topic Help on BT in Credit Cards

Help on BT

Anonymous — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 17:17:14 GMT

I have a BT from CITI 0% for 12 months what % of the available Credit should I use???????

Re: Help on BT

Anonymous — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 17:29:21 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I have a BT from CITI 0% for 12 months what % of the available Credit should I use???????

What is your current debt? Whats the CL on the Citi CC? And also whats your UTIL now?

Re: Help on BT

Anonymous — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 17:57:54 GMT

My current util is 3% and I have 0% util on my citi, total available credit limit on all cards - 12000$

Re: Help on BT

Anonymous — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 18:05:16 GMT

So you roughly owe <400, I am not really sure what you are asking? Why would you want to BT if you only owe <400?

I'm sorry if I'm missing something, but I really do not understand your question.

Re: Help on BT

Anonymous — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 18:10:21 GMT

I want to pay off my school fees and personal cash expenses that will be due in few months. I understand I dont have a huge revolving debt on CC's but want to use the money for some cash related expenses

Re: Help on BT

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 14:28:52 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I want to pay off my school fees and personal cash expenses that will be due in few months. I understand I dont have a huge revolving debt on CC's but want to use the money for some cash related expenses

ok... So how do you plan to do that? Are they offering to transfer to your bank account as cash? A lot of companies have stopped that practice, but if Citi is offering, you can take them up on it. Transfer whatever you need. How much are you looking for?

As long as you don't go over your total CL with the transfer plus fees, you are technically fine. However, the closer you get to maxing out your card, the more scrutiny you will get for a declined transaction or later AA. Especially if it's a bank account deposit.

From my experience, creditors don't mind if you take full advantage of their BT offers. A lot of other people on this forum will tell you otherwise from their experience or opinion. YMMV.

Good luck!

Re: Help on BT

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 20:28:51 GMT

Thanks I m planning to use 50% of avaialble credit limit which will look as 12% over all utilization on all my cards

Re: Help on BT

203bravo — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 21:06:41 GMT

so you're not really doing a balance transfer... rather you are plannig on doing a cash advance?

Re: Help on BT

amp0804 — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 21:14:56 GMT

No he is doing a balance transfer. With citi bank you have two options. You can have them send a check to who ever you like or have them deposit the money directly into your account. It is not a cash advance because if it was you would be getting charged a cash advanced rate. With this you get the advantage of no interest for however long the offer is for.

Re: Help on BT

Anonymous — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 21:17:46 GMT

Thanks I just checked with CSR about the direct deposit and he confirmed that its a BT and not CA

Re: Help on BT

amp0804 — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 03:11:06 GMT

Welcome

Re: Help on BT

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 05:45:51 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks I just checked with CSR about the direct deposit and he confirmed that its a BT and not CA

So let me understand this, you can get a balance transfer through direct deposit into your bank account and not have it tied to any of the fees of a cash advance?

I didn't know this until now, quite useful.

Re: Help on BT

clocktick — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 13:51:12 GMT

I recently did a balance transfer from a card to a Citi card. It was quick and easy. I called up Citi (but also see that I could've done it online) and told them the card and amount I wanted to transfer and then in under a week, it was done.

I also just got blank checks from Barclays. It said you could fill them out and give them to people as checks or write a check to yourself and deposit it in your bank. I haven't read the fine print but it seems simple enough.

Re: Help on BT

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 15:24:38 GMT

Yep but only in CITI

Re: Help on BT

Anonymous — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 17:13:05 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

So let me understand this, you can get a balance transfer through direct deposit into your bank account and not have it tied to any of the fees of a cash advance?

I didn't know this until now, quite useful.

Yup. It's known as credit card arbitrage. It's basically a short-term interest-free loan from the credit card company. It can be used to pay off/down a higher interest loan.

You have to make the minimum monthly payments and possibly pay a BT fee, and by all means, pay it back on time! Also, it's important to do this on a card with no other purchases, because payments will go to the lowest interest items first. I recently did this with my Chase card and the CSR was quite detailed about how to do it.

ETA: Meh, crappy block quote.

Re: Help on BT

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 12:31:07 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
So let me understand this, you can get a balance transfer through direct deposit into your bank account and not have it tied to any of the fees of a cash advance?
I didn't know this until now, quite useful.
Yup. It's known as credit card arbitrage. It's basically a short-term interest-free loan from the credit card company. It can be used to pay off/down a higher interest loan.

You have to make the minimum monthly payments and possibly pay a BT fee, and by all means, pay it back on time! Also, it's important to do this on a card with no other purchases, because payments will go to the lowest interest items first. I recently did this with my Chase card and the CSR was quite detailed about how to do it.

ETA: Meh, crappy block quote.

This is no longer true. Feel free to do a BT on whichever card offers you the best offer, and your payments above the minimum will not go to the lower interest rate balance first like they used to.

One positive thing to come out of the CARD act.

Re: Help on BT

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 18:25:33 GMT

Maybe my CSR at Chase was wrong, but he told me that just last month. I'm not inclined to find out which of us is wrong at this point. My BT doesn't end until May of 2012!