need advice - should I do a balance transfer?

[oscar_actuary]

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@hutchj wrote:

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@new_earth wrote:

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@hutchj wrote:

Personally, I love a good BT, IF it's going to save me money.

I did a BT from my Barclay Apple card to my Discover card because I purchased a new phone from Verizon and the percentage rate at the time was 22.99%, I knew I wouldn't have that PIF before the due date which meant that I was going be charged interest. For me it was worth it to pay the 3% and be able to carry a balance at 0%.

I suggest you make a budget. Find out how long it's going to take you to pay the balance off with amount you feel you'll pay off each month. And if the interest of that is more than $15 then do the BT and if it isn't don't do the BT.

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that's the part I can't figure out, how much interest I'd end up paying to DCU. I haven't kept balances on any of my cards since i started this so I haven't had to figure it out. LOL. Guess I better learn now! Can anyone help? If say, I paid DCU off in min. payments plus a little more at times, over the course of 14 months instead of Discover. (hypothetically speaking, I think I'd be paying it off sooner than that, I hate balances).

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Anyone correct me if I'm wrong.

514/25= 20.56 so it would take you 21 months to pay this balance off w/no interest.

514(.1524)= $78.33 in interest

78.33/21= $3.73 in interest a month

So it makes sense to do the BT. Again anyone please correct me if my math or logic is incorrect.

Sorry. I was orginally using the interest of Discover. Corrected for interest of DCU.

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The 514 * (0.1525) is only valid if one were paying nothing for a year.  It's not what he pays over 21 months, unless he paid it off in a specific way that coincidentally amounted to that much interest

Remember that interst is only paid on the balance (notwithstanding the 2 cycle formulas)

[oscar_actuary]

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@hutchj wrote:

Thanks.

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cheers.

I sort of live for this.

[new_earth]

I tried to do that in Excel, epic fail. Thanks though LOL. So generally *in the long run* I will save money if I do the BT. So what it comes down to is saving around $45 over time,  vs. paying $10 more per month (if at min. payment).

Thanks everyone, gonna think about it and make a decision. And VERY GLAD I understand so much more now, never did a BT before so now I get it.