topic Re: Balance Transfer Offer in Credit Cards

Balance Transfer Offer

RyGuy4690 — Sun, 03 Apr 2016 21:38:41 GMT

Hello all-

I recently have been offered a 0% APR balance transfer offer on my BOA card and am considering moving all my existing balances over that card. The 0% offer is good for 20 months until October 2017. I wanted to hear some opionons on this. If you could please help me out that would be terrific!!!

Below are the current accounts and balances and existing APR's on the accounts:

	Outstanding Balance	Credit Line	Interest Rate
American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card	$0.00	NPSL	15.49% for pay over time
American Express Gold Delta SkyMiles 61007	$0.00	$12,300.00	10.49%
American Airlines AAdvantage Silver World Elite Master Card by Barclays	$2,411.60	$10,000.00	13.24%
Bank of America Cash Rewards Signature Visa	$2,800.00	$21,000.00	17.24%
Discover It Card	$1,822.39	$11,900.00	14.49%
Chase Sapphire Visa Signature	$0.00	$20,000.00	12.49%
Chase Marriott Rewards Premier Visa Signature	$1,698.27	$6,500.00	16.24%
Citi ThankYou Preferred World MasterCard	$3,492.07	$10,100.00	11.49%
Capital One Quicksilver Visa Signature	$1,968.05	$21,000.00	18.15%
Best Buy store card	$0.00	$10,000.00
JCPenny store card	$0.00	$10,000.00
Macy's store card	$0.00	$10,000.00

Re: Balance Transfer Offer

myjourney — Sun, 03 Apr 2016 21:49:43 GMT

In essence you want to BT 11.4k bringing BofA to 14.2k on a 21k limit

If it saves you money and you can pay it off in that time frame then by all means go for it.

Just be aware on the cost if not fully paid by that time and does it have BT fees?

Re: Balance Transfer Offer

NRB525 — Sun, 03 Apr 2016 21:59:05 GMT

Do you have BT offers on your Discover card as well? They are on your online account, they don't send mailers anymore, but BT should be there.

I'd suggest moving both BofA and Discover balances to the QS, there is no BT fee for that and it clears both BofA and Discover to zero.

Then use the BofA offer to move the Barclay, Marriott and TY Preferred to the BofA. There will be a 4% fee for this, about $300 but you then have the 0% APR for however many months.

Move the QS to the Discover card. There is likely a 0% APR for 3% Fee available, or a low APR with no BT fee available on Discover. Depending on how fast you want to pay, the no BT Fee may be a slightly better deal.

This way you don't overload any one card, and you have low or 0% APR for a year or more. This sequence should be done over a series of weeks, to allow a few days at each step for the balance to settle in, for the old card to register the zero balance.

Re: Balance Transfer Offer

RyGuy4690 — Sun, 03 Apr 2016 21:59:24 GMT

@myjourney wrote:
In essence you want to BT 11.4k bringing BofA to 14.2k on a 21k limit
If it saves you money and you can pay it off in that time frame then by all means go for it.
Just be aware on the cost if not fully paid by that time and does it have BT fees?

Yes, it appears thats about right. So, the card would not be maxed out at all and still have some of the CL left. So, it wouldn't be 100% util. The concerns I have would be for my FICO score, would it take a big hit or no?

I am unsure of what you mean by the cost if not fully paid by the time the BT offer is expired. I believe it said it would go back to the normal APR rate. The BT fee I believe it said it was 4% of the balance transfered.

Re: Balance Transfer Offer

myjourney — Sun, 03 Apr 2016 22:18:26 GMT

@RyGuy4690 wrote:
@myjourney wrote:
In essence you want to BT 11.4k bringing BofA to 14.2k on a 21k limit
If it saves you money and you can pay it off in that time frame then by all means go for it.
Just be aware on the cost if not fully paid by that time and does it have BT fees?
Yes, it appears thats about right. So, the card would not be maxed out at all and still have some of the CL left. So, it wouldn't be 100% util. The concerns I have would be for my FICO score, would it take a big hit or no?

I am unsure of what you mean by the cost if not fully paid by the time the BT offer is expired. I believe it said it would go back to the normal APR rate. The BT fee I believe it said it was 4% of the balance transfered.

