Do I have even a sliver of chance to BT?

[Anonymous]

I am new to the forum and have tried to find some advice for a situation like mine. I guess I should just raise my hand and ask!

I just paid $59 to get my scores so here they are

EQ          707

TU          715

EXP        693

I have two lates on EQ and TU and one on EXP thanks to my daughter – I won’t ever cosign a car loan again lol. She is paying the thing off tomorrow so hopefully a paid loan will be a score booster.

So here is my dirty laundry: I am ashamed to admit I have about $23,000 cc debt and 40% utilization. I have learned a valuable lesson and I am in a position now where I am making $1500 monthly payments using Dave Ramsey’s snowball method. Currently working on that Capital one balance since they jacked my interest rate up to 17.25% and they will not lower it L I thought I might be able to speed up that snowball if I could transfer even just ONE of those high interest rate cards. I checked my open cards and cannot get a decent BT offer.  This is what I have:

Citi Aadvantage                5800/6000

Sears Mastercard (co branded by Citi) 0/8700

Home Depot (issued by Citi) 0/6000

BOA Alaska Air Visa 5000/6000

Chase Slate Visa 2600/5000

Chase SW Air Visa 3600/5000

Barclay Apple Visa 250/5000

Cap 1 Mastercard 5000/10000

Cap 1 Visa       0/300  - first credit card after divorce 15 years ago has a $40 AF!

I am starting to receive preapproval letters from Discover and AMEX but figure my utilization is too high for AMEX. I read about the Citi prequalifier website on these forums and found these offers:  “You are prequalified to apply for the following credit card offers: Simplicity: 0% 21 months, after that, the variable APR will be 18.24%.” 

It also said "See below for 4 additional offer(s)"  I am only thinking about 2 of them?

CDP with same intro rate and then 17.24.

DC  0% 18 months on balance transfers; after that the variable APR will be 18.24%

I also tried Discover and got this for their IT Card 0% for 12 months then 23.24 - -1%

Yeah, these rates suck but I will definitely have that balance paid off by then. I don't even use my cards anymore at this point.

I am scared to apply for a new card but I would really like to get these paid down. I don’t want to hurt my credit any more than already done.  I think I have enough credit history (AAoA between 80 – 220 months depending on which CRA you ask) to absorb an inquiry or 2?  I will have to replace my 10 year old car next year and I am also getting married. 

So?! What do you super credit experts think?  What should I do?  Thank you so much for any advice you can offer me at all

[Anonymous]

The biggest problem is you have two cards maxed out (over 80%) the Citi and BoA and a third, Chase at 72% utilization. if you do get approved for a card with a balance transfer offer the odds are it would be for a low limit which may not allow you to transfer enough funds to make any real difference. You may be better off checking into a personal loan especially if you belong to or can join a credit union.

[Anonymous]

So don't freak out.  Start one day or month at a time.  I would pay minimum payments on all but one right now.  You can start with the highest interest rate card, the lowest ut card or the highest ut card.  Whatever you think will keep you moving in the right direction.  Everyone has a different opinion on this.  I would personally take down the highest ut card to 30% and move onto the next highest ut card.  If you can get all down to 30% - 20%, your chances of getting a better balance transfer card are within your reach.  Not to mention a higher sl.  Then you can do your BT on the highest interest rate card and so on.  I think this is the only way you're going to get a good BT card to pay this down quicker.  Good luck and remember, Rome wasn't built in a day!  

[Anonymous]

Oh, and the garden is right next door...................

[RonM21]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
The biggest problem is you have two cards maxed out (over 80%) the Citi and BoA and a third, Chase at 72% utilization. if you do get approved for a card with a balance transfer offer the odds are it would be for a low limit which may not allow you to transfer enough funds to make any real difference. You may be better off checking into a personal loan especially if you belong to or can join a credit union.

---

If you must get a card or loan, I like this credit union idea. It is a very good point that without the utilization being down a bit, you could get approved, but not with a high enough limit. You don't want that to happen. But with all of this said, every situation is different.

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

So don't freak out.  Start one day or month at a time.  I would pay minimum payments on all but one right now.  You can start with the highest interest rate card, the lowest ut card or the highest ut card.  Whatever you think will keep you moving in the right direction.  Everyone has a different opinion on this.  I would personally take down the highest ut card to 30% and move onto the next highest ut card.  If you can get all down to 30% - 20%, your chances of getting a better balance transfer card are within your reach.  Not to mention a higher sl.  Then you can do your BT on the highest interest rate card and so on.  I think this is the only way you're going to get a good BT card to pay this down quicker.  Good luck and remember, Rome wasn't built in a day!  

---

+1 Sandi. Some really useful and great points here!

[Anonymous]

Sandibeach, this is an interesting idea! I had originally planned to pay down in order of interest rate so right now Capital One gets $1000 a month while the minimums on everything else is nearly $500 I have a spreadsheet that gives me rough a idea of total interest paid so I'll have to see how this route pans out in the long run. Thank you!!

[Anonymous]

Thank you all for the good advice. I did consider a loan through my credit union when I cosigned my daughter's car loan but the banker told me I would have to close my credit accounts? No thanks!!

I think I'll just hold off and just keep digging myself out until I can see daylight again. I just didn't want to hurt my score by adding new cards within a few months of buying a new car next year. But it would also hurt if I don't get this paid down and only get toy limits. Either way this has been unpleasant but at least I'm on my way out

[Anonymous]

Adding a few cards will improve your score from the utilization reduction, as long as the limits are decent. That will more than offset the few point loss from new accounts/inquiries.

[Anonymous]

My dh and I have friends that got into a similar situation. What they did was borrow enough money from his 401k to pay off the cc debt. This saved them a ton in interest, raised their FICO scores and gave them a fresh start. The loan payments back to his 401k were high but they ended up with an extra $150 per month over what they had been paying. This will cause you to lose money in the short term on your 401k, but you are paying yourself back with a low interest rate. The loan doesn't show up on your credit reports either. You would have to be smart and not get yourself back into debt.

I am not sure if I would ever do this, but I can see where it is worth considering.