topic Re: Balance Transfers in Credit Cards

Balance Transfers

OMW2_HighAcheiver — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 01:37:06 GMT

Hello All

Can secured cards be BT'd to unsecured cards? I have a secured 5/3 for $300 & a secured Discover for $200. I was approved for a Cap One QS1 for $500. Is it wise to take advantage of the 0% BT? Transfer one at a time....will it help my utilization? Or naw......

Thanks!

Re: Balance Transfers

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 02:23:06 GMT

@OMW2_HighAcheiver wrote:
Hello All

Can secured cards be BT'd to unsecured cards? I have a secured 5/3 for $300 & a secured Discover for $200. I was approved for a Cap One QS1 for $500. Is it wise to take advantage of the 0% BT? Transfer one at a time....will it help my utilization? Or naw......

Thanks!

Balance transfers dont help with utilization. They just shift the balances from one creditor to another and your overall utilization stays the same.

In your case with the limits as they are, a BT isn't going to help so I would just leave them alone.

Re: Balance Transfers

OMW2_HighAcheiver — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 02:26:58 GMT

Irish I'm more interested in doing it for 0%!

Re: Balance Transfers

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 02:30:06 GMT

@OMW2_HighAcheiver wrote:
Irish I'm more interested in doing it for 0%!

Are you talking about transferring $500 to your CapOne card with a $500 limit?

Re: Balance Transfers

OMW2_HighAcheiver — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 02:34:59 GMT

Absolutely NOT! Transfer one, pay it off, transfer the other. I have until October for the 0%. But my question is, can secured cards be transferred?

Re: Balance Transfers

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 02:44:07 GMT

@OMW2_HighAcheiver wrote:
Absolutely NOT! Transfer one, pay it off, transfer the other. I have until October for the 0%. But my question is, can secured cards be transferred?

While I've never done it, I don't see any reason why you wouldn't be able to.

Re: Balance Transfers

OMW2_HighAcheiver — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 02:49:53 GMT

Ok. I'll give it a try.

Re: Balance Transfers

UncleB — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 03:27:58 GMT

@OMW2_HighAcheiver wrote:
Absolutely NOT! Transfer one, pay it off, transfer the other. I have until October for the 0%. But my question is, can secured cards be transferred?

When you do a balance transfer, the card you're paying off 'sees' the incoming funds as a regular payment, so technically there's nothing keeping you from using a balance transfer to pay off practically any other account. I've even used balance transfers to pay off credit cards not in my name - again, it doesn't matter.

Now whether or not you should do the BT in your specific situation, well, that's up to you.

Re: Balance Transfers

OMW2_HighAcheiver — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 03:36:29 GMT

Thanks Uncle fir clarifying. I have no idea how BTs work. Not that I'm going to take my time paying off the balances. But 0% for 10 months sounds great to me. Any idea for the potential of growth for the QS1 within the year? I'm aware of all the factors, I know I need to be a good girl while it grows. How often will they honor CLIs?

Re: Balance Transfers

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 03:46:59 GMT

@OMW2_HighAcheiver wrote:
Thanks Uncle fir clarifying. I have no idea how BTs work. Not that I'm going to take my time paying off the balances. But 0% for 10 months sounds great to me. Any idea for the potential of growth for the QS1 within the year? I'm aware of all the factors, I know I need to be a good girl while it grows. How often will they honor CLIs?

Cap1 credit cards are eligible for SP CLIs every 6 months.

Re: Balance Transfers

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 03:47:43 GMT

@UncleB wrote:
@OMW2_HighAcheiver wrote:
Absolutely NOT! Transfer one, pay it off, transfer the other. I have until October for the 0%. But my question is, can secured cards be transferred?
When you do a balance transfer, the card you're paying off 'sees' the incoming funds as a regular payment, so technically there's nothing keeping you from using a balance transfer to pay off practically any other account. I've even used balance transfers to pay off credit cards not in my name - again, it doesn't matter.

Now whether or not you should do the BT in your specific situation, well, that's up to you.

Well said Uncle B!

Re: Balance Transfers

NRB525 — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 04:06:09 GMT

@OMW2_HighAcheiver wrote:
Hello All

Can secured cards be BT'd to unsecured cards? I have a secured 5/3 for $300 & a secured Discover for $200. I was approved for a Cap One QS1 for $500. Is it wise to take advantage of the 0% BT? Transfer one at a time....will it help my utilization? Or naw......

Thanks!

Yes.

In all respects, once you get the security deposit in place, a secured credit card acts just like a regular unsecured credit card.

When looking at doing a 0% APR BT, understand how the fees work. For the small amounts you are working with, go ahead and do the BT, if only for the experience of going through the BT process. As with many things in the financial world, you can talk about them, you can ask about them, but until you go through the transaction, you don't really get the full understanding of what happens. And a BT to CapOne is a good way to go.

