topic Re: 0% credit card offers in Credit Cards

0% credit card offers

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:05:27 GMT

A friend of mine recently confided that she routinely accepts offers from credit card companies that offer 0% for a certain period of time. She said that this does not affect her credit score and she does this over and over thus rarely having to pay finace charges. She just keeps shifting what she owes but continues to making payments. Is this true? I was under the impression that the more you switch around the lower your credit score becomes. Can a fico expert help with this question?

Re: 0% credit card offers

MidnightVoice — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:19:09 GMT

I don't pay finance charges anyway - I PIF

She must have a ton of inqs, a ton of new accounts and a very short average length of account history, all of which tends to clobber the score quite a bit. So I guess if she does it once every 18 months, it would not be too bad, but somehow I think it will be reducing her score - if she keeps having to do it, I assume they are 6 month offeres, which means twice a year. Does she actually follow her score or is she guessing?

Re: 0% credit card offers

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:05:28 GMT

I haven't followed my FCIO score closely....but I'm playing the same game as your friend.

I *Just* applied for Discover card #3. This is the fourth card I have utilized since 2004 with 0%.

I had a 792 when I applied, and after the card was approved (with a cl of $5,000) my score actually went up to 800!

I am currently carrying almost $42,000 on Chase. I was able to apply the open credit ($31,500) on Discover card #2, to the new Discover #3, and have a cl of $36,500, 0% till Nov 2008.

I plan to transfer $30,000 from Chase to the new Discover, and pay the remainder off.

Re: 0% credit card offers

fused — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 01:25:43 GMT

I agree with MidnightV.

Re: 0% credit card offers

MidnightVoice — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 01:29:32 GMT

fused wrote:
I agree with MidnightV.

Now I am really worried

Re: 0% credit card offers

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 04:33:26 GMT

You know you have to pay it back eventually?

@Anonymous wrote:
I haven't followed my FCIO score closely....but I'm playing the same game as your friend.
I *Just* applied for Discover card #3. This is the fourth card I have utilized since 2004 with 0%.
I had a 792 when I applied, and after the card was approved (with a cl of $5,000) my score actually went up to 800!
I am currently carrying almost $42,000 on Chase. I was able to apply the open credit ($31,500) on Discover card #2, to the new Discover #3, and have a cl of $36,500, 0% till Nov 2008.
I plan to transfer $30,000 from Chase to the new Discover, and pay the remainder off.

Re: 0% credit card offers

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 07:45:38 GMT

cinder69 wrote:
I haven't followed my FCIO score closely....but I'm playing the same game as your friend.

I *Just* applied for Discover card #3. This is the fourth card I have utilized since 2004 with 0%.

I had a 792 when I applied, and after the card was approved (with a cl of $5,000) my score actually went up to 800!

I am currently carrying almost $42,000 on Chase. I was able to apply the open credit ($31,500) on Discover card #2, to the new Discover #3, and have a cl of $36,500, 0% till Nov 2008.

I plan to transfer $30,000 from Chase to the new Discover, and pay the remainder off.

Hello,

You balance tranfering seems to work to save money in the long term but i dont see how it could increase your FICO in the short term. .

You had 42K on your chase but then you applied for and was approve for another Discover with a 5k limit. Then you moved 31.5K from one Discover to your new one increasing the CL to 36.5K (that was a smooth move!) You then transfer 30K to the 36.5K Discover which puts it to 82% utilization and at the same time decreasing the utilization on your Chase. Did the Discover charge a BT fee? Most usually do a standard 3% fee, right? This could be $900 if it applies to your 30K. Another thing to consider, is by your constant revolving balance transfers, with each new card your overall age in your credit card decreases.

I guess you could say that your overall utilization increased with the new CC and your chase card's utilization decreased with the BT of 30K. I just dont see this surpassing the above mentioned bad things of an almost maxed out card, inquiry and age of cards.

I can see how you could potentially save money with the BT as you are only paying the 3% BT fee for the next 12 months, instead of, let say with an estimated 10% APR you would pay roughly $3000 a year or $250 a month on the 30K.

Long term you save money, short term it seems you take a hit on the FICO, but again, in the long, long term, you will eventually recover the short term FICO hit.

Oh well, i babbled enough.

Robo

Message Edited by Robo on 10-25-2007 10:45 AM

Re: 0% credit card offers

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 18:51:59 GMT

YES, I totally realize I have to pay the money back. Prior to discovering this 0% interest gig, I PIF each and every month. I have had ccards for over 25 years and always practiced PIF, ALWAYS on time. I'm guessing that's why I have a high FCIO score.

I look at this cc balance as a mortgage.

Re: 0% credit card offers

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 18:55:48 GMT

Robo,

I don't understand how/why my score went up either...but it really did. I just wanted to share my experience, for other's benefit.

The bt MAX fee is $75. I would NEVER pay $3,000 to do a bt. I would pay the balance in full before I wasted money like that!

I don't close out older cards. Maybe that's why I've maintained a high score. The history remains available, and like I replied above, prior to this recent 0% juggling act, I always paid IN FULL, and on-time.

Message Edited by cinder69 on 10-25-2007 11:55 AM

Re: 0% credit card offers

Anonymous — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 19:53:23 GMT

I don't know for sure, but I do believe that a high FICO score may get you BT fee free promo offers.