UTL on the one card would be about 66% not going to hurt your scores that much and if it saves you dollars then scores will recover as you pay it off ....so no biggy

Cost = see link

http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/credit-cards/credit-card-balance-transfer-calculator.aspx

What's left over if not paid by end of 0% and you need to factor that in as well (cost)

Re: Balance Transfer Offer

RyGuy4690 — Sun, 03 Apr 2016 22:18:45 GMT

@NRB525 wrote:
Do you have BT offers on your Discover card as well? They are on your online account, they don't send mailers anymore, but BT should be there.

I'd suggest moving both BofA and Discover balances to the QS, there is no BT fee for that and it clears both BofA and Discover to zero.

Then use the BofA offer to move the Barclay, Marriott and TY Preferred to the BofA. There will be a 4% fee for this, about $300 but you then have the 0% APR for however many months.

Move the QS to the Discover card. There is likely a 0% APR for 3% Fee available, or a low APR with no BT fee available on Discover. Depending on how fast you want to pay, the no BT Fee may be a slightly better deal.

This way you don't overload any one card, and you have low or 0% APR for a year or more. This sequence should be done over a series of weeks, to allow a few days at each step for the balance to settle in, for the old card to register the zero balance.

The existing balance on BofA is 0% until 5/17. So, I do not want to mess with that balance. There are no 0% offers on the QS card. On the Discover card, there is a 0% APR for 12 months with a 3% fee and a 4.99% for 18 months with no fee.

What do you suggest?

Re: Balance Transfer Offer

RyGuy4690 — Sun, 03 Apr 2016 23:16:50 GMT

@NRB525 wrote:
Do you have BT offers on your Discover card as well? They are on your online account, they don't send mailers anymore, but BT should be there.

I'd suggest moving both BofA and Discover balances to the QS, there is no BT fee for that and it clears both BofA and Discover to zero.

Then use the BofA offer to move the Barclay, Marriott and TY Preferred to the BofA. There will be a 4% fee for this, about $300 but you then have the 0% APR for however many months.

Move the QS to the Discover card. There is likely a 0% APR for 3% Fee available, or a low APR with no BT fee available on Discover. Depending on how fast you want to pay, the no BT Fee may be a slightly better deal.

This way you don't overload any one card, and you have low or 0% APR for a year or more. This sequence should be done over a series of weeks, to allow a few days at each step for the balance to settle in, for the old card to register the zero balance.

The existing balance on BofA is 0% until 5/17. So, I do not want to mess with that balance. There are no 0% offers on the QS card. On the Discover card, there is a 0% APR for 12 months with a 3% fee and a 4.99% for 18 months with no fee.

What do you suggest?

Re: Balance Transfer Offer

NRB525 — Sun, 03 Apr 2016 23:17:30 GMT

Ok, so then just BT the Discover to the QS to zero Discover, then decide which of the Discover rates you want, and after step 1, move the now higher QS balance to the Discover. I know QS almost never has a low rate BT offer, but the point of using the QS is to zero the card those amounts come from. Because there is no BT fee on the QS, your cost is the few days of interest the QS gets on that temporary balance, before it all goes away.

You can just BT the Barclay, Marriott and TYP to the BofA, since it is stacking two 0% BT offers. Just know that the current $2,800 will expire a bit sooner, and there will be some amount that you'll want to consider moving, or start paying that portion a bit faster in place. The TYP and perhaps the Barclay may have a BT offer by then.

Re: Balance Transfer Offer

RyGuy4690 — Sun, 03 Apr 2016 23:54:09 GMT

@NRB525 wrote:
Ok, so then just BT the Discover to the QS to zero Discover, then decide which of the Discover rates you want, and after step 1, move the now higher QS balance to the Discover. I know QS almost never has a low rate BT offer, but the point of using the QS is to zero the card those amounts come from. Because there is no BT fee on the QS, your cost is the few days of interest the QS gets on that temporary balance, before it all goes away.

