topic Re: Balance Transfer Credit Cards in Credit Cards

Balance Transfer Credit Cards

Anonymous — Thu, 07 May 2020 12:57:51 GMT

Hi new to myFICO. Trying to get my credit card debt cleaned up. I have approx $12,000 in credit card debt with $25,000 k limit high 40's utilization rate which I know is not good. My experian is 690, my equifax is 696 and transunion 710. I recently closed two car loans and have two new leases for a total balance around $34,000. I have no student loans or other debt. I currently rent a house for $1350 a month and recently had a child. My gross earnings last year were $165,000 but my wife doesn't work. We are starting to look for a house as well. Open for suggestions of Balance transfer cards that would be best for me. Going to try to pay $4,000 off and transfer the rest. Any feedback is welcome. Thank you.

Re: Balance Transfer Credit Cards

Anonymous — Thu, 07 May 2020 13:07:32 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hi new to myFICO. Trying to get my credit card debt cleaned up. I have approx $12,000 in credit card debt with $25,000 k limit high 40's utilization rate which I know is not good. My experian is 690, my equifax is 696 and transunion 710. I recently closed two car loans and have two new leases for a total balance around $34,000. I have no student loans or other debt. I currently rent a house for $1350 a month and recently had a child. My gross earnings last year were $165,000 but my wife doesn't work. We are starting to look for a house as well. Open for suggestions of Balance transfer cards that would be best for me. Going to try to pay $4,000 off and transfer the rest. Any feedback is welcome. Thank you.

@Anonymous
Your best bet would probably be a card issued by a credit union. You might be able to get a card from a national issuer but often the limit will not be enough to transfer the full balance (and still have a reasonably low individual card utilization). Navy Federal is popular in these forums (if you are eligible for membership) and I'm sure you'll get suggestions for other credit unions.

Re: Balance Transfer Credit Cards

K-in-Boston — Thu, 07 May 2020 21:55:26 GMT

@Anonymous said it perfectly. +1000 on credit unions. While you likely could be approved for the more traditional balance transfer cards like BOA BankAmericard, Chase Slate, and Citi Diamond Preferred, with your current scores they would likely be small limits. If you can qualify for NFCU: https://www.navyfederal.org/membership/become-a-member/ it looks like you might have a good chance of an approval large enough to move your entire credit card debt to. The Platinum card currently offers 0% for 12 months, and NFCU never charges BT fees so that is truly a free loan for 12 months. None of the other cards currently offer balance transfer promos, but historically all NFCU cards have great BT offers early each year for existing cardholders, and once your BT is paid off you could always change it to another of their rewards-earning cards so it can be thought of as a long-term keeper. They can also be quite generous with credit lines, so it's quite likely you would also see a decent score increase all around due to significantly lower overall utilization.

Welcome to the forums!

Re: Balance Transfer Credit Cards

Anonymous — Thu, 07 May 2020 22:02:42 GMT

@K-in-Boston wrote:
@Anonymous said it perfectly. +1000 on credit unions. While you likely could be approved for the more traditional balance transfer cards like BOA BankAmericard, Chase Slate, and Citi Diamond Preferred, with your current scores they would likely be small limits. If you can qualify for NFCU: https://www.navyfederal.org/membership/become-a-member/ it looks like you might have a good chance of an approval large enough to move your entire credit card debt to. The Platinum card currently offers 0% for 12 months, and NFCU never charges BT fees so that is truly a free loan for 12 months. None of the other cards currently offer balance transfer promos, but historically all NFCU cards have great BT offers early each year for existing cardholders, and once your BT is paid off you could always change it to another of their rewards-earning cards so it can be thought of as a long-term keeper. They can also be quite generous with credit lines, so it's quite likely you would also see a decent score increase all around due to significantly lower overall utilization.

Welcome to the forums!

Another possible option would be the PenFed Gold Visa if not eligible for Navy Federal membership.

Re: Balance Transfer Credit Cards

Anonymous — Thu, 07 May 2020 22:07:36 GMT

Amex Everyday card.

