[Insert sigh]
Sigh of relief.
So today I officially finished paying off Scruffy's medical bills.
R.I.P. KITTY HOSPITAL DEBT: April 2007 - October 2009.
I have mentioned the general debt a few times but I don't like to go on and on about money. I am really proud though and I'm proof that an unexpected debt doesn't need to drown you completely. In case I didn't spell it out before, this is how I did it..
When Scruffy first went in to the hospital they sat me down to talk about the finances (Angell Memorial has a whole department for figuring out the money). They said I qualified for a few thousand dollar 'loan' from Care Credit (a credit card specifically for medical bills - human or animal). It actually wasn't enough for the proposed treatments he had already had (surgery) and would need (radiation/follow ups). But they called the company right then and got my limit extended. It was around 10k total. Care Credit would give me 1 year with NO INTEREST.
I had SOME money that I had been scraping into a savings account and that immediately went to pay off as much of the bill as possible. And I received a few donations from family and friends (thank you friends) which I sent off to Care Credit too.
After that I made sure to pay THAT ONE BILL FIRST every month. Gas/electric/phone could WAIT and were way more flexible - even if they didn't know it. ;) I paid as much as possible to the Scruffy bill each month.
When the interest free time on the card was coming to an end I did a balance transfer to 2 other cards that were interest free - one for a year, one for 6 months (these offers come in the mail ALL THE TIME and if you're smart, they can be legit). Balance transfers come with a small fee (1%-3% of the amount transferred) but they are usually interest free for a year. I did this TWICE with this debt - each time finding a new interest free offer before the interest free time ran out on the previous card. The interest-free period ran out on the last card a little while back but the bill was down to a very reasonable amount and it wasn't worth the fee to transfer it to another card.
All in all I only paid interest on $500 of the entire debt.
Towards the end it wasn't a huge monthly payment but back in the beginning I was paying around $500/mo when I could swing it. Then down to $250/mo then more recently about $100/mo.
And that's the whole story.
As far as I know it was good for my credit - and because I paid my bill early every month I now have a really good interest rate on that last card which I'll now keep as my only credit card.
The whole thing is terrible and sad and I wish it had never happened but I can't help feeling great that I was able to do this (for him) and keep myself out of money trouble.
I'm so lucky that I had the option to get the interest free card at the beginning and the savings I had took a little chunk out of the initial bill. Yeah it sucked to have all that nest egg disappear in one go but it was worth it to not have to think about it NOW.
I've said it before and I'll say it again - BITTERSWEET.
I deactivated the monthly reminder to pay his bill. Little dude will always be in my heart but that difficult, negative-connotation-y reminder won't be coming in regularly and that's nice.
That cat changed my life and touched a lot of others.
Aren't we lucky?
xo
So today I officially finished paying off Scruffy's medical bills.
R.I.P. KITTY HOSPITAL DEBT: April 2007 - October 2009.
I have mentioned the general debt a few times but I don't like to go on and on about money. I am really proud though and I'm proof that an unexpected debt doesn't need to drown you completely. In case I didn't spell it out before, this is how I did it..
When Scruffy first went in to the hospital they sat me down to talk about the finances (Angell Memorial has a whole department for figuring out the money). They said I qualified for a few thousand dollar 'loan' from Care Credit (a credit card specifically for medical bills - human or animal). It actually wasn't enough for the proposed treatments he had already had (surgery) and would need (radiation/follow ups). But they called the company right then and got my limit extended. It was around 10k total. Care Credit would give me 1 year with NO INTEREST.
I had SOME money that I had been scraping into a savings account and that immediately went to pay off as much of the bill as possible. And I received a few donations from family and friends (thank you friends) which I sent off to Care Credit too.
After that I made sure to pay THAT ONE BILL FIRST every month. Gas/electric/phone could WAIT and were way more flexible - even if they didn't know it. ;) I paid as much as possible to the Scruffy bill each month.
When the interest free time on the card was coming to an end I did a balance transfer to 2 other cards that were interest free - one for a year, one for 6 months (these offers come in the mail ALL THE TIME and if you're smart, they can be legit). Balance transfers come with a small fee (1%-3% of the amount transferred) but they are usually interest free for a year. I did this TWICE with this debt - each time finding a new interest free offer before the interest free time ran out on the previous card. The interest-free period ran out on the last card a little while back but the bill was down to a very reasonable amount and it wasn't worth the fee to transfer it to another card.
All in all I only paid interest on $500 of the entire debt.
Towards the end it wasn't a huge monthly payment but back in the beginning I was paying around $500/mo when I could swing it. Then down to $250/mo then more recently about $100/mo.
And that's the whole story.
As far as I know it was good for my credit - and because I paid my bill early every month I now have a really good interest rate on that last card which I'll now keep as my only credit card.
The whole thing is terrible and sad and I wish it had never happened but I can't help feeling great that I was able to do this (for him) and keep myself out of money trouble.
I'm so lucky that I had the option to get the interest free card at the beginning and the savings I had took a little chunk out of the initial bill. Yeah it sucked to have all that nest egg disappear in one go but it was worth it to not have to think about it NOW.
I've said it before and I'll say it again - BITTERSWEET.
I deactivated the monthly reminder to pay his bill. Little dude will always be in my heart but that difficult, negative-connotation-y reminder won't be coming in regularly and that's nice.
That cat changed my life and touched a lot of others.
Aren't we lucky?
xo