SERIOUS money question: NEED HELP!!!

Good tips. If I could add one more it would be to pay off your auto loan asap and drop full coverage auto insurance (if you're not accident prone). Also, borrow to pay off your Needs not your Wants.

Excellent points. My last tax refund payed off my car :)

That brings me to another question. I can count the interest I pay on my house for my taxes. This is the first year I've been able to do that. That should give me a big fat return right?

saden, When I call the credit card company to get my rate lowered, what do I say? I hate sounding like a dumbass who doesn't know what he's talking about when I make a call, so I want to know some official stuff to say.

That brings me to another question. I can count the interest I pay on my house for my taxes. This is the first year I've been able to do that. That should give me a big fat return right?

We didn't see a big change realtive to the interest we paid on our property taxes. I guess it's relative to how much you paid though.

Well, before I bought my house I was maybe getting back a total of like 200 bucks from the goverment, while my fiancee (who takes zero exemptions) gets like 1000 bucks back. I would love a big fat return this year so I can pay off my car too.

That brings me to another question. I can count the interest I pay on my house for my taxes. This is the first year I've been able to do that. That should give me a big fat return right?

It all depends on how much taxes and interest you paid. The government is not going to give you money back for taxes you haven't paid (except for those who qualify for earned income credit). If you pay $10K in interest alone on your house and your income was say 40K then uncle same will only charge you taxes on 30K worth of income (40K-10K=30K).

saden, When I call the credit card company to get my rate lowered, what do I say? I hate sounding like a dumbass who doesn't know what he's talking about when I make a call, so I want to know some official stuff to say.

I simply call up and say I would like to get my interest rate decreased and my limit increased. You don't want to be a douchebag and make demands because most people and companies don't like douchebags. If you are a good customer you'll have no problem. Be aware of what the current WSJ Prime Rate is because no one is going to give you a card whose interest is less than that. If a company is offering you WSJ Prime + 1 point that's a good deal. Oh and whatever you do do try to get your rate fixed. Right now is not a good time to fix your rate but it sure beats variable rate if the prime rate goes through the roof.

Also make sure that you don't max out your credit cards. That's a big red flag. You shouldn't use more than 33% of your credit limit which is one of the reasons why you should get your limit increased every now and then.

One more thing, be realistic. If you only make 30K and you ask them to increase your limit to 20K they'll probably tell you to fuck off in a nice way.

there are a lot of member son this furum if everone donated 1 dollar....

I simply call up and say I would like to get my interest rate decreased and my limit increased. You don't want to be a douchebag and make demands because most people and companies don't like douchebags. If you are a good customer you'll have no problem. Be aware of what the current WSJ Prime Rate is because no one is going to give you a card whose interest is less than that. If a company is offering you WSJ Prime + 1 point that's a good deal. Oh and whatever you do do try to get your rate fixed. Right now is not a good time to fix your rate but it sure beats variable rate if the prime rate goes through the roof.

Also make sure that you don't max out your credit cards. That's a big red flag. You shouldn't use more than 33% of your credit limit which is one of the reasons why you should get your limit increased every now and then.

One more thing, be realistic. If you only make 30K and you ask them to increase your limit to 20K they'll probably tell you to fuck off in a nice way.

Excellent. Thanks. Yeah, typically I do my limit increasing online, but I never knew I could get my interest rate lowered.

If they agree to lower your rate you can always toss out the "I'm going to move my balance to another card" routine.

But as long as you're in good standing there's really no reason why they wouldn't work with you. They want to keep good customers.