BT Question: In Particular to Discover and Barclay

[Absolution16]

I was looking to do a balance transfer of about $2,500 and was looking for a 0% BT offers around.  Barclay has been bombarding me with 0% BT offers, but my Arrival World MC (No-AF Version) only had $1,500 limit, which makes it quite difficult to take advantage of their offer.  I did call them this morning, asking to see if there were any offers to "reduce my APR" and got transferred to a specialist lady, who got my 20.24% APR down to ~16%, as well as a SP CLI to $2,200.  Since the first couple of months when I was using it to meet the spend requirement, I hardly put any puchases on the card at all, so I was happy with that.

I bit the bullet and applied for Discover It 18-month BT offer.  The standard offer is the normal 0% APR on BOTH purchases and BT for 12 months, but this one is the one with 0% APR on purchases for 6 months, and 0% APR on BT for 18 months.  After sending them verification for my address and social security number, I was approved for $4,000 limit.  I was hoping for more, but didn't want to be too pushy, so I didn't request for higher SL with the lady on the phone.

Now, I have read the fine print about how you will be charged interest WITHOUT grace period on your purchases after you make any BTs.  But if you have a 0% APR on purchases for 6 months as it is with my new Discover It, am I safe to assume that, after making a BT, any purchases I make with the card will be interest free as long as I pay ALL of the purchase amounts before the 6th statement gets cut?  For example, if I make a BT for $2,000 on the Discover card, and make $1,000 on purchases on the card, but pay off all of the $1,000 in purchases before the 6th statement is cut, in addition to partial payments to bring down the BT amount, would I be free from incurring additional interest?

Also, I want to know just exactly how much is considered unsafe to initially do a BT in relation to the total CL, in particular to Discover and Barclay specifically?  Would it be safe to make timely payments well above the minimum, but just enough ratio wise to be able to pay off in given number of months? e.g.: $3,600 BT amount / 18 months = $200 monthly payment.

As a side note, I live in SoCal, and Discover pulled from ONLY Equifax.  My Experian is frozen right now.

[Anonymous]

I don't know about Barclay, but in my experience Discover has been great for balance transfers. We transferred 2,820 on 3,000 limit (94% util) with no problems. And got $500 91-day clis while paying off the balance (in 12 equal pmts), which helped util. Good luck!

[negg]

Imho Barclays loves BT more then pos transactions.  I'd call and see if they would increase your CL on your arrival card. If not start BT amount under your CL and make $200+ monthly payments.  In a year your CL should triple at the min.  I've gone from 1000 to 10,000+ on my apple card in 3 years.  

GL 

[Anonymous]

You can make purchaes on the discover whilst having a BT as long as you know that whatever amount you pay above the minimum applies to those purchases first (or whichever BT is expiring first). Just make sure you pay enough to cover them.  

With barclays, you could take the HP if you want and if you arent approved for the full amount, then call in and recon to the EO.

I would try to plan ahead for the future and good thing is, with discover years down the road it will always function as a no fee 4.99% card.  Do debt shuffles where you transfer the balance from the card charging you interest (that may or may not be sending you 0% offers at the same time) to another card that has 0% bt fees regardless of the APR, then as soon as it posts to the other card, transfer it to the 0%.

Just be careful and don't make a habit of it unless you can afford to do it.

[Absolution16]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I don't know about Barclay, but in my experience Discover has been great for balance transfers. We transferred 2,820 on 3,000 limit (94% util) with no problems. And got $500 91-day clis while paying off the balance (in 12 equal pmts), which helped util. Good luck!

---

 Thank you so much for that handy information!  That give me optimism.  Seriously!

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@negg wrote:

Imho Barclays loves BT more then pos transactions.  I'd call and see if they would increase your CL on your arrival card. If not start BT amount under your CL and make $200+ monthly payments.  In a year your CL should triple at the min.  I've gone from 1000 to 10,000+ on my apple card in 3 years.  

GL 

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Congrats on your progress with the CLI.  That is incredible progress!

