Rolling Over Credit Card Debt - Strategy and ?s regarding 0% Credit Cards in Post App-orama World

[drchaos]

Rolling Over Credit Card Debt - Strategy and ?s regarding 0% Credit Cards in Post App-orama World

My goal is to take a 60 day rollover loan from my ROTH IRA, pay off or down my existing credit cards and apply for 2-4 new ones.

Currently I have the following credit card debt:

[b]$7,389.60 - NFCU Visa Signature CashRewards Plus (0.99% interest until 1/27/2025) - Limit $8,100.00
$9,110.56, AMEX Blue Business Cash(TM) (0.00% Interest until 2/7/2025) - Limit $10,000.00 - Does not show on Credit Karma
$4,475.16 - Citi ThankYou® Preferred (0.99% interest until 6/1/2025) - Limit $4,800.00
$22,159.10 - TD Flexpay Platinum VISA (0.00% interest until 7/1/2025) - Limit $23,400.00
$7,917 .59 - Alliant Credit Union Visa Platinum W/Rewards Plan (0.00% interest until 12/1/2025) - Limit $10,000.00[/b]

$51.052.01 Subtotal for 0.00 to 0.99% Credit Card Debt

I have two US Bank Credit Cards (one used to be Union Bank before the Merger). US Bank has an extended pay program which allows purchases to be paid for in twelve equal monthly payments with little or no fees involved

[b]$5,637.66 - US Bank Cash Plus Signature Card - Limit $15,000.00
$6,609.77 - US Bank Platinum Visa Card - Limit $11,300.00

$12,247.43 Subtotal for US Bank Extended Pay Program[/b]

$63,299.44 Total Outstanding Credit Card Debt - $268,500 limit on all credit cards including monthly spenders

My only other debt is the 60 month loan on my 2017 RAV 4 Platinum. The debt was originally $25,000 with a 3.99% interest rate but I have paying $457.82 monthly with a current remaining balance of $6,262.02 and expect the load to be paid in full by February 2026 if I do not prepay or refinance the loan.

I learned the hard way last year that the traditional App-o-rama no longer works as it once did as I had applications rejected within an hour of the first one as the companies I was applying to were alerted to the hard inquiries much sooner than I expected.

With three hard inquiries on my current credit report my goal is to apply for 2-4 carefully targeted credit cards with 0% offers on both balance transfers and purchases (or at least one of those) .

Ideally these credit cards will be with companies that will allow me to transfer the credit limit on an existing card to the new card. I will be applying for one credit card each from Bank of America and Chase but do not know who else might let me do this.

As the estimated value of my car is in excess of $20,000 I may also want to refinance it but may not want to use one of my hard inquiries to do so.

Other existing credit cards / spenders

$50,000.00 - BOA Visa Signature
$33,700.00 - PENFED Platinum
$25,000.00 - AMEX Every Day
$19,000.00 - Wells Fargo Reflect Visa Platinum
$16,400.00 - Chase Freedom Unlimited
$13,500.00 - Citizens - They have sent 0% (through 2/12/2026) balance transfer checks (5% BT fee) that can be used through 1/31/2025
$12,500.00 - Capital One BJ's One+ Mastercard
$9,300.00 - Citi Double Cash
$6,000.00 - Discover IT Card

$25,000.00 Limit - Edward Jones Business Plus Mastercard - Does not show up on Credit Karma

================================

A total of $16,500.16 will be needed to pay off both the NFCU and AMEX cards in full.

Of the $46,799.28 i am carrying on the other five credit cards a portion will need to be paid off now to reduce the utilization rates on these individual cards so I can get approvals (most importantly from BOA and Chase) when I apply for the new cards at the end of January.

Since I did a 60 day loan from my ROTH IRA last year I can not take the money out from it (to pay off or down credit cards) until 12/29/2024.

