topic Re: To BT or not to BT...that is the question in Credit Cards

To BT or not to BT...that is the question

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Jan 2017 21:27:35 GMT

As my SO and I are pretty new to the strategies of the credit world, I'm hoping some of our MyFico friends will weigh in.

Here is the scenario. My SO has a personal loan with an $18K balance at around 17%. Her payment is $690 a month. She has a NFCU Visa with a $25K CL and she is considering moving the $18K to the Visa to take advantage of the 2.99%. She spoke to a CSR at NFCU and he said that a personal loan (Best Egg) could be a BT. Starting in March, she will be putting $2K a month toward the balance, so it will be PIF before the end of the year. She has no plans to app for anything else in 2017.

Her total revolving credit lines are about $200K and her utilization overall is always around 2-3%. Besides the obvious utilization ($18K on a $25K card) she isn't seeing a downside.

Since we are newbies, we'd sure appreciate the perspective of others who are far more knowledgeable before she pulls the BT trigger. What are we missing?

Thanks as always, we really appreciate it.

Chapter 7: Discharged November 2015
Total Revolving Credit Lines January 2016: $2600
Total Revolving Credit Lines January 2017: $148K
11/15 Fico 8: EQ-585, TU-550, EX- 551
01/17 Fico 8: EQ-695, TU-703, EX-673
Advantis CU Siggy Visa $25K, NFCU Cash Rewards Visa $4600> $22K, NFCU CLOC $15K, NFCU Go Rewards Visa $5,500, PenFed Promise Visa $10,500, PenFed Platinum Rewards Siggy Visa $5500, Redi+ Siggy Visa $5K, SPGVisa $4,500>$5250, Cap One Platinum $2K>$4K, Cap One Quicksilver $3K, Good Sam Visa $1800, Discover $1800>$2K>$2300, Lowe's $6K>$17K, Overstock $7K>$7300>$7700, Evine $1K>$5K, HSN $3750, PenFed Thrifty $500, That's right...Credit One Visa is G-O-N-E!

Re: To BT or not to BT...that is the question

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Jan 2017 22:22:21 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
As my SO and I are pretty new to the strategies of the credit world, I'm hoping some of our MyFico friends will weigh in.

Here is the scenario. My SO has a personal loan with an $18K balance at around 17%. Her payment is $690 a month. She has a NFCU Visa with a $25K CL and she is considering moving the $18K to the Visa to take advantage of the 2.99%. She spoke to a CSR at NFCU and he said that a personal loan (Best Egg) could be a BT. Starting in March, she will be putting $2K a month toward the balance, so it will be PIF before the end of the year. She has no plans to app for anything else in 2017.

Her total revolving credit lines are about $200K and her utilization overall is always around 2-3%. Besides the obvious utilization ($18K on a $25K card) she isn't seeing a downside.

Since we are newbies, we'd sure appreciate the perspective of others who are far more knowledgeable before she pulls the BT trigger. What are we missing?

Thanks as always, we really appreciate it.

Chapter 7: Discharged November 2015
Total Revolving Credit Lines January 2016: $2600
Total Revolving Credit Lines January 2017: $148K
11/15 Fico 8: EQ-585, TU-550, EX- 551
01/17 Fico 8: EQ-695, TU-703, EX-673
Advantis CU Siggy Visa $25K, NFCU Cash Rewards Visa $4600> $22K, NFCU CLOC $15K, NFCU Go Rewards Visa $5,500, PenFed Promise Visa $10,500, PenFed Platinum Rewards Siggy Visa $5500, Redi+ Siggy Visa $5K, SPGVisa $4,500>$5250, Cap One Platinum $2K>$4K, Cap One Quicksilver $3K, Good Sam Visa $1800, Discover $1800>$2K>$2300, Lowe's $6K>$17K, Overstock $7K>$7300>$7700, Evine $1K>$5K, HSN $3750, PenFed Thrifty $500, That's right...Credit One Visa is G-O-N-E!

I would do it! In fact I did. I paid a loan off with my Venture. I did a balance transfer of $17,860 to my Venture at 0% for 18 months with a 2% transfer fee. It brought my card uti to 64% and made my aggregate UTI 14%. This was 2 months ago. Since then I brought the balance down to $7700.

