Balance Transfer $75K from Chase and AMEX

[Kiesha8185]

I am in the process of trying to pay off my cc balances. Basically lost my job after being hospitalized after delivering my baby. After almost losing my life and my baby...racking up 75K in balances isn't the worst thing that could happen. We are in a much better place financially, no longer using the cards at all. But this accruing interest pretty much nullifies this.

In any case, these balances are on 3 cards. $25K in AMEX, $33K on Chase Sapphire and $20K on Chase Southwest.

We now have the ability to pay off chunks of the balances but I figured it's best to transfer to another card and not pay interest. We have been paying $3K a month and it's not making a dent! 

Please offer some direction on how I can do this. Please tell me what you need? I don't know my credit scores and I'm located in South Florida. 

I have 1 Capital One Journey card with $750 cc limit that is paid off. I have accounts with Victoria Secret, The Limited, Express all paid off. $13K store card with Macy's paid off. No negatives, collections or late payments on my credit. I have student loans and a home mortgage, those are the only balances on my credit (except the $75K in the 1 AMEX and 2 Chase).

Please help.

[Anonymous]

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@Kiesha8185 wrote:

I am in the process of trying to pay off my cc balances. Basically lost my job after being hospitalized after delivering my baby. After almost losing my life and my baby...racking up 75K in balances isn't the worst thing that could happen. We are in a much better place financially, no longer using the cards at all. But this accruing interest pretty much nullifies this.

In any case, these balances are on 3 cards. $25K in AMEX, $33K on Chase Sapphire and $20K on Chase Southwest.

We now have the ability to pay off chunks of the balances but I figured it's best to transfer to another card and not pay interest. We have been paying $3K a month and it's not making a dent! 

Please offer some direction on how I can do this. Please tell me what you need? I don't know my credit scores and I'm located in South Florida. 

I have 1 Capital One Journey card with $750 cc limit that is paid off. I have accounts with Victoria Secret, The Limited, Express all paid off. $13K store card with Macy's paid off. No negatives, collections or late payments on my credit. I have student loans and a home mortgage, those are the only balances on my credit (except the $75K in the 1 AMEX and 2 Chase).

Please help.

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You will get a lot of good advice here. Folks are going to need to know your FICO scores (you can get them here on myFICO or alternatively do the $1 trial on credit check total.)

What are the limits/utilization % on those Chase and Amex cards. Are they maxed? What are the interest rates?

What is your total utilization? (factoring in all of those paid off cards.)

I think you'd be hard pressed to find a card with a starting limit to cover all of your balances, but if your credit is in good enough shape, you might be able to move some of the debt to a new 0% card, get yourself some breathing room on some of it, and hammer away on the higher interest balances during that time. A personal loan may be an option as well, but again requires good credit to get one with favorable enough terms to make it worth it.

If those three cards are maxed out, you might need to get the balances down some to improve your credit enough for the options above to even be feasible.

How is your budget? Anything you can cut, anyway to bring in more $$$ ?

[CreditMagic7]

I will get right on this and i hope other members will do their neighborly duty too in pointing you how best to round up those cards that are racking up fast with interest in full swing.

It's nothing but a losing battle fighting interest at high levels and so those balances need relief ASAP to a BT Card(s) which sport for you a term usually 12-15 months mostly.

Since you have some bearings back now after a horrible ordeal for you absolutely i would look to transfer the worse of the debt w/interest over to a haven that might support some of it.

This is now a balancing act for you but one that you still have some control in directing much better to your favor.

Others should be along to pitch in with their observations and suggestions and hope you get this concern relieved first so it doesn't dig things any deeper.

With Regards, CM7

[Anonymous]

Have you tried asking for lower interest?

[Anonymous]

First thing first, you need to get a hold of your credit profile.  If you don't want to spend money, Credit Karma is free and gives you enough details to determine what you may qualify for.  Sign up and post back what you find, other members will then be able to give you more accurate and realistic advise.

[Anonymous]

Credit Check Total will give you all your scores for a dollar.  Just remember to cancel it within a week.

Like others have said I would call and ask creditors for lower interest.  Good luck.  

[CreditCuriosity]

Yikes... Will be following this.. No card or cards will allow a person to do a huge BT of 75kish..  Your best bet is as stated to get your FICO's and see where you stand credit wise then most liekly you will need some kinda consolidation loan with a lower interest rate than what you are paying on your Amex and Chase CC's as certainly you will most likely get better through such places as lending club or prosper or other such as those.  No one CC will give you that limit nor the ability to BT that debt, but if you can get some at 0% on CC's and other by loans at lower interest rates you will be alot better at chipping off a great deal of your monthly payments that are going just to interest.  Sure alot more people will comment.   Also not sure if you own a home or not, but a heloc or something along those lines might be an option as well.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

First thing first, you need to get a hold of your credit profile.  If you don't want to spend money, Credit Karma is free and gives you enough details to determine what you may qualify for.  Sign up and post back what you find, other members will then be able to give you more accurate and realistic advise.

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Disagree. While a useful free resource, some folks have a 100 point swing in their CK scores vs FICOs. Great for keeping an eye on things . . not useful when it comes to gauging what you might qualify for.

CK has me at 730 currently . . . oh how I wish!

[Anonymous]

As someone has already mentioned getting a card with a limit that high that you can BT $75k to will be impossible.  After you provide your FICO scores, the card limits, and the APR for the cards people here can offer you more help.

Probably your best bet for a large amount will be a debt consolidation loan, only problem is if you are approved they may require you to close some of those credit cards but YMMV and hopefully they do nmot require that.

[MauiMan85297]

For what it's worth, scores don't matter now it's the debt that is the worry and how to get rid of it effectively enough that it doesn't take umpteen years.  There's no place out there that will lend that type of money (unsecured) based on your profile (looking overextended) and without seeing your CR I have to assume that most if not all accounts are closed to max because of your unfortunate situation.  You most likely won't be able to open up new cards to do BT's because of the high debt but if you do have a card/s that have low interest BT offers (4.9% or <) then send it there and if nothing is available start sending the extra money (above mins) to the card that has the highest interest because that's what's costing you the most and pyramid it down from there.  Based on $75k mins that would be required by creditors (not counting any 0% cards) would be about $1900 so by sending in 3k that's about 1k going towards principal.  That's certainly paying down your balances but you don't really see it because of the high balances, this will be a marathon and not a sprint unless an income change happens that you can afford sending more than 3k/mo.  Best of luck and I'll be following