My next move?

[truthstar]

I'm looking for advice on the direction to take building my credit and save on interest.

First here is a breakdown of my debt:


Car - 3 years left on loan $17000 owed @ 3.69% (anticipate putting $5k towards this loan next Spring) - $502 monthly

Home - purchased April 2016 - FHA $151,000 @ 4.5% - $1150 monthly (plan to refinance in 2 years to drop PMI should interest rates remain favorable)

Student Loans (2) - $202 payment towards both per month (lowest payment possible)
$12,700 @ 6.5%
$4,700 @ 5.1%

I currently work in a position where's $7k of student debt will be forgiven in one year.

Credit Cards
Visa - $2100/$2900 @ 20% interest
Visa - $1600/$3000 @ 23% interest

I anticipate being below 30% utilization before this Fall, which should increase my credit score.

My Credit Karma scores are currently hovering at 660 though my FICA is supposedly 691 (I assume my score is over 700 given the discrepancy when I recently ran my credit report to compare scores)

So I'm considering one of three moves:

1) Refinance my car down to 1.99% which would lower my payment to ~$350 and allow me to ether put the savings towards my student loan or the car's principle

2) Apply for another credit card to transfer my credit card balances to thus saving on interest and lowering my utilization while expanding my credit

3) Consolidate student loans into a personal loan dropping (hopefully) interest from 5.8% to 3.5% allowing me to put more towards other debt or my loans

My monthly income after taxes is $3100 and will increase 5% this October, 10% in one year and another 5% in 15 months. After having multiple move in expensive I'm on pass to save $200-$300 monthly. I have $500 in my savings account.

Which options would save me the best amount of money? I'm assuming that only one scenario is possible given my credit score and the time needed to recovery.

[InvestorShark]

Next move

You've got a lot of debt and I think your primary goal should be living on as little as possible to pay this down.

The car you bought was too expensive. I'm hoping you plan on driving it until it runs into the ground.

Here's what I think regarding your 3 options:
#2: Since I think your primary target should be the credit card balances you're carrying, you should designate this debt to be wiped out first.
#3: I'm not 100% sure, but I'm not sure if you'll find a personal loan with interest rates low enough to refinance the student loans to 3.5%... If you know for sure, let me know who will do that, but I think you should just pay the minimum for now.
#1: This is a solid option. I think you should take the savings from this and knock out your CC debt as quickly as possible, starting with the 23% VI.

The morale of the story should be:
1) Grow your income as much as possible. Your projected growth over the next ~2 years looks really good, but plan on using that growth to get out of debt instead of raising your cost of living.
2) Budget as tightly as possible to put as much towards debt as possible (I'd try to go $700/mo within a year after #1 and your ~15% pay increase).
3) Pay your debts off, 1 by 1, in this order: 1) Credit Cards, highest interest rate first. 2) Put all you can towards the $12.7K student loan. By now you may be able to refinance this, but I don't think you'll get the rate as low as you want. Pay this off as quickly as possible. 3) Pay off the small student loan, this will be knocked out within a couple months, and you'll be down to the car. 4) I wouldn't worry about paying off the car ahead of time at 1.99%... build an emergency savings fund at an online bank up to $15K.

Once you have the emergency fund, the fun begins!

Seriously though, don't buy a car that expensive again until you can pay for it in cash (don't pay for it in cash of course... use that low rate... but you should be able to if you had to).

[snafu]

Welcome to SA. We're all from different backgrounds and experiences so there will be different suggestions. It is critical to stop using credit cards, put the oldest card in the trunk of car under spare tire [only for serious emergency], 2nd card in your fridge freezer.

I'm of the opinion that you need to know where every dollar goes. I would like you to assign every dollar a job. I ask you to actually note every dollar spent [either write in small notebook or cell] for 31 days. That act heightens your spending awareness + reveals leakage.

If you are willing to outline your basic expenses like rent, utilities, cell, food, vehicles loan/maintenance/operation/insurance, food, entertainment, interest sum added on each CC, we can possibly make suggestions to reduce costs, short term. Those interest rates are very troublesome.

[truthstar]

You've got a lot of debt and I think your primary goal should be living on as little as possible to pay this down.

The car you bought was too expensive. I'm hoping you plan on driving it until it runs into the ground.

Here's what I think regarding your 3 options:
#2: Since I think your primary target should be the credit card balances you're carrying, you should designate this debt to be wiped out first.
#3: I'm not 100% sure, but I'm not sure if you'll find a personal loan with interest rates low enough to refinance the student loans to 3.5%... If you know for sure, let me know who will do that, but I think you should just pay the minimum for now.
#1: This is a solid option. I think you should take the savings from this and knock out your CC debt as quickly as possible, starting with the 23% VI.

The morale of the story should be:
1) Grow your income as much as possible. Your projected growth over the next ~2 years looks really good, but plan on using that growth to get out of debt instead of raising your cost of living.
2) Budget as tightly as possible to put as much towards debt as possible (I'd try to go $700/mo within a year after #1 and your ~15% pay increase).
3) Pay your debts off, 1 by 1, in this order: 1) Credit Cards, highest interest rate first. 2) Put all you can towards the $12.7K student loan. By now you may be able to refinance this, but I don't think you'll get the rate as low as you want. Pay this off as quickly as possible. 3) Pay off the small student loan, this will be knocked out within a couple months, and you'll be down to the car. 4) I wouldn't worry about paying off the car ahead of time at 1.99%... build an emergency savings fund at an online bank up to $15K.

Once you have the emergency fund, the fun begins!

Seriously though, don't buy a car that expensive again until you can pay for it in cash (don't pay for it in cash of course... use that low rate... but you should be able to if you had to).

Great information. I appreciate it

[LivingAlmostLarge]

What's your income? The thing is you can't move debt around the only thing you can do is pay it off. So how much per month can go towards debt?