As previously stated, I called them to ask for an APR reduction and they reduced it from 20.24% to ~16%ish, as well as a SP CLI from $1,500 to $2,200.  I didn't press them further for more CLI.

My concern is in how much is safe to BT with them given that I would be making steady and continous equal monthly payments over 12, 15, or 18 months.

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@Anonymous wrote:

You can make purchaes on the discover whilst having a BT as long as you know that whatever amount you pay above the minimum applies to those purchases first (or whichever BT is expiring first). Just make sure you pay enough to cover them.  

With barclays, you could take the HP if you want and if you arent approved for the full amount, then call in and recon to the EO.

I would try to plan ahead for the future and good thing is, with discover years down the road it will always function as a no fee 4.99% card.  Do debt shuffles where you transfer the balance from the card charging you interest (that may or may not be sending you 0% offers at the same time) to another card that has 0% bt fees regardless of the APR, then as soon as it posts to the other card, transfer it to the 0%.

Just be careful and don't make a habit of it unless you can afford to do it.

---

This page, which I happened to run across, gave me some very useful insight.  Others may want to refer to it here also.  It answered some of my concerns plus some more.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Using-a-CC-with-a-Balance-Transfer-without-added-interest-cost/td-p/4113243

As for HP CLI, I am NOT willing to do that with this card.  And I think it would be kinda silly to recon an SP CLI, wouldn't it?

Also, could you elaborate on your comment about the Discover It card effectively being a no fee 4.99% card?  I don't understand what you mean by it.

I would also be extremely careful with shuffling.  You are right, and it sounds risky, mainly because I don't think I can handle it.

Thank you for the tip!

[Anonymous]

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@Absolution16 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
I don't know about Barclay, but in my experience Discover has been great for balance transfers. We transferred 2,820 on 3,000 limit (94% util) with no problems. And got $500 91-day clis while paying off the balance (in 12 equal pmts), which helped util. Good luck!

---

 Thank you so much for that handy information!  That give me optimism.  Seriously!

---

@negg wrote:

Imho Barclays loves BT more then pos transactions.  I'd call and see if they would increase your CL on your arrival card. If not start BT amount under your CL and make $200+ monthly payments.  In a year your CL should triple at the min.  I've gone from 1000 to 10,000+ on my apple card in 3 years.  

GL 

---

Congrats on your progress with the CLI.  That is incredible progress!

As previously stated, I called them to ask for an APR reduction and they reduced it from 20.24% to ~16%ish, as well as a SP CLI from $1,500 to $2,200.  I didn't press them further for more CLI.

My concern is in how much is safe to BT with them given that I would be making steady and continous equal monthly payments over 12, 15, or 18 months.

---

@Anonymous wrote:

You can make purchaes on the discover whilst having a BT as long as you know that whatever amount you pay above the minimum applies to those purchases first (or whichever BT is expiring first). Just make sure you pay enough to cover them.  

With barclays, you could take the HP if you want and if you arent approved for the full amount, then call in and recon to the EO.

I would try to plan ahead for the future and good thing is, with discover years down the road it will always function as a no fee 4.99% card.  Do debt shuffles where you transfer the balance from the card charging you interest (that may or may not be sending you 0% offers at the same time) to another card that has 0% bt fees regardless of the APR, then as soon as it posts to the other card, transfer it to the 0%.

Just be careful and don't make a habit of it unless you can afford to do it.

---

This page, which I happened to run across, gave me some very useful insight.  Others may want to refer to it here also.  It answered some of my concerns plus some more.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Using-a-CC-with-a-Balance-Transfer-without-added-interest-cost/td-p/4113243

As for HP CLI, I am NOT willing to do that with this card.  And I think it would be kinda silly to recon an SP CLI, wouldn't it?

Also, could you elaborate on your comment about the Discover It card effectively being a no fee 4.99% card?  I don't understand what you mean by it.

I would also be extremely careful with shuffling.  You are right, and it sounds risky, mainly because I don't think I can handle it.

Thank you for the tip!

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you can't recon a SP cli really. I meant HP.

Discover it almost always has 18 month  no fee 4.99% apr balance transfers.