My loan was at 11.49 for 4 more years. I saved a ton.

Cap1 could of cared less. I don't think NFCU will mind either. Just pay more than the minimum and the plan for paying 2k a month soon is awesome.

Re: To BT or not to BT...that is the question

Chris679 — Sat, 28 Jan 2017 23:23:12 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
As my SO and I are pretty new to the strategies of the credit world, I'm hoping some of our MyFico friends will weigh in.

Here is the scenario. My SO has a personal loan with an $18K balance at around 17%. Her payment is $690 a month. She has a NFCU Visa with a $25K CL and she is considering moving the $18K to the Visa to take advantage of the 2.99%. She spoke to a CSR at NFCU and he said that a personal loan (Best Egg) could be a BT. Starting in March, she will be putting $2K a month toward the balance, so it will be PIF before the end of the year. She has no plans to app for anything else in 2017.

Her total revolving credit lines are about $200K and her utilization overall is always around 2-3%. Besides the obvious utilization ($18K on a $25K card) she isn't seeing a downside.

Since we are newbies, we'd sure appreciate the perspective of others who are far more knowledgeable before she pulls the BT trigger. What are we missing?

Thanks as always, we really appreciate it.

Chapter 7: Discharged November 2015
Total Revolving Credit Lines January 2016: $2600
Total Revolving Credit Lines January 2017: $148K
11/15 Fico 8: EQ-585, TU-550, EX- 551
01/17 Fico 8: EQ-695, TU-703, EX-673
Advantis CU Siggy Visa $25K, NFCU Cash Rewards Visa $4600> $22K, NFCU CLOC $15K, NFCU Go Rewards Visa $5,500, PenFed Promise Visa $10,500, PenFed Platinum Rewards Siggy Visa $5500, Redi+ Siggy Visa $5K, SPGVisa $4,500>$5250, Cap One Platinum $2K>$4K, Cap One Quicksilver $3K, Good Sam Visa $1800, Discover $1800>$2K>$2300, Lowe's $6K>$17K, Overstock $7K>$7300>$7700, Evine $1K>$5K, HSN $3750, PenFed Thrifty $500, That's right...Credit One Visa is G-O-N-E!

You did not mention a fee for the BT assuming it is only 3% or so this is a no brainer. The only downside to the BT is dip in credit score but my motto is to never let your credit score cost you money.

Re: To BT or not to BT...that is the question

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Jan 2017 23:37:31 GMT

Thanks for the input donny10 and for sharing your personal experience!

When my SO spoke with the CSR at Navy, she explained that she was hesitant, as the utilization on the card would initally be around 72% bringing her total utilization to just under 12% for the next 45 days. He said he understood her reluctance but NFCU hopes that their clients can take advantage of great offers like 2.99% with no BT fee when they feel it's a make sense. In our minds the difference in rate is huge. She receives her 2016 bonus payout monthly, from March to October, so she would just allocate part of that each month to payoff the card and retire the debt in November. She flat out asked if Navy would look poorly on the strategy and the CSR said that as long as the payments are being made on time, they are happy that she feels the offer would save her some money on interest.

It sounds like you did it right donny10 and I'm glad it worked so well for your situation. Again, thanks for taking the time to respond and I hope you have a great weekend!

Re: To BT or not to BT...that is the question

Anonymous — Sat, 28 Jan 2017 23:46:15 GMT

@Chris679, thanks for your perspective and you are so right. She is prepared to take the dip in score, as saving money is always a priority.

Right now, NFCU is offering the 2.99% with no BT fee which makes it so attractive.

Sometimes when we want to make something work, we don't always see the pitfalls until that beautiful hindsight 20/20 kicks in . That's why it's so great to get opinions from MyFicoer's such as yourself.

Thanks for taking time out of your weekend to respond!

Re: To BT or not to BT...that is the question

Anonymous — Sun, 29 Jan 2017 00:18:30 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks for the input donny10 and for sharing your personal experience!