Any funds taken from the ROTH IRA much be repaid within 60 days.  As such I plan to use 0% balance transfer debt to accomplish this.  You may think this is difficult or unwise but I know how to do this and am not concerned about any consequences.  The immediate goals warrant any risk.

As I took a lot of money out of the Inherited IRA already in 2024 I would like to avoid taking any money out until 1/1/2025 at the earliest.

Please keep in mind that all of the credit card balances I have are either from balance transfers or extended pay programs and that paying the credit card down does not give me the opportunity to make zero percent purchases in the future.

As such I have the following questions:

1. With three hard inquiries and the possibility that each application will include a hard inquiry for the previous application how many cards should I apply for before I risk hard inquiries with nothing to show for it?

2. What is the best Bank of America credit card to apply for if I already have a BOA Signature Card?

3. What is the best Chase credit card to apply for if I already have a Chase Freedom Card?

4. What other credit cards should I apply for?

5. Are there any rewards credit cards I should consider applying for?

6. If I want to be approved by both BOA and Chase what is the highest amount of credit card utilization I should keep on any of my existing credit cards?

7. Once I have paid down the credit cards, how many days do I need to wait to apply for the new cards?

You guys were a big help when I did this last year and really appreciate any help you can provide this time.

[ElvisCaprice]

Sounds like a circus act looking for a high wire fall.  More power to you if you can keep pulling it off.  I wouldn't recommend anyone else attempt this.  Safe CC habits, with good Fico score building would be to never carry a balance.

That said, interested in feedback to keeping this circus act going.

[drchaos]

Thanks for your prompt reply to my inquiry.

I would not recommend doing this unless you really know what you are doing and know how to handle risk and budget very well.

I have researched all of my numbers very carefully to even think about attemting this.

Do you have any feedback regarding the questions I have such as which cards to apply for?

As always I am happy to share any results in this thead.

[JoeRockhead]

This seems an awful lot like the proverbial kicking the can down the road. Each time you kick it further down the road, the more narrow the road becomes, and the more difficult it becomes to recover from.

Obviously you not only have to acquire an adequate number of approvals, but also useful limits.  People with thick, mature files are able to still acquire good approvals with lol/24 inquiries, but they generally have very low utilization...  Just as in your thread from earlier this year, to have any kind of shot at all your first concern is going to have to be to reduce the high utilization you have going on before attempting this plan.

[drchaos]

Thanks for your prompt reply.

As I stated in the OP the plan is to pay off the two cards that are due first (NFCU ad AMEX) and pay down the rest to a lower utilization rate.

To get approvals from companies such as BOA, Chase, Wells Fargo, or AMEX how much do I need to pay the cards down?

With some cards not due until Summer or even December I do not want to pay them down to zero just yet.

With all of the credit avialable my overall utilization rate will not be a problem.

Should I target 25, 20, 15, or 10 percent utilization if I want to get approvals without paying the cards down too much and losing valuable cash now?

Thanks again.

[ElvisCaprice]

60 days is not enough time to repay the loan and make this work, IF you can even get it to work.  And if you plan on borrowing from those new CC"s with 0% APR intro offers, you'll then need to take a cash advance?  Since you would need to pay down/off those existing CC's to get your utilizition rate in order.   I don't see how it will work.

8% max utilization, total and individual, lower better.

[drchaos]

I have a preliminary list of the credit cards (and terms) that I am considering:

1. Bank of America Limited Rewards 

0% on Purchases for 15 Months

0% on Balance Transders for 15 Months (3% BT Fee)

No Annual Fee

$200 Cash Rewards if Spending Target Reached

1.5% Cash Back

2. Chase Freedom Flex

0% on Purchases for 15 Months

0% on Balance Transders for 15 Months (3% BT Fee)

No Annual Fee

$200 Cash Rewards if Spending Target Reached

5% Cash back on Quarterly Category up to $1,500

3. Wells Fargo Active Cash

0% on Purchases for 12 Months

0% on Balance Transders for 12 Months (3% BT Fee)

