Best Balance Transfer Card

[onstar]

Yup. Chase Slate is the best. 0% interest for BT for 15 months, $0 BT fee, and $0 AF.

Also consider:

Barclay US Airways (3% BT fee; 0% on BT transfer for 15 months; $89 AF). Yeah, you gotta pay 3% fee and $89 AF, but you get 50,000 miles after first purchase & paying AF; this is basically a free plane ticket. So if you will be needing a plane ticket in the near future, then this might be a good option for you.

[1_2]

I wish these pre-qualifed letters they send me weekly would state an amount but none of them do. (sigh) I'm worried if I only got say a 4000.00 or 4500.00 limit what that would do to my credit by putting that much on it or God forbid I wasted a hard pull and didnt even get approved for enough to cover all my balances. I've never been very good at calling for recon. I mustered up enough courage to do it with Capital One and it worked out well but I was trembling. I'm such a "fraidy" cat then when my first 61 days were over with AMEX I didnt have the nerve to ask them for 3x my limit and only asked for 2x. Then I forgot about it until recently and again, only asked them to double it. I could kick myself over that. I dont know why I'm that way,. I could have had that limit really high by now if I had kept at it.

[NRB525]

First off, sorry to hear you are out of work.

Second off, um, on these apps they are likely going to ask for income level. I'm not sure your current status will support a new app, at least not one that gets scrutinized.

What are the existing interest rates you have? Can you list out your cards, what their interest rate is, and how much is owed on each card?

You have only $3k outstanding. Why can't you just pay those off in place, emphasizing getting the high interest card out of the way first then working down? If you are talking paying it off in 6 months anyway, that is usually not a lot of interest cost, even on a high rate card, if you pay it down in the first month with your $500 per month you are planning on paying anyway. $3,400 at even 20%, compounded for 6 months (if you did not make ANY payments) is only $376. You will be making payments, however, and you may have some cards less than 20% compounding, so this amount drops substantially.

Not worth the app, in my opinion. Worth the faster action to just pay down the existing cards.

[1_2]

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@onstar wrote:

Yup. Chase Slate is the best. 0% interest for BT for 15 months, $0 BT fee, and $0 AF.

Also consider:

Barclay US Airways (3% BT fee; 0% on BT transfer for 15 months; $89 AF). Yeah, you gotta pay 3% fee and $89 AF, but you get 50,000 miles after first purchase & paying AF; this is basically a free plane ticket. So if you will be needing a plane ticket in the near future, then this might be a good option for you.

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Thank you but I doubt I will be traveling very much for the next year. I still appreciate your input though. It looks like everyone agrees Chase Slate would be my best bet.

[NRB525]

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@onstar wrote:

Yup. Chase Slate is the best. 0% interest for BT for 15 months, $0 BT fee, and $0 AF.

Also consider:

Barclay US Airways (3% BT fee; 0% on BT transfer for 15 months; $89 AF). Yeah, you gotta pay 3% fee and $89 AF, but you get 50,000 miles after first purchase & paying AF; this is basically a free plane ticket. So if you will be needing a plane ticket in the near future, then this might be a good option for you.

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The 3% BT fee is going to be wasted because OP is going to pay down the cards in 6 months. So it's really a 6%+ annuallized, hard cost (not decreasing APR monthly cost) to pay up front.

The $89 AF up front, regardless of the miles, is another hard cost OP does not need.

Combine the $100 BT fee with the $89 AF up front, thats $190, compared to the worst case existing 20% APR which is $370 if all payments were delayed, but payments are happening in 6 months, so it's down to around $200 if paid in place anyway.

The US Airways card works for some. For this situation, not a good idea.

[1_2]

I pulled the trigger on the Chase Slate. It says no annual fee. They only gave me a 6,500.00 limit though. I said I was planning on paying off the cards in six months but that also depends on medical bills that I will surely be facing. I want to try to pay those as I go. Under the circumstance, that might not be easy and its possible I wouldnt be able to pay my cards off in six months. I would rather be safe than sorry. I know the hard pull isnt a good thing but I already did it.

At least now I wont have to worry about paying but one credit card bill per month. Last month I was upset awaiting test results I forgot to pay my cards on the date I normally do. Thankfully I came to my senses just in the nick of time and wasnt late on any but it was too close for comfort. Once I realize I had almost missed making my payments on time I did set up auto pay on all the cards I could but Walmart Mastercard didnt have that option.

I'm thinking with all I'm going through I will just set the Chase card up to pay automatically. I'm sure they do that because as I said, I have my mortgage with them and its on auto pay.

I am dissapointed in the credit limit though and the approval notice said if I needed more to cover my needs I can call them once I get the card. I may do that if I dont chicken out. I will simply say I would like a limit that would keep my balance below 30% unless some of you can advice me something better to say.

Thanks again to everyone for all your wonderful advice. My fico forums is and has been my go to for all things credit. I've gone from hacing horrid credit to excellent and a home owner thanks to all the advice I've gotten here.

[NRB525]

Congratulations on the new Slate! That limit will be fine.

Your utilization will be fine, because you have no reason to worry about a few points drop in your FICO, you will not be apping anything until this balance is down and you are back to work anyway.

Set the autopay to pace the amount to the expiration of the 0% period, dont try to pay it in 6 months, it is better to go slower now with 0%.

Good luck, and best wishes for a speedy recovery!

[Anonymous]

Congratulations! Good choice.

[wacdenney]

The thing about Slate is what are you suppose to do with it once your BT is paid off?  It becomes pretty useless.  I would rather pay the 3% and have a card I could keep personally.  I would have voted for Discover but meh Slate is good and not transfer fee.  You could always move the limit to a different Chase card once the limit is paid off I suppose.