Thursday, August 13, 2020

Tally

I went looking for something like Tally when it hit me that our credit cards had ballooned higher than we have ever let them get previously. My wife and I shared one credit card for many years and hardly used it, mostly just building our credit with it. We add a Best Buy card because... well I love Best Buy so it was inevitable. And then we added a Chase card because my wife worked there and they gave us a good mortgage, and they upgraded our checking and savings accounts for free. 

At this point we still rarely used our cards. Made mistakes of not paying off 0% financing a few times but nothing out of hand. It wasn't until just last year when we were guided by our loan officer to not touch our savings account as we were waiting to close on our mortgage. We did all we could to get this house and it kept feeling like things were going to fall through. So we ran up the cards to keep our savings "untouched". I felt like we knew it was a mistake at the time, but we were in a rush and we found the house we were looking for. 

But no matter the excuse, we messed up and ran up the cards. I haven't been working and at times I feel like I have too much time on my hands. I find myself constantly searching for products and tips and tricks for chipping away at debt, especially credit card debt. Luckily I found Tally.

I was nervous to try it, but they state that it is only a soft credit pull. A year later it has not shown on my credit report. You download the app and fill out the information that they ask. All the usual for revolving credit lines. I was initially disappointed when I got to the part about income, since I don't have a job and all, but after looking through the app I found an explanation that I could use household income and included my wife's. I can't remember exactly what my credit score was but I know it was around low to mid 700s. They say you "typically" need to have a 660 or higher. They provide an APR of 7.9% to 25.9%. I started with a 9.9% but it is now down to 7.65% from fiat crashing from the pandemic and all.

Blah blah blah so far, right? There are a couple features that you benefit from with Tally. They provide a $3000 revolving line, that you don't get to touch. First you set up all your credit cards with them. Not all of them are going to work, I did recently sign up for the Apple card. Apple is all secure or something like that, so they won't let 3rd party apps connect in such a way. So for the cards that you are able to connect you will fill out their APR rates and if you are under any bonuses. From there Tally decides which cards to pay down with that $3000, but you can switch on and off which cards you want Tally to pay. However, even if you turn off Tally pay for a specific card, they will still make the monthly payment on each card as long as you keep up with payments on Tally. Ultimately you are still going to be paying the minimums on cards that go over the $3000 cap. So like with us, they may not cover all of your balances but they will reduce the APR for the $3000 amount and make sure your monthly minimums are paid on time. They will pay minimums even if it goes over the $3000, but they will increase your minimum payment enough to get you back under that $3000 cap.

They do not report to the credit bureaus and this actually boosted my credit score since it lowered my balances on my actual cards. Down the road when we catch up and pay down our cards, I will still continue to use Tally since it will allow me to pay all my cards in one place. 

This is my referral link, I will receive a gift card for each signup: https://meettally.app.link/on8dAnn8Q6


Monday, August 10, 2020

Website

 Looks like my first step is going to be some edits to this damn website. I'm still cheap, possibly even cheaper than ever, so I'm sticking with Google, but either Blogger or their sites package. I like the ease of staying with Blogger, for the blog and all, but Google sites look a bit more professional. Not that I care about looking professional or anything. 

Some of my updates will be putting software development on the back burning and removing those pages to focus more on YouTube and my new found love of investing and saving money!! I'll get back to my live streams, any day now, and start blogging about different financial apps and investing that I have gotten into. 

I will also keep a list of referrals of the various apps that I am using. Most of the links will earn me money if you use them and sign up for the service and most will also earn yourself some if you decide to use them. 

This list is rough and a mess. I might make separate pages to group them and will be making blog posts about some of them. https://thebze.blogspot.com/p/financial-apps-and-referral-links.html


Thursday, August 6, 2020

God I’m lazy, but I’m going to come back.

This is my commitment. Coming back to YouTube and going to mess with my site again.