Discover Card

[Myhearts]

Hey all,

Hearts here.  DH just got approved yesterday for a $5k credit line with Discover.  His interest rate is 1.9% until October 2008 and on BT his interest rate is 1.9% until April 2009. 

Would it be beneficial to BT some of his higher interest rate cards?  How does that work?  I am sure we would save money at that rate.

Thanks

Hearts

So far in 2008, I have improved DH's scores so much that he got:

$3800 on Amex Inside Rewards

$2600 on Sears Card

$4000 on Chase Visa

$5000 on Discover

Not bad considering last year we couldn't qualify for a CLI from Cap1.

Ha!

[fused]

As far as I'm concerned, as long as you or your DH do not plan to app in the near future, saving money is more important than credit scores. Can you share with us the balances and APRs you folks are thinking about doing a BT with?

[Myhearts]

Hey Fused,

Thanks for your response.

Applied Card Bank- 29.99% interest rate  (this is my oldest card and if I cancel it, my scores will be affected, but I can always work to improve them. 

Balance $1700/ CL 1900   want to BT this to Discover

Capital One  - 23.90 (IR)

$287.00 balance / 500 CL

First Premier- 18.90 (IR)

428.00 balance/ 475 CL

(This is the second oldest CC that I have and I can't close this one either)

What do you think?  We can save money doing this, right?

Hearts

[fused]

---

Myhearts wrote:

Hey Fused,

Thanks for your response.

Applied Card Bank- 29.99% interest rate  (this is my oldest card and if I cancel it, my scores will be affected, but I can always work to improve them. 

Balance $1700/ CL 1900   want to BT this to Discover

Capital One  - 23.90 (IR)

$287.00 balance / 500 CL

First Premier- 18.90 (IR)

428.00 balance/ 475 CL

(This is the second oldest CC that I have and I can't close this one either)

What do you think?  We can save money doing this, right?

Hearts

---

Doing this BT will save you folks money, and good amount at that. Scores will very likely improve:

- you will have fewer CCs reporting a balance

- two of your current cards, Applied and FP, will no longer report 90% util...this is big!

- overall util will improve from 86% to 31%

[Myhearts]

Thanks Fused!!  This is really good to know.

Any suggestions for those two cards that I would like to close?  Should I just keep the utilization low on them and not close? 

Hearts

[Anonymous]

MyHearts I too had an Applied Bank card. In fact it was my oldest card. It too had the obscene rate of 29.99%...PLUS the annual fee...PLUS the monthly fee. In addition if you want a cli, you have to "purchase" it. They last offered me a $300 cli if I were willing to pay them $100 to buy it.

I closed the card this past October. I had had enough pain.

I totally agree with fused. BT all that you can out of the Applied Bank card. Your scores WILL get a big score jump from it.

I don't know your situation, but have you considered getting a HSBC card? Or joining a credit union? IMO, you have 2 of the sub-sub prime cards out there with Applied and First Premier. Use them to raise your scores then dump them as soon as you get better cards. (just a friendly suggestion, you understand)

[FretlessMayhem]

I would definitely BT off of the 29.9 APR. I recently got a Citi card and BTd balances from all of my other cards to it since it's 0 APR for 15 months. That will end up saving a LOT in finance charges.

[Myhearts]

Thanks you all.  I am definitely going to BT Applied Card and First Premier.  Will there be a drop in my scores for paying them off and closing them?

Hearts

[Anonymous]

MyHearts, you will lose the benefit of the cl's in the utilization calculations. But you will keep the history on it for 10 years.

So it would depend on what other cc's you have and their cl's. IMO, you'll see a score drop. How much depends on what other cc's and their cl's you have going for you.

Care to share what they are?

[JuliaTN]

As far as closing the 2 cards, you need to weigh the fees vs. the credit score benefit of length of history and util %.