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I would like to transfer credit balances to save on interest and am wondering what the best option would be in my situation. Here is a breakdown of the current situation:
Chase Freedom Card - $8.5k balance - 15.24% interest rate - Per the website, no transer offers available
Discover Card - $7.2k balance - 14.99% interest rate (they reduced to 12.99% on new purchases when I contacted them today) - Per the website 0% promo APR for 12 months with 2% transfer fee or 3.99% APR for 18 months with 0% transfer fee.
Citi Diamond Preferred - No balance - 19.99% interest rate
Would it be best to transfer Chase to Discover or can I find a better card to transfer to?
Thanks!
Navy Federal has a BT promo going right now. If you can get in with them it's a pretty sweet offer.
Bank of America has the BankAmericard, 0% APR for 18 months or so and no balance transfer fee. I consolidated my last bit of credit debt onto that card last year.
You don't say how much of a CL you have on Discover to accomodate the Chase balance. Depending on the balance you could take a hit on utilization for the card, but if you're not applying for anything and just want to pay down faster it can be OK. I wouldn't want to BT to a card with a balance since any payment will usually go to the highest interest balance first. Although it depends on how much you are paying toward the balance. Selecting the particular promo depends on how long it will take you to pay down the debt. I'd suggest to find a payback calculator, particularly a snowball option type, online and input your data and look at different options.
Thanks. CL on the Discover card is $15,700 so have approximately $8,400 availabe balance. What is a typical credit line for new cards such as BoA or Navy Federal (we have good credit)? If I am only going to get a credit limit of $1k it doesn't make much sense to even apply.
@Anonymous wrote:Thanks. CL on the Discover card is $15,700 so have approximately $8,400 availabe balance. What is a typical credit line for new cards such as BoA or Navy Federal (we have good credit)? If I am only going to get a credit limit of $1k it doesn't make much sense to even apply.
It's very hard to give hard-and-fast figures on average starting limits for cards, since the issuers will vary wildly depending on your profile (not just your FICO scores). To take my own example, I got a prequalified offer for Capital One's Quicksilver Rewards Visa and put in an application, hoping to get a SL of something like $4,000 based on my most recent successful app (Care Credit), and was stunned to get a $10K SL. Needless to say, that opens up a wide variety of possibilities for consolidating and reducing my existing balances across my portfolio if I arrange things the right way. Personally, I'd try, allowing for available balances and APR's, to not exceed the magic 30% utilization mark on any card.
Thanks Joe! Can you explain your last statement "Personally, I'd try, allowing for available balances and APR's, to not exceed the magic 30% utilization mark on any card." a bit more?
The percentage of a card's balance relative to its limit is called utilization. The term is also applied to total balances relative to total limits. You can refer to individal card utilization or aggregate utilization.
"Below 30%" means to use 28.9% of a card's limit or below, or in aggregate, to use 28.9% or less of your total available credit limits. This is the threshold that's considered responsible borrowing. The reason for 28.9% is that 29.0000001% rounds up to 30, and you're no longer below that threshold.
8.9% or below is even better as that optimizes scoring.
Having less than half of your cards reporting balances is also ideal. Of course, that's one of the things you're trying to fix. It's not as important as utilization, though.
Thanks! When applying for a credit card is it best for me to apply, my wife to apply, or both of us to apply jointly? I don't know our credit scores but I would imagine her credit is a bit better than mine. I'm not sure if this really matters as we've been married for over 10 years and most debt (credit cards, loans) are in both our names.
Joint cards are rare these days. Much more often, one spouse is an authorized user of the other spouse's card. Loans are frequently obtained jointly, however.
You and the Mrs. should go to CreditCheck Total and each sign up for their $1 trial. That'll give each of you all three FICO8 scores along with your three credit reports. Cancel the trial within seven days.
After that, report back with your scores. Also, a complete list of each of your cards, their balances, and their limits would be useful. Same with the loans: amount currently owed and original loan amount. If the account is held jointly or if one of you is an authorized user, mention that.
The above information will help people here to advise you as to which direction you should go, e.g. a loan, a card for you, a card for the wife, a card for each of you, or just standing pat. That way, you won't be spinning your wheels by potentially wasting inquiries or acquiring cards with limits that won't be helpful.