CC high SL/0% Advice

Anonymous · ‎10-16-2019

Hi all, looking for some insight. Been researching and am down the rabbit hole and feel lost at this point. I need to pile up some $ on a zero interest card for a few months while my husband finishes school and my income supports us and our baby girl.

I have a few cards with high interest rates I don't want to utilize, my score is between 800 and 813, and I'm looking for a card that will give me a high starting spending limit with no interest so we have a few months after January to either transfer to a new card or begin paying it down. I've looked at the BofA Cash Rewards, the Chase Freedom, Chase FU, Discover IT, Cap1 Savor Cash, and other BofA, but am just confused at this point. Sorry, long winded here!

Currently I have:

Delta Gold Amex: 10k limit, 0 balance

AAdvantage MC: 6k limit, 0 balance

Cap1 Venture: 10k limit, 400 balance

Paypay credit line: 5k, 550 balance

Synchrony Care Credit: 7k, 300 balance

Synchrony Amazon Prime: 5k, 300 balance

New car loan: Toyota financing - 1 month old, 18k balance

And my income is about 30k, my husband is just recently unemployed finishing up last bit of certificates, but did make/will make about 40k

Thanks so much for any insight you can provide. I scour these boards and will continue to read up. I really appreciate the experts valuable time!! Much respect for your earned knowledge!

Anonymous · ‎10-16-2019

@Anonymous wrote:
Hi all, looking for some insight. Been researching and am down the rabbit hole and feel lost at this point. I need to pile up some $ on a zero interest card for a few months while my husband finishes school and my income supports us and our baby girl.
I have a few cards with high interest rates I don't want to utilize,

my score is between 800 and 813, Suspect these are CK scores since you listed 2 and not all 3.... go to Experian and grab all 3 FICO scores for $1

and I'm looking for a card that will give me a high starting spending limit with no interest so we have a few months after January to either transfer to a new card or begin paying it down. I've looked at the

BofA Cash Rewards, Typically an EX pull and mediocre opening CL /// grows well though in the long term
Chase Freedom, typically a double pull and could be a high or mediocre CL
Chase FU, typically a double pull and could be a high or mediocre CL
Discover IT, bit of a coin flip on opening CL but, there's potential of a SP approval through the pre-qual page /// grows well in the long term
Cap1 Savor Cash, will pull all 3 scores and not notorious for a high opening CL

Delta Gold Amex: 10k limit, 0 balance // this opens doors to other Amex approvals with a SP... The only 0% I can think of though is the ED that is both 0% purchases and 0$ BT's from other cards as well
AAdvantage MC: 6k limit, 0 balance Need to clarify if this is Citi or Barclays...
Cap1 Venture: 10k limit, 400 balance
~~Paypay credit line: 5k, 550 balance~~
~~Synchrony Care Credit: 7k, 300 balance~~
~~Synchrony Amazon Prime: 5k, 300 balance~~
~~New car loan: Toyota financing - 1 month old, 18k balance~~

I would take a step back and look at the long term benefits and if you'll use them or not before just looking at the 0% options. Some of the enticement into a 0% offer clouds better judgement when it comes to picking the right cards. Looks like you're centered more on TRAVEL based on your major cards you currently have.

Is Travel something you do frequently or just banking points for future trips?

This should be a good start for now.... the more info you provide the narrower we can get with recommendations.

GApeachy · ‎10-16-2019

+10 ^^^^^

OP, I'm on this BB&T kick right now. Are you in their footprint? Only reason I ask is because of the pre-qual, it kinda lets you know where you stand, nothing definitive but a pretty good guess for the price of a sp. If you do a search here for the thread bb&t - $9000 approval you can zero in on sl's so to speak. Just a thought.

My Take Home Pay Don't Take Me Home

Anonymous · ‎10-16-2019

https://www.bbt.com/offers/checkOffers

https://online.bbvausa.com/apply/credit-card-prequal?source=sba&oneTimeToken=SSOls/5v/LlXLNcqyXmBy75...

https://apply.regions.com/creditcards/login/olb

https://forms.pnc.com/content/dlx-landing/en/ps1-loan-offer-entry.html?offers=HPA-AUT-CRC-HEL&source...

Anonymous · ‎10-17-2019

@obscure-expert

Thank you for your replies!

My Aadvantage is a Citi card.

I am considering downgrading my Aadvantage Citi and my AmEx Delta Gold to the lower, non AF cards as my AF is about to hit for both of those for the 2nd year - had them for just at 3 years. From what I understand this doesn't affect my score/record at all.

