topic Re: Balance Transfer Questions in Credit Cards

Balance Transfer Questions

FlaDude — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 18:04:25 GMT

I've been working over the last year and a half to lower the interest on my mountain of debt and have gone from almost $1000/month of interest to under $250. I've done this with a combination of personal loans (6 and 7%) and 0% BT offers. My highest interest now is 10% on a $6k balance (replacing home AC, loan with Service Finance). Do CC card companies consider paying a loan as a balance transfer? If so, I'll apply for a new card and save over $500 in interest this year, assuming the BT fee is minimal (or none). I found that the Amex Everyday Card has 0% for 15 months and no fee, so that's probably where I would start. Any suggestions on other BT cards with no fee? I already have the BOA. I would prefer not joining another credit union if possible. I applied to my CU but was denied. I've been with them for about 40 years but they have always been stingy when I've had a lot of debt.

As an aside, the 0% will expire on the BOA in March so I'll either do another BT for that or look for another low interest loan.

Thanks for any guidance.

Re: Balance Transfer Questions

FinStar — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 18:21:19 GMT

If you have BoA and sufficient available credit you can BT the funds to your bank account (subject to BT fee as applicable) and then perhaps pay your loan that way.

Re: Balance Transfer Questions

FlaDude — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 18:27:48 GMT

Thanks for the suggestion, but the BOA is way past the 0% introductory period, and doesn't have a lot of balance available either.

I don't think I'll have too much trouble getting the Amex if I try. I have 20 years of positive history when them, maybe 3 30 day lates during that time, all over 7 years ago. This includes Gold, Green, and an old Blue card with a 31k CL and zero balance. I also had a plat long ago but I dropped it when I stopped traveling so much for work.

Re: Balance Transfer Questions

kevinindy — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 18:40:55 GMT

Just as a heads up, the AMEX Everyday limits the 0 fee/0% balance transfer to $7,500, regardless of SL. Ran into that myself.

(It may be a overall BT limit as well, not just fee free, I'm not sure on that.)

Re: Balance Transfer Questions

FlaDude — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 18:52:52 GMT

@kevinindy wrote:
Just as a heads up, the AMEX Everyday limits the 0 fee/0% balance transfer to $7,500, regardless of SL. Ran into that myself.

(It may be a overall BT limit as well, not just fee free, I'm not sure on that.)

Good to know, luckily that works for my situation. Any idea about paying off a loan rather than another CC?

Re: Balance Transfer Questions

NRB525 — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 18:54:42 GMT

OP congrats on reducing the interest cost.
Can you list out your revolvers, their limits, current balance, APR, and promo rate expiration month?

Have you checked with Discover?

Besides the 3 AMEX lates, any other lates in your history?

Re: Balance Transfer Questions

FlaDude — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 20:04:45 GMT

@NRB525 wrote:
OP congrats on reducing the interest cost.
Can you list out your revolvers, their limits, current balance, APR, and promo rate expiration month?

Have you checked with Discover?

Besides the 3 AMEX lates, any other lates in your history?

Zero balance cards, all interest rates from 15-25%.Just keeping these for UTI, AoA, and rewards.

1) Amex blue - 31k CL

2) Chase slate - 7k CL

3) Chase sapphire preferred - 10.9k CL

4) Chase amazon - 10.5k CL - this was at 97% util this week, paid it mostly off with Lending Club loan, below, will PIF in January when I get my annual bonus.

5) A few store cards

1) Lowes - $4k - 15k CL - 6% promo until paid (2 years left). I'll focus on this one first in 2019 since it is the lowest balance that has interest. Expect to pay off by Dec 2019 or sooner.

2) BOA - $5.7k - 7k CL - 0% until March 2019

3) BOA (spouse) - $1.7k - 10k CL - 0% until April 2019

4) Citi (spouse) - $10k - 10.5kCL - 0% until sometime in spring 2020 (just got this last month. Spouse had FICO of 849 but little income, so we're leveraging that score to help with the interest and boosting my score at the same time)

I've moved all my other CC debt into 3 loans:

1) Marcus 3 year loan - Orig $10k - now 5.8k - 6% - 1.5 years old - will be paid in May 2020 according to terms, but I hope to pay this one off in 2019.

