not GMAC).  Those numbers are at as low an interest rate as I can get them.  Athough I'll betcha that I get offers for low interest rates within three months of doing this money-shuffling.

Although the offers in the mail of low-interest balance transfers with credit card convenience cheques should stop: http://www.moneysense.ca/2012/05/22/unsolicited-credit-card-cheques/.  It's been two years since the government announced their plans to ban these cheques.

The $9.9k at 0.99% will have to be transferred to the 5.99% balance by June 1st, 2014, otherwise it'll jump up to the cash advance rate (22.99%, I think).  But that's for next year to worry about.

[Tom]

Geeze, 22.9? that's incredibly evil. I can see the regular rate, but wow...

[Lazybones]

From my experience most $0 fee cards come default with a 18-19% rate from the Banks and if it is a store card like Sears or Canadian Tire it is 20%+.

Cash advance rates are often much higher than the default rate, probably because of higher fraud and chance there is no asset to recover.

Over several years I was able to negotiate my MBNA card down from 18%, to 9.9% for the general transaction rate.. Basically I have the promo rate permanently on all transactions.

The only high rate card I have is my PC Mastercard, but I get 2% or so back on all transactions at Superstore with it and never pay interest by carrying a balance on it.

[Thorin]

Geeze, 22.9? that's incredibly evil. I can see the regular rate, but wow...

That's not far from the norm for cash advance rates. And there's no grace periods on cash advances, either, they start charging interest the moment the transaction posts to the account.

Normally I don't use cash advances from credit cards because they're heinously expensive, but in this case they're giving me 0.99% for a year. Secretly they're hoping I forget to pay it of or transfer it elsewhere after a year, but I'm smart and pay attention to my bills so that won't happen.

Like Lazy said, try hard not to carry a balance on high interest rate cards. Also don't use cash advances and avoid yearly fees if possible. And nowadays, don't go over your limit because instead of declining the card, they'll allow the charge to go through and then charge you $20 for going over your limit.