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Recommendations for 0% offers?

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hyprble
Regular Contributor

Recommendations for 0% offers?

Hello,

 

I'm trying to help my fiance get his finances in order starting out with lowering his credit card interest rates to pay them down quicker.  He's been getting a lot of offers in the mail, but I'm not sure if he'll be approved.  The main one I'm looking at him to try for is the Discover More with the 0% for 12 months offer.

 

He wants to avoid Citi (despite all their offers) because they closed 2 accounts on him

He has a chase Freedom pre-approval application but he has a Chase card with 5000/5500 and  1. wouldn't be able to transfer his balance out of it and 2. might not get a card since he has another Chase card?

 

I am suggesting he joins a credit union since they tend to offer better credit limits and reasonable rates once you're in with them.

 

He is currently paying down a closed account with a $290 balance - will paying that off in full mess up his debt to credit ratio?  Would it make sense for him to app for a few cards with 0% offers in case their credit limits are going to be too small?

 

His CreditKarma is 712 with 0 lates and 0 inquiries 55% debt to credit.  APRs range from 15%-19% (of course the highest balance is at 19)

 

Any advice?


Starting Score: 557 (2005)
Current Score: 803
Goal Score: 805


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Message 1 of 4
3 REPLIES 3
FrugalRican
Blogger

Re: Recommendations for 0% offers?

It'd be helpful if he had his actual FICO score.
I actually got approved for a Discover More for 18-months 0%, but my FICO was a hefty 760 EQ.
I did the BT during the application process and was able to BT about 5K. Discover gave me a 6K credit line. So suggestion is to do the BT during the app.
The only ones I consistently hear good things about for BT's are Citi and Discover. Anything else, something like NFCU would work (if you can get in).
And remember to have a little chat with him about not running up that Freedom again after he does the BT. He's going to have to pay off the entire 5000 before the 0% period runs out too.

Follow my financial journey: http://www.frugalrican.com


EQ FICO (01/16/2012): 656 - EQ FICO (02/16/2012): 743 - EQ (02/24/2012): 760 - EX (04/28/2012): 739 - GOAL 2013: 800+

AMEX BCE (0/10K) --- BOA 1-2-3 (0/15.9K) --- Discover More (0/6K) --- Chase Freedom Visa (0/1.4K) -- Hyatt Visa Sign. (0/5.8K) -- Barclay's NFL Card (0/7.5K) -- Chase Sapphire Preferred (0/5K)

Message 2 of 4
Crashem
Valued Contributor

Re: Recommendations for 0% offers?

Get him real fico.  Buy eq  fico from here.  how long for him to pay off those balances?  Bt offers are nice but usually cave bt fee for 0% offers.  For example, I have cu visa with 7.5% interest but no bt fee,discovers bt fee is like 3% so even if 0%, rather transfer to my cu visa if paying off in 5 months or so.  Recommend getting any card balance below 80% even if 0% to raise his fico as much as possible.  Then see where he is at score wise.  Then figure out what card he can get.

               LIMITS IN CARD DESCRIPTIONS
Message 3 of 4
slarano
Frequent Contributor

Re: Recommendations for 0% offers?

Just received an offer from Discover to BT 0% for 18 months, $10 or 3% fee, have had the card for two years, I believe. They usually have great offers to sign up and continue to offer good BT deals assuming you stay in good standing. I've also used Barclay to BT, they're good as well with their BT fees being low...

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Message 4 of 4
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