When my SO spoke with the CSR at Navy, she explained that she was hesitant, as the utilization on the card would initally be around 72% bringing her total utilization to just under 12% for the next 45 days. He said he understood her reluctance but NFCU hopes that their clients can take advantage of great offers like 2.99% with no BT fee when they feel it's a make sense. In our minds the difference in rate is huge. She receives her 2016 bonus payout monthly, from March to October, so she would just allocate part of that each month to payoff the card and retire the debt in November. She flat out asked if Navy would look poorly on the strategy and the CSR said that as long as the payments are being made on time, they are happy that she feels the offer would save her some money on interest.

It sounds like you did it right donny10 and I'm glad it worked so well for your situation. Again, thanks for taking the time to respond and I hope you have a great weekend!

Anytime, my friend. That's what we are all here for.

Re: To BT or not to BT...that is the question

AverageJoesCredit — Sun, 29 Jan 2017 01:07:48 GMT

Re: To BT or not to BT...that is the question

Anonymous — Sun, 29 Jan 2017 01:27:06 GMT

Thanks AJC!

Re: To BT or not to BT...that is the question

AverageJoesCredit — Sun, 29 Jan 2017 02:24:37 GMT

You are welcome Wade best of luck on SO's Bt

Re: To BT or not to BT...that is the question

Anonymous — Sun, 29 Jan 2017 02:35:06 GMT

No brainer in my mind! Dooo ittttt!!!

Re: To BT or not to BT...that is the question

NRB525 — Sun, 29 Jan 2017 07:18:22 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
great offers like 2.99% with no BT fee !

Your SO is saving money. 17% APR is actually 18.5% when you compound it daily.

2.99% with no BT Fee is going to amount to a lot less than 2.99% when paid as fast as your SO is planning to do so.

FICO can go sit in the corner and cry if it wants to when I see those kinds of numbers. Oh, but wait, FICO isn't a real thing, it's just a concept of how we measure credit, so FICO won't care in the long run. The real cash that remains in your SO bank account by not paying a compounded 18.5% though, that is most definitely a real thing.

Re: To BT or not to BT...that is the question

Anonymous — Sun, 29 Jan 2017 07:51:30 GMT

There's only one reason why you shouldn't do this - If you'd done it already!

Total no brainer here - PUSH THE BUTTON!

Re: To BT or not to BT...that is the question

Anonymous — Sun, 29 Jan 2017 17:34:16 GMT

@ smc4getnot thanks for weighing in, I really appreciate it!

Re: To BT or not to BT...that is the question

Anonymous — Sun, 29 Jan 2017 17:38:16 GMT

@NRB525, thanks for the explanation. It's all about keeping as much cash in pocket as possible. I think her only resistance was if there was a long term negative effect for using that much a credit line (even for a short period of time). Your perspective really spelled it out.

Have a great weekend and thanks again!

Re: To BT or not to BT...that is the question

Anonymous — Sun, 29 Jan 2017 17:39:58 GMT

@ TygerHawke Thanks for the encouragement!

Enjoy your weekend!

Re: To BT or not to BT...that is the question

Anonymous — Sun, 29 Jan 2017 17:55:02 GMT

UPDATE:

SO submitted the BT this morning and is very happy to be saving the extra cash.

She wanted me to make sure to thank you all. So, donny10, Chris678, AJC, smc4getnot, NRB525 and TygerHawke, thanks a bunch.

Hopefully one day when I've got the experience you all have I might be able to return the favor. Judging by your profiles though, it may take me the next 20 years to catch up lol!!

Have a great week ahead everybody!

Re: To BT or not to BT...that is the question

Anonymous — Mon, 30 Jan 2017 06:36:50 GMT

im just wondering how at 200k avialable credit she was given that APR

Re: To BT or not to BT...that is the question

Anonymous — Mon, 30 Jan 2017 16:57:24 GMT

@85066 I'm not sure how they go about structuring rates on their offers. What I can share however, is that my SO has aquired about 25% of her profile since she took out that loan, but I'm not convinced that her available credit line would have made a difference, as it's only one factor. Maybe someone with more experience can weigh in here to give you a better explanation on how it actually works. I recall several people in the My Fico community that have rockin' profiles compared to hers and they were offered some pretty rough rates on personal loans as well. If I remember correctly, SO received another offer at 28% +/- when she was originally shopping.

I think the rates can be all over the place, so that's why it's probably important to shop several options when considering a personal loan.