My family member has been slowly paying off a credit card debt for a long time. In about a year or less, she is expecting a large inheritance which will allow her to wipe out her debt, but in the meantime, she is scrimping and saving. I've urged her to consider a balance transfer. (She says "I can't believe I'm taking credit advice from you!" LOL since my credit is such a mess.)
Data Points:
TU Fico 8: 750
Long credit history. Probably 20 years.
Just one credit card currently.
No derogs, ever.
Low income (a little under $20,000)
About 11,000 debt on a 29,000 limit credit card with BofA. Her utilization is higher than it should be, but not super high.
It's fairly certain that she will get the inheritance in a year or so. I think she should try to do a balance transfer, pay the minimum until the money comes in and then pay it all off. Right now it looks like she pays about $100 in interest a month. That just seems wasteful.
Her worry is that she only can budget about $250 a month to pay her credit card. She's worried that if she has to pay two cards off instead of one, she won't have enough money to pay even the minimums. I have no idea how much the minimums would be on two cards. It would depend on the balances of each, I guess. Also, she sometimes has to charge a few new things on her card to make it through the month. (I know, that's bad.)
She's been preapproved for several cards that offer balance transfers (Discover, USBank) but I think the best offer is AMEX Everyday Card with no balance transfer fee and 15 months 0% interest. Citibank and CapitalOne had nothing for her. I suspect that she should try anyway, at least with Citibank. She has no recent inquiries.
I told her I'd get wisdom from the MyFICO people on what to do! Any help you can give, she would appreciate. Thanks!
