Balance Transfers...

[KeithW]

I have a few cards with balances on them. My new BoA card has zero interest for a while so I am thinking of transfering all my balances over to it and leaving my other cards all with a zero balance. It will still keep my BoA card below 50% utilization. Credit score wise is this a good decision?

[jsucool76]

Is the balance transfer APR 0% as well? Sometimes they're different. Also, is it gonna take you long enough to pay off the balances that your interest charges would be more than your BT fee? 

If you're not going to be able to pay it off for a while and the interest you would pay is more than your BT fee, than it's definitely an option. FICO-wise it would lower your "Cards reporting a balance" to 1 which would pop your score up a little AFAIK. 

[KeithW]

I will have to check on the transfer interest rate, but I am almost certain that it is 0%.

[Crashem]

What's the bt fee?

[Scuba]

I think jsucool76 is correct.  At least in my case those "little" balances on 4 accounts when combined, created a larger single balance owed and tanked my score by 24 points.

[Anonymous]

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@jsucool76 wrote:

Is the balance transfer APR 0% as well? Sometimes they're different. Also, is it gonna take you long enough to pay off the balances that your interest charges would be more than your BT fee? 

If you're not going to be able to pay it off for a while and the interest you would pay is more than your BT fee, than it's definitely an option. FICO-wise it would lower your "Cards reporting a balance" to 1 which would pop your score up a little AFAIK. 

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+1