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I have some balance transfer offers on a few of my cards, but I've never taken advantage of one before. Do companies typically lower the credit limit on the card you are transferring from? Do they try to close the card? I don't want either of those things to happen, but I'm not sure what to expect.
If you transfer all the way up to your credit limit on the card with the 0% offer, your utilization on that card will be very bad.
Balance transfers just show up as a payment on the old account. Unless you had it maxed or other behavior that would have resulted in adverse action, it’s very unlikely that paying off your card will result in anything happening other than maybe a credit limit increase.
@UpperNwGuy wrote:If you transfer all the way up to your credit limit on the card with the 0% offer, your utilization on that card will be very bad.
Thanks for the tip! *nerd alert* I keep track of that stuff on an Excel spreadsheet, so I'll run some scenarios to see what benefits me the most.
@McNugget wrote:
@UpperNwGuy wrote:If you transfer all the way up to your credit limit on the card with the 0% offer, your utilization on that card will be very bad.
Thanks for the tip! *nerd alert* I keep track of that stuff on an Excel spreadsheet, so I'll run some scenarios to see what benefits me the most.
So just to combine the previous explanations, any problem usually won't occur on the "from" card, the one you are paying off. It just looks like a normal payment, so only if they are balance chasing you, you should be fine on this card. Then, on the "to" card, like any purchase, if your balance ends up near the credit limit, your score will suffer.
The other issue is to check to see the rules on the card you are balance transferring to. While some allow you to make purchases and keep the grace period, others don't. If you lose the grace period, make sure you don't charge anything else to this card until the balance is paid off.
I just write the 0% checks to myself and deposit them.
This allows me to pay who I want a when I want.
DON'T WORK FOR CREDIT CARDS ... MAKE CREDIT CARDS WORK FOR YOU!
@Shooting-For-800 wrote:I just write the 0% checks to myself and deposit them.
This allows me to pay who I want a when I want.
True, maybe OP does not have that offer available? Usually writing yourself a check and depositing it can take just as long as an electronic Balance Transfer.
@Five6Two wrote:
@Shooting-For-800 wrote:I just write the 0% checks to myself and deposit them.
This allows me to pay who I want a when I want.
True, maybe OP does not have that offer available? Usually writing yourself a check and depositing it can take just as long as an electronic Balance Transfer.
I don't even know what this means.
I mean, I know what writing a check to myself does. I didn't get anything in the mail, if that's what this was talking about; it was just the introductory balance transfer rate (0%, no fee) through the cc company website. Took less than 30 seconds.