You can just BT the Barclay, Marriott and TYP to the BofA, since it is stacking two 0% BT offers. Just know that the current $2,800 will expire a bit sooner, and there will be some amount that you'll want to consider moving, or start paying that portion a bit faster in place. The TYP and perhaps the Barclay may have a BT offer by then.

so you suggest taking the balance of the discover and trasnfering it to the QS then use the bt offer on the discover for 0% then transfer the QS balance which has the discover balance on it back to the discover for 0%? then BT the barclay marriott typ to the boa card. so in essense have the balances of the qs and the discover on the discover at 0% then the other balances on the BofA? just confused as to why I wouldnt just want to put the entire amount on the BofA??

Re: Balance Transfer Offer

SouthJamaica — Mon, 04 Apr 2016 01:30:18 GMT

@RyGuy4690 wrote:
Hello all-

I recently have been offered a 0% APR balance transfer offer on my BOA card and am considering moving all my existing balances over that card. The 0% offer is good for 20 months until October 2017. I wanted to hear some opionons on this. If you could please help me out that would be terrific!!!

Below are the current accounts and balances and existing APR's on the accounts:

Outstanding Balance
Credit Line
Interest Rate
American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card
$0.00
NPSL
15.49% for pay over time
American Express Gold Delta SkyMiles 61007
$0.00
$12,300.00
10.49%
American Airlines AAdvantage Silver World Elite Master Card by Barclays
$2,411.60
$10,000.00
13.24%
Bank of America Cash Rewards Signature Visa
$2,800.00
$21,000.00
17.24%
Discover It Card
$1,822.39
$11,900.00
14.49%
Chase Sapphire Visa Signature
$0.00
$20,000.00
12.49%
Chase Marriott Rewards Premier Visa Signature
$1,698.27
$6,500.00
16.24%
Citi ThankYou Preferred World MasterCard
$3,492.07
$10,100.00
11.49%
Capital One Quicksilver Visa Signature
$1,968.05
$21,000.00
18.15%
Best Buy store card
$0.00
$10,000.00

JCPenny store card
$0.00
$10,000.00

Macy's store card
$0.00
$10,000.00

If you're presently paying interest on everything, then it might make sense to move some of that over to BOA, but

(a) you must factor in the balance transfer fees, and

(b) you shouldn't have the BOA balance report at over 6000

If you transfer 5000 and have a 3% BT fee, that's $150.

If you carry an average balance of $5000 for 3 months at 12%, that's $150.

Re: Balance Transfer Offer

NRB525 — Mon, 04 Apr 2016 01:38:28 GMT

You can move it all to the BofA, however two concerns with that:

1) Your utilization on the BofA card will be higher, well over 50%

2) You will pay a 4% fee for the BofA transfer, the Discover transfer is only 3% or no fee if you decide to pay it fastest. The no-fee low APR, in a rapid pay situation, is less cost than the full 3% or 4% fee up front.

I am currently on a 12-month 0% Purchase APR promo with Discover, as well as a 0% BT offer, which is nice because I can still use the card for charges. If you call Discover, they may have a similar 0% Purchases promo available. I use both BofA and Discover, but Discover has more variations in the promotions they have offered me, so I am partial to give them some portion of my BT / Charge activity, on the theory that to get offers, you have to use offers.

Re: Balance Transfer Offer

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Apr 2016 01:59:44 GMT

Was it mentioned anywhere that BoA is a 4% transfer fee? I know mine are 3%.

Edit: Nevermind...found it.

Re: Balance Transfer Offer

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Apr 2016 02:43:57 GMT

It depends...

Are you trying to simplify multiple payments into one? If yes, then I would take it. Please make sure you can PIF the balance within the 20 months.

On a side note, I haven't had any issues doing BTs with BoA. Best of luck!

Re: Balance Transfer Offer

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Apr 2016 02:49:38 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Was it mentioned anywhere that BoA is a 4% transfer fee? I know mine are 3%.

Edit: Nevermind...found it.

Mine are 3% too.

Re: Balance Transfer Offer

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Apr 2016 15:35:46 GMT

How fast can you pay off 15 grand? balance transfer your bofa to no more than 50%, get a personal loan for the rest at 7%. It should free up months budget to pay off the loan early. It would be an intense score boost at the same time.