10K points plus No BT Fee upto 5K.

And you can reallocate credit lines from other Amex cards.

Re: Balance Transfer Credit Cards

Anonymous — Thu, 07 May 2020 22:14:54 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Amex Everyday card.
10K points plus No BT Fee upto 5K.
And you can reallocate credit lines from other Amex cards.

Excellent point. I actually just got this card myself since I've just bought a home and will be incurring expenses for which I'd like to use that "No BT Fee up to $5K." I had a ridiculously high (for me anyway) limit of $35K on my BCP, so I reallocated to split that limit between the BCP and ED.

Re: Balance Transfer Credit Cards

K-in-Boston — Thu, 07 May 2020 22:16:15 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Amex Everyday card.
10K points plus No BT Fee upto 5K.
And you can reallocate credit lines from other Amex cards.

With a 690 Experian, an approval would likely be with a training wheels limit, though. I didn't include it with BOA/Chase/Citi when I mentioned traditional BT cards due to the dollar amount. But certainly if OP has another personal Amex revolver that they could reallocate from (or one per 30 days if multiple cards), that could be viable for a portion of the balances and the 0% is up to 15 months. For the 10k sub, OP would need to spend $1000 on the card in addition to any balance transfers (one of those cases where mix and match with purchases and BTs are okay since both are subject to 0% APR).

Re: Balance Transfer Credit Cards

CYBERSAM — Fri, 08 May 2020 05:49:15 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hi new to myFICO. Trying to get my credit card debt cleaned up. I have approx $12,000 in credit card debt with $25,000 k limit high 40's utilization rate which I know is not good. My experian is 690, my equifax is 696 and transunion 710. I recently closed two car loans and have two new leases for a total balance around $34,000. I have no student loans or other debt. I currently rent a house for $1350 a month and recently had a child. My gross earnings last year were $165,000 but my wife doesn't work. We are starting to look for a house as well. Open for suggestions of Balance transfer cards that would be best for me. Going to try to pay $4,000 off and transfer the rest. Any feedback is welcome. Thank you.

Given your DTI is very low, try getting a small personal loan! 10K or so... Low APR and could improve your score for the future 😇

Re: Balance Transfer Credit Cards

NRB525 — Fri, 08 May 2020 06:34:25 GMT

OP, which credit cards do you have currently and what are the limits on each?

Re: Balance Transfer Credit Cards

Anonymous — Fri, 08 May 2020 12:08:40 GMT

Two capital one cards with $2500 limits 0 balance a discover card with 9k limit with $7500 balance and citi card with 5k limit with $2000 on it, a paypal card 4k limit $2500 balance and a my syncroney with 4k limit 0 balance.

@NRB525 wrote:
OP, which credit cards do you have currently and what are the limits on each?

Re: Balance Transfer Credit Cards

Anonymous — Sat, 09 May 2020 02:12:26 GMT

Unfortunately dont think I qualify for Navy Federal. My grandfather was army but he is deceased. What are other good credit unions for BT cards? Thank you for all your help.

Re: Balance Transfer Credit Cards

AllZero — Sat, 09 May 2020 02:15:35 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Unfortunately dont think I qualify for Navy Federal. My grandfather was army but he is deceased. What are other good credit unions for BT cards? Thank you for all your help.

@Anonymous You quality. Call csr and apply over the telephone. 20 minute conversation for membership application, longer if you like to chit-chat. Csr will walk you through the process. They are open 24/7/365.

Re: Balance Transfer Credit Cards

M_Smart007 — Sat, 09 May 2020 04:00:48 GMT

@AllZero wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Unfortunately dont think I qualify for Navy Federal. My grandfather was army but he is deceased. What are other good credit unions for BT cards? Thank you for all your help.
@Anonymous You quality. Call csr and apply over the telephone. 20 minute conversation for membership application, longer if you like to chit-chat. Csr will walk you through the process. They are open 24/7/365.