Going from a lower limit card to a higher limit card, with a given amount of balance, yes utilization will be helped.

Re: Balance Transfers

OMW2_HighAcheiver — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 04:13:03 GMT

@NRB525 wrote:
@OMW2_HighAcheiver wrote:
Hello All

Can secured cards be BT'd to unsecured cards? I have a secured 5/3 for $300 & a secured Discover for $200. I was approved for a Cap One QS1 for $500. Is it wise to take advantage of the 0% BT? Transfer one at a time....will it help my utilization? Or naw......

Thanks!
Yes.

In all respects, once you get the security deposit in place, a secured credit card acts just like a regular unsecured credit card.
When looking at doing a 0% APR BT, understand how the fees work. For the small amounts you are working with, go ahead and do the BT, if only for the experience of going through the BT process.
Going from a lower limit card to a higher limit card, with a given amount of balance, yes utilization will be helped.

That's what I was hoping to hear!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Re: Balance Transfers

takeshi74 — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 13:43:27 GMT

@OMW2_HighAcheiver wrote:
Can secured cards be BT'd to unsecured cards?

Yup. Secured/unsecured doesn't matter for BT's.

@OMW2_HighAcheiver wrote:
I have a secured 5/3 for $300 & a secured Discover for $200. I was approved for a Cap One QS1 for $500. Is it wise to take advantage of the 0% BT? Transfer one at a time....will it help my utilization?

A BT won't change your overall revolving utilization but it can change individual revolving utilization. I don't see the point in BT'ing with such small limits (which indicate to me small balances) but it's up to you to determine, considering impact on revolving utilization, BT fees, etc. What are you specifically looking to accomplish? If you're looking to save on interest then run the numbers and compare the BT fee versus what you'd pay in interest.

Re: Balance Transfers

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 14:24:12 GMT

People will probably throw things at me for saying this but I would probably take advantage of the offer. My Capital One cards have all received decent CLIs when I spend quite a bit on them and BTs seem to count toward spend. My thought would be if you can get a discount on the interest and show spending and on time payments without going into more debt there’s no reason not to do it.

Re: Balance Transfers

OMW2_HighAcheiver — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 15:33:32 GMT

@takeshi74 wrote:
@OMW2_HighAcheiver wrote:
Can secured cards be BT'd to unsecured cards?
Yup. Secured/unsecured doesn't matter for BT's.

@OMW2_HighAcheiver wrote:
I have a secured 5/3 for $300 & a secured Discover for $200. I was approved for a Cap One QS1 for $500. Is it wise to take advantage of the 0% BT? Transfer one at a time....will it help my utilization?
A BT won't change your overall revolving utilization but it can change individual revolving utilization. I don't see the point in BT'ing with such small limits (which indicate to me small balances) but it's up to you to determine, considering impact on revolving utilization, BT fees, etc. What are you specifically looking to accomplish? If you're looking to save on interest then run the numbers and compare the BT fee versus what you'd pay in interest.

I want to take advantage of the 0%. I'm not one to use my cards like debit. I'm making on time, more than the minimum payments to build history. Not into putting a butt-load of money through a card to accomplish specific outcomes. I figured I'll take advantage of the higher limit for utilization purposes. And of course pay no interest while paying monthly. Wasn't aware there was a fee to BT. I'll have to look into that. Is there a general fee for QS1 or is it case specific?

Re: Balance Transfers

OMW2_HighAcheiver — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 16:53:36 GMT

I see there's no transfer fee according to the website!

Re: Balance Transfers

UncleB — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 21:14:12 GMT

@OMW2_HighAcheiver wrote:
I see there's no transfer fee according to the website!

With Capital One, your promotion is specific to your account.

On my own QS1, there's no fee, but there's also no 0% promotion... the APR is just my normal purchase rate of 15.15% (in the right case, that could still be advantageous).

On my QS Visa, I have two options. There's an option for 0% for 12 months with a 3% fee, or I can do my normal purchase rate (18.15%) with no fee.

Re: Balance Transfers

OMW2_HighAcheiver — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 22:31:42 GMT

Hmmmmm. Interesting. 0% purchase/BT for 10 months. No transfer fee is mine. I'm REALLY omw up!
😆😉

Re: Balance Transfers

NRB525 — Sat, 09 Jan 2016 01:54:14 GMT

Read the fine print of course, but this is why it is a very good idea to start out small in the BT arena. A 3% fee on a $300 transfer is only $9 if one is assessed, and all education that is worthwhile costs something.

You learn BT by doing BT, learn it well for yourself. Reading only gets you so far.