I'm really not particular about what type of card I get for this. I have preferred travel, but that was before my daughter was born and travels are going to be few and far between. So really I prob will prefer basic rewards, like statement credits. But again, I'm really just looking for a 12+ intro 0 APR combined with the highest SL I can get. Or, two cards with the 0 intro for 12+ months so I can spread my household spending across them and not max either out.

I will be looking to transfer balances to that AmEx or the Discover Balance Transfer card (or both, if SL are too low) before the 12 months are up.

I am also self employed so I was just doing some further research and am considering an AmEx for small business card. Like the Blue Business Plus with a 12 month 0 APR OR the new Blue Business CASH card, which also has the 12 month 0 APR.

Do you know what sort, if any, verifications of business income they ask for small business credit cards?

Also, I'm not in the BB&T footprint. I'm in Michigan and it seems some card dont have offers here. Thank you for sending those links, tho! I'm exploring all avenues.

Hope I gave a little more details into what I'm looking for. I appreciate your time!

GApeachy · ‎10-17-2019

@Anonymous wrote:

I am also self employed so I was just doing some further research and am considering an AmEx for small business card. Like the Blue Business Plus with a 12 month 0 APR OR the new Blue Business CASH card, which also has the 12 month 0 APR. We just got this.

Do you know what sort, if any, verifications of business income they ask for small business credit cards? All they asked for was EIN
How long have you been in business? Are you incorporated?

My Take Home Pay Don't Take Me Home

Anonymous · ‎10-17-2019

Downgrading and conserving funds is always a good start. Yeah, that doesn't affect your score... only the rewards clocks if you had your eye set on AA points. Amex/Delta don't really impose those kinds of restrictions though.

Amex opens doors to other cards w/ SP approvals... There are plenty of options but, the only 0% offer that seems to run often is on the ED card as mentioned. Sidenote... if you haven't asked for a CLI in awhile it might be a good idea to do that before you apply...30K + a new card opens doors to move the CL's around after another card is approved. If they open a new card you can always move the CL over to compensate for the amount you want to transfer.

Citi is fine and dandy but, I wouldn't count on a high enough CL to shuffle things around.

As for the SE / Docs required.... I'm not sure... there's a whole nother group that concentrate on that around here... https://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Business-Credit/bd-p/businesscredit

--the nice thing about biz cards as long as you stay away from certain lenders is that they don't report on your personal CR

Hmmm.. Michigan based options....

I think the more info you provide will help get some more input from others... maybe change the title of the thread... "CC high SL/0% advice" Something that stands out a bit that might get a more local perspective... There's different national options like listed above but, on one hand we don't want to hammer your CR w/ INQ's to lock you out of some options that will be picky about them.

Anonymous · ‎10-17-2019

I've been self employed as a consultant for 3 years. I'm not incorporated, though I have been looking into the benefits of doing it. For now I'm sole proprietor using my SSN.

So I wonder if that will work when applying for Biz CCs.

CreditCuriosity · ‎10-17-2019

@Anonymous wrote:
I've been self employed as a consultant for 3 years. I'm not incorporated, though I have been looking into the benefits of doing it. For now I'm sole proprietor using my SSN.
So I wonder if that will work when applying for Biz CCs.

Yes it will work fine for Amex, CITI, Chase, etc business cards.. Whether your credit profile and business is old enough is another story. All the majors being Amex/Citi/Chase business cards can use SSN instead of an EIN, etc.. I would visit the business credit section of the forum if you are interested in persuing that route. I have an EIN and a LLC, but usually just file as a sole prop with SSN as easier that way and my personal credit is backing it regardless. As mentioned the nice thing about business credit is it is hidden for most lenders so utilization isnt a factor and doesnt tank your personal fico score

Anonymous · ‎10-17-2019

That's excellent news. Thank you for the info that you use your SSN/personal credit, and what a bonus that it isn't on my personal score. I've just started perusing the topics in the Biz Credit section of the site. Lots to review! I went to check pre-qual offers on AmEx site and they listed the Blue Biz Cash Card, which does have a 0 APR 12 months going right now.

Question for you, and I can post on Biz side if needed, but do you know if you can move CL from a personal card to biz and vice versa, or can you only request/do that with same type cards? What about balance transfers? Do they have to be the same type or can you move debt from Biz to Personal and vice versa? As a sole prop (tho it's terrible biz practice) I spend $ for biz items on a card I use for personal use too. Tho this is something I'm going to stop doing first of the year for tax ease going forward.

Thanks so much for everyone's input. Your experience and time is invaluable!