2) Prosper 3 year loan - Orig $20k - now 13.3k - 7% - 1 year old

3) Lending Club 3 year loan - Orig $10k - now 10k - 6% - brand new. My credit score does not reflect this loan, but my CC UTI will go from 24% to 15% when it reports, and the Amazon will go from 97% to under 20, and to zero in Janauary.

My only other non car/house debt is the Service Finance loan, which I want to get down to low/no interest. My thought is to get a 0% BT card and pay that one off, assuming I can pay a loan under BT terms.

I'll look at getting another 0% BT card in a couple of months to move the BOA balances. I'm working the overall debt down steadily but will probably need to do another round in 2020 when the new cards lose their 0%. I'm focusing on paying balances with interest and doing close to min payments on the 0%, even though that is probably not optimal from a credit score perspective.

I'll check on Discover, either now or to pay off the BOAs in a couple of months.

All of my lates have fallen off the credit reports, there were only 3 or so, and they are all over 7 years ago.

Re: Balance Transfer Questions

kevinindy — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 21:03:59 GMT

I think the AMEX ED card requires the BT to be to a card. I'd save that in reserve right now.

Having done some similar stuff with rolling BTs, here's what I'd do:

See if your spouse has a decent BT offer on her BofA card. They often have 12-15 months 0% for a 3-4% fee. BofA specifically will let you direct deposit to a checking account.

If she doesn't, the rest of this won't matter, but assuming she does:

Take a direct deposit BT from her BofA Account for around $7K, pay off the service finance loan @ 10%. Put extra left over to the Amazon Card and then use bonus for Prosper Loan (Marcus if you prefer, but Prosper has higher rate).

Then when your BofA is about to roll off 0% then I'd look into the AMEX ED or another new card.

Just my two cents.

Re: Balance Transfer Questions

FlaDude — Thu, 29 Nov 2018 00:18:35 GMT

@kevinindy wrote:
I think the AMEX ED card requires the BT to be to a card. I'd save that in reserve right now.

Having done some similar stuff with rolling BTs, here's what I'd do:

See if your spouse has a decent BT offer on her BofA card. They often have 12-15 months 0% for a 3-4% fee. BofA specifically will let you direct deposit to a checking account.

If she doesn't, the rest of this won't matter, but assuming she does:
@Take a direct deposit BT from her BofA Account for around $7K, pay off the service finance loan @ 10%. Put extra left over to the Amazon Card and then use bonus for Prosper Loan (Marcus if you prefer, but Prosper has higher rate).

Then when your BofA is about to roll off 0% then I'd look into the AMEX ED or another new card.

Thanks, I hadn't thought of checking her BOA, but she has plenty of room on it, and they are offering 12 months for a 3% fee. I'll do as you suggest and save AMEX for the next round of transfers. I just got a pre-screened offer from Barclay for the Ring card for 0% / 15 months / 2% fee. If they will let me pay off the loan that is a slightly better deal, and won't involve putting more debt in her name, so I'm going to check out that one.

A big reason I'm shooting for low balances first is to reduce the monthly min payments. Generally I can make the required payments and a bit extra, but having more cushion when extra expenses arise is a plus for me, so I'll focus on those in 2019.

Re: Balance Transfer Questions

FlaDude — Thu, 29 Nov 2018 01:29:00 GMT

Coincidentally, my spouse got BT checks in the mail today from BOA, and as Kevin said, they can pay off a loan or be deposited in my bank account. It appears the only difference is that after the promo period CC BTs go to 17.99% interest, cash advances to 20.99. In any case I plan to pay off or roll over before the promotion period expires. I'll just need to make sure to pay the old BT balance before April, it should be under 1.4k by then.

I checked Barclay on-line and they say that the transfer must be to Visa, MC, Amex, or Discover, so that doesn't help me right now.

Re: Balance Transfer Questions

CreditInspired — Thu, 29 Nov 2018 11:26:31 GMT

Hi OP

Congrats on reducing amounts being paid in interest. However, IMHO, my concern is are balances getting paid off or just being shuffled around.

Re: Balance Transfer Questions

FlaDude — Thu, 29 Nov 2018 14:56:38 GMT

Reducing monthly interest from almost $1,000 to around $200 has greatly increased my rate of paying down the total. I let the balances sit on high interest credit cards for years and made very little progress. I've reduced the total by around 15k over the last two years, and it would have been about 8k more if not for the new AC. I've got a paydown plan, if I can get through two years with no major unexpected expenses I should have the balances almost paid off.