BBR Offer to Put Balance in Checking Account

[Anonymous]

I called BoA today about CLI and APR reduction; was granted both.  About to hang up when the lady tells me I have special, limited time offer on my new BBR that I was approved for just over 2 weeks ago: a one-time transfer of $7,000 from my CL ($7,500 limit on card, only ever put up to $20 on it monthly) to my checking account...0% interest for the first 12 months.  My first thought was to take $5,500 of it to fund my IRA and then pay it back over the next few months so I get the extra year of interest.  This seems almost too good to be true; am I missing something? 

I just realized I should ask to see if there if this counts as a cash advance or if there's a balance transfer fee...other than that is there any reason not to take their offer?

[emptypockets]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So I called BoA today since I recently got updated to Visa Signature on my 1-2-3 card...they were able to increase my CL from $5,000 to $10,100 and lower my APR from 19.99% to 12.99%!  Pretty happy with that 

Was about to hang up when the lady tells me I have special, limited time offer on my new BBR that I was approved for just over 2 weeks ago: a one-time transfer of $7,000 from my CL ($7,500 limit on card, only ever put up to $20 on it monthly) to my checking account...0% interest for the first 12 months.  My first thought was to take $5,500 of it to fund my IRA and then pay it back over the next few months so I get the extra year of interest.  This seems almost too good to be true; am I missing something? 

I just realized I should ask to see if there if this counts as a cash advance or if there's a balance transfer fee...other than that is there any reason not to take their offer?

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They actually have a offer like this on the BBR card fairly regularly - it can be accessed though your online account access and is not treated as a cash advance. On mine, on the right hand side (after I log in) there is a logo for offers of "Low APR Balance Transfer." On the bottom, there is a link that says learn more. Once you click the link, your offes for BT appear, and on the right of the screen, there is Logo that says "Need more Flexibility" that says you can request a direct deposit to your checking account.

@Anonymous offers are the same terms (3% fee, 12 mos @ 0%; 15 mos @ 1.99%, but if the Direct Deposit amount is not paid off during the promo term, it defaults to the Cash Advance APR, not your regular purchase APR.

Whether you take the offer or not depends on whether it is a good financial decision for you, and your needs.

[kdm31091]

It will not count as a cash advance, but keep in mind the utilization on the card will skyrocket to being almost maxed out, which will ding your score for awhile and could raise eyebrows from other lenders. Just something to keep in mind. There are always tradeoffs to "free money" like this.

If it were me and I wanted to use the offer I'd probably refrain from using all 7k out of 7.5k limit. I'd do something more modest. Util has no memory, so not so much worried about the score part, but just the practically maxed out card ringing alarm bells.

[Imperfectfuture]

Agree with KDM. I was offered over 5k balance with 1% fee for 12 months. But that would be hideous. I actually took the minimum for the minimum fee, $5. Maxing card out not good idea. Even the bank itself would raise eyebrows at this. My utl on that card now stands between 16% and 18% (the transfer has not posted yet). I do not usually charge more than 20%, most paid off same month, and many other cards need to be at 0 balance.