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Balance Transfers and Avoiding Issues

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Johnny_Favorite
Regular Contributor

Balance Transfers and Avoiding Issues

I know I've read stories of people who played Balance Transfer Shell Game and got their cards reduced or straight up shut down. My question is, what is a good rule of thumb when using a balance transfer? Once a year? Every 6 months? I'm going to ask a few other dumb questions/scenarios to make sure I never make a dumb decision.

 

If you apply for one card with a $3000 balance and run it up to $1000 and then subsequently get approved for a $10,000 card the next month, is it bad to transfer the balance to the higher card for utilization purposes? No, I haven't done this, I am just trying to figure out what banks like/don't like.

 

Say you have low balances on 10 cards - $100 bucks per card. You were going to pay them off but you decide to BT them to a card with a high limit. Bad idea to do this? Does it look like you're a lame person who can't pay a low bill?

 

Thanks in advance. If anybody else has any dumb questions, ask them here.

 

 




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2 REPLIES 2
john398
Senior Contributor

Re: Balance Transfers and Avoiding Issues


@Johnny_Favorite wrote:

I know I've read stories of people who played Balance Transfer Shell Game and got their cards reduced or straight up shut down. My question is, what is a good rule of thumb when using a balance transfer? Once a year? Every 6 months? I'm going to ask a few other dumb questions/scenarios to make sure I never make a dumb decision.

 

If you apply for one card with a $3000 balance and run it up to $1000 and then subsequently get approved for a $10,000 card the next month, is it bad to transfer the balance to the higher card for utilization purposes? No, I haven't done this, I am just trying to figure out what banks like/don't like.

 

Say you have low balances on 10 cards - $100 bucks per card. You were going to pay them off but you decide to BT them to a card with a high limit. Bad idea to do this? Does it look like you're a lame person who can't pay a low bill?

 

Thanks in advance. If anybody else has any dumb questions, ask them here.

 

 


I would not say that is bad, because the 10k card with 1k ballance transfer would only be 10% util on that one card but 33% on the 3k card

Message 2 of 3
FutureBillionaire
Established Contributor

Re: Balance Transfers and Avoiding Issues

I've done balance transfers on 2 of my cards.  I only transfer from one card with a large balance that I need to pay off. I have transferred to two other cards that have had great offers.  I take advantage of the offers as they come and I haven't had any issues.  I think utilization probably plays a big part in them closing cards and cutting limits.

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