No Annual Fee

2% Cash Back

4. Amex Blue Everyday

0% on Purchases for 15 Months

0% on Balance Transders for 15 Months (3% BT Fee)

No Annual Fee

$250 Cash Rewards if Spending Target Reached

3% Cash back on three categories, 1% Otherwise

5. TD Bank Double Up Card

0% on Balance Transders for 15 Months (3% BT Fee)

No Annual Fee

2% Cash Back

6. Edward Jones World Mastercard

1. Bank of America Limited Rewards 

0% on Purchases for 15 Months

0% on Balance Transders for 15 Months (3% BT Fee)

No Annual Fee

$200 Cash Rewards if Spending Target Reached

1.5% Cash Back

2. Chase Freedom Flex

0% on Purchases for 15 Months

0% on Balance Transders for 15 Months (3% BT Fee)

No Annual Fee

$200 Cash Rewards if Spending Target Reached

5% Cash back on Quarterly Category up to $1,500

3. Wells Fargo Active Cash

0% on Purchases for 12 Months

0% on Balance Transders for 12 Months (3% BT Fee)

No Annual Fee

2% Cash Back

4. Amex Blue Everyday

0% on Purchases for 15 Months

0% on Balance Transders for 15 Months (3% BT Fee)

No Annual Fee

$250 Cash Rewards if Spending Target Reached

3% Cash back on three categories, 1% Otherwise

5. TD Bank Double Up Card

0% on Balance Transders for 15 Months (3% BT)

No Annual Fee

$150 Bonus if spending target reached

2% Cash Back

6. Edward Jones World Mastercard

0% on Balance Transders for 12 Months (0% BT Fee in first 60 days)

No Annual Fee

Loyalty Points

I learned from a past mistake that Chase would automatically decline another application for a Chase Freedom Unlimited Card if I already have one.  I think they might approve an application for a Chase Freedom Flex Card but if anyone knows otherwise it would be a big help to find out now.

I currently have three hard inquiries that will all expire in January of 2026 so rolling over the cards in 15 months would happen after these inquiries have expired.

With that said I am not sure that I would get all six cards or would be comfortable going from 3 to 9 hard inquiries.

The priorirty here is to get either approvals with high limits or to get approvals and move the credit limit from an existing card to pump up the limit on the new card before making purchases or balance transfers.

Ranking these cards or taking recommendations for other cards would be appreciated but I purposely left Citi, Discover, and Capital One cards out as I have gotten low limits from them in the past and do not trust them enough to use up one of my hard inquiries.

Thanks in advance.

[drchaos]

Thanks for your response.

The plan is simple.

1. Take the money from the ROTH IRA.

2. Pay off / down the cards the following day when the funds are avialable in my checking account.

3. Wait until the payments show up on the credit report (30 days?)

4. Apply for the cards

5. 30 days or so should be enough time to initiate balance transfers from one or more cards to create a credit balance on one or more of my spenders and to get a refund of that credit balance.  An ACH refund can be obtained within a week while a check is closer to two weeks give or take,  The window is tight and some credit card companies are much less cooperative than others but it can be done.

Once I pay down the cards is 30 days long enough to apply for the new cards or do I need to be more patient?

8% is lower than I hoped for on the utilization (and a bit more painful) but I am here to learn from you.

[ElvisCaprice]

I'm going to bow out.  I don't know how to make this work or even pretend to.  Your going to need advice from someone who has done something similiar to what you want to attempt.  Good Luck!!  Try search.

[GZG]

when you pay off the NFCU card, you can apply for a NFCU platinum card and then move limit over from the current card for the purpose of a balance transfer, as long as you're approved so it doesn't matter if you only get $500

it being a cash rewards plus complicates that a bit because of the $5k minimum, you may need to product change it first if you wanted to take all of the limit from that card for the new platinum 

just a thought