@Anonymous wrote:
Howdy folks. I need the hive brain to help poke holes in the strategy I've been thinking about using. Here's the skinny:
- Cap One Venture offered a 0% APR BT for 18 mos. if balances were transferred by Jan. 13.
- I have a Nasa FCU offer of 6.9% APR for life if I BT by Nov. 30th.
- I have two Cap One cards (one Venture and one QS). I just changed the Venture to a QS since my travel has changed from some to none. I have small balances on both Cap Ones.
- I'm carrying balances on other cards (CitiBank Diamond, BofA Rewards - my daily user and DiscoverIT), they're 0% for now, but the UTI is high based on SLs and it's killing my score.
Here's my crazy plan:
- After the Venture card changes to a Quicksilver, balance transfer the amount on the older QS card (QS is 8.5k, former VT is 12k) to the Nasa FCU at the 6.7% APR before Nov. 30th expiry.
- Once zero balance reports on the smaller Quicksilver, combine the two Cap One CLs to one Quicksilver with 20.5k CL.
- Use the 0% APR BT for 18 mos (by Jan. 13) offer on the now 20.5k CL Quicksilver to clear off the Nasa, Citibank, BofA and Discover cards. Giving me a carrying monthly balance of approximately 8.4k on a 20.5k card, UTIL of 41% (Not ideal, but still only one card across a total CL of 51k making it 16% overall UTIL. Currently sitting at 19% across 5 cards)
- Pay off before 18 mos with the approximate minimum 500/mo paymemt structure (not an issue with current budget since I'm paying more across all these cards)
- Sock drawer all the cards with the toy limits (Barclay, Chase, Citi, Amex, etc.) and use my two best reward cards (BofA and CapOne), with the Nasa high credit limit card as the "oh crap roof has a hole" card since it offers the best overall APR for purchases.
- One card carries a balance on the reports, BofA gets paid in full each month and I only have to worry about two credit card payments. And fingers crossed, credit score sees a small bump with the consolidation and payoff of several cards.
- Win?
So, where's the hole in this (other than Cap One not combining cards, which if they're the same brand so far hasn't been an issue)? There's got to be something I'm not considering. Am I doing more harm than good with all this back and forth and consolidation?
I would verify that the 0% offer on the Venture card will still be honored after the PC and card combination is done. Other than that I don't see why it isn't a good plan, if it saves you money in the long run.
