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My credit union approved me for their branded Visa card with a $6500 CL and free balance transfers, and 0% for 12 months, and 12.99% after.
I've currently got $4100 in balances across 4 other cards, each of which is at ~20% interest. Would it be wise to do balance transfers of all of those other cards onto my CU card and work at paying that down as quickly as possible (ideally all within the 0% period)?
This would drive my utilization on the new CU visa to 65%, but it would put my other cards at zero. I know FICO scores are calculated both on overall and individual utilization, so I don't know if this is smart or not.
@dowel911 wrote:My credit union approved me for their branded Visa card with a $6500 CL and free balance transfers, and 0% for 12 months, and 12.99% after.
I've currently got $4100 in balances across 4 other cards, each of which is at ~20% interest. Would it be wise to do balance transfers of all of those other cards onto my CU card and work at paying that down as quickly as possible (ideally all within the 0% period)?
This would drive my utilization on the new CU visa to 65%, but it would put my other cards at zero. I know FICO scores are calculated both on overall and individual utilization, so I don't know if this is smart or not.
If you're not going to be applying for anything where score is ultra-important at the moment, I'd transfer them all over to the CU card.
@visorboy1974 wrote:
@dowel911 wrote:My credit union approved me for their branded Visa card with a $6500 CL and free balance transfers, and 0% for 12 months, and 12.99% after.
I've currently got $4100 in balances across 4 other cards, each of which is at ~20% interest. Would it be wise to do balance transfers of all of those other cards onto my CU card and work at paying that down as quickly as possible (ideally all within the 0% period)?
This would drive my utilization on the new CU visa to 65%, but it would put my other cards at zero. I know FICO scores are calculated both on overall and individual utilization, so I don't know if this is smart or not.
If you're not going to be applying for anything where score is ultra-important at the moment, I'd transfer them all over to the CU card.
I've done my app spree lately, so I'm done for a good while. I got the CU VIsa, Zync, Discover More, and a Sams Club Discover all in the past 2 months.
I won't be app'ing for anything until I start looking at new cars early next year. And I'll probably try to stick with my CU for that since they've already given me a great rate on my current vehicle.
Perfect example of credit not being an ends but a means. A high credit score, in and of itself, does nothing. It should be a tool to help you reach your financial goals. In this case, go for the BT unless you think you are irresponsible with your credit and it will cause you to run up your debt more. No financial downsides to BT as no BT fee and interest even after the 0% teaser rate is done is still lower than your other cards. It will help you pay down your debt faster.
Additionally, in your case, I am unclear if your credit score would take a hit. It actually might go up. You remove the dings from have sheer number of cards with balance. Remove any util dings from those individual cards. Obviously you get dinged for having new card with util, but you are below 80% util on that CU card so ding is lessened.
@Crashem wrote:Perfect example of credit not being an ends but a means. A high credit score, in and of itself, doesn't nothing. It should be a tool to help you reach your financial goals. In this case, go for the BT unless you think you are irresponsible with your credit and it will cause you to run up your debt more. No financial downsides to BT as no BT fee and interest even after the 0% teaser rate is done is still lower than your other cards. It will help you pay down your debt faster.
Additionally, in your case, I am unclear if your credit score would take a hit. It actually might go up. You remove the dings from have sheer number of cards with balance. Remove any util dings from those individual cards. Obviously you get dinged for having new card with util, but you are below 80% util on that CU card so ding is lessened.
I made my mistakes with credit years ago, abused the heck out of it in college, and had absolutely nothing to show for it. Since then, I've paid everything down to a very manageable level, and am working hard to get my overall utilization down under 10% by the end of the year. I'm at ~20% right now.