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Balance transfer to 0% CC

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CleanCredit
Contributor

Balance transfer to 0% CC

Hi all, I currently have a 0% BT offer from Citi on my Double Cash.  The offer is 0% interest until 03/2018.  Do you know if it is possible to balance transfer some of my Student Loan debt to the credit card.  I am currently through Great Lakes, and if I can transfer some over then I would save a bit in interest I imagine as the interest would then be calculated off a smaller principal amount.

 

Does this make sense? Is it worth it?

 

Thanks!

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3 REPLIES 3
impactplayer
New Contributor

Re: Balance transfer to 0% CC

It should be possible because you should be able to just write yourself a check for the balance transfer, get cash and then use it however you want. As for whether it is worth it, are you planning on paying it off on or before 3/2018? If so, it may be worth it but it depends on the balance transfer fee and the interest rate of your student loans. For example, I think the DC balance transfer fee is usually 3%. If your student loan interest rate is at or below 3%, it would obviously not be worth it. It may also not be worth the hassle if your student loan rates are in the 4-5% range because your utilization will go up. In that case, it may be better to forego the balance transfer and just try to pay off the student loan directly on an accelerated timeline. 

 

Hopefully this helps but let me know if you have any questions! 

Message 2 of 4
CleanCredit
Contributor

Re: Balance transfer to 0% CC

Thanks for the insight.  After thinking about this a little more I have decided against the Citi BT offer, as my loans are only at about 5% and I won't be paying them off anytime soon.

 

However, I do have one seperate student loan in the amount of $7,500 with 6% interest rate.  I am thinking about opening up a Chase Slate to get the 0% 15 month deal and paying off that student loan.  That will put me at about $500/month payment to get it paid off within that 15 months, which I would have no problem doing.  I think this would be a good way to force me to pay it off early and save on interest.

 

I currently have 3 cards with Chase (Freedom, Freedom Unlimited, and Sapphire Reserve).  Depending on the limit they would give me for the Slate, I would transfer my limits from my Freedom and FU to the Slate so that my Util would be lower.  I only use the CSR right now anyway.

 

Thoughts?

Message 3 of 4
creditninja9000
Regular Contributor

Re: Balance transfer to 0% CC

My personal advice would be to avoid opening new cards to do things like this. Or if you do open anymore, open one with a credit union know to toss their customers a nice deal now and then. For example Alliant just offered me 2% BT offer with no BT fee. 

 

Almost no bank will continously offer to waive BT fees. These promotional deals you mentioned sound nice but they're usually only at opening or a one time thing. In the case you mentioned you'd save about $450 (and that's doing quick math with the assumption that your balance sits at 7500 the whole year).  You'd probably pay much less in interest just paying it down as quickly as you can without opening another account to transfer things around.

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