Ask for 0% APR on charges w/Discover

[good_credit]

I have  balance close to 11K on my discover card. I was hoping to call cusotmer service and request 0% APR on this balance for an year or so.  Does any one has experince making  requesting  similar   requests . Any help would be appreciated.

I have a total of  $100K CL over 4 cards (boa , citi , Amex and discover). The CL on discover is 17K.

Thanks in advance

[cdtotten]

I don't think this is going to be met with a positive resposne from Discover. You are at 65% utilization on their card which is extremely high, and they are making very good money off of you monthly due to interest, so there is little incentive for them to want to lower it. If your balance was $0, then you might be able to get them to offer a promotional BT offer.

Your better option is to contact your other lenders and see if anyone will offer a no-fee BT offer.

[IOBA]

They won't do it on existing balances, but they will do it for future balances.

I call them up and ask for a 0% interest rate for the next year.   I tell them I have a big purchase that is going on a cc and I'd really like to give them my business and give the opportunity to make some money on the  transaction too.   They usually counter back with 0% 6months.   

The tricky thing is you need to ask them when it goes into effect.   Sometimes it's same day, sometimes it's the start of the next billing cycle.

I have never carried a balance and asked for a rate exception on the current balance, but you can try.

[good_credit]

Thank you, cdtotten. . Fees associated w/BT may be a killer for  me, but i will see if i can get a no-fee BT. 

[Anonymous]

I don't think you're going to have much luck with it, to be honest. The only time I've heard of banks lowering the APR on an existing balance is if the customer can't pay it off and goes into a payment plan to get the balance paid off. At that point, you can pretty much expect the card to be closed or at least a severe CLD, since it signals to the creditor that you're likely to default on the debt.

How high is your APR and how long do you expect it to take you to pay off the balance? That's part of what determines if a balance transfer would make sense. After all, if it takes you, say, 12 months to pay off the debt, you're going to be paying a good amount in interest fees in that time.

At the same time, if you manage to get a 12-month 0% BT offer, even if you have to pay fees (likely around 3%) for the BT, you'll still be saving over what you'd be paying in interest, since I really doubt your Discover APR is close to 3%.

[Creditaddict]

If you can't get in with someone like Navy who does not have any fees to BT, I would look at Citi for the 21 month BT offer they had.... if you are not going to pay this balance off in the next 4-6 months I would be surprised it would not give you 12-17 months that you pay no interest after the first few months of the BT eating up the difference in what you did pay monthly in interest at Discover.

Now 100k over 4 cards, Discover the only one with a balance?

[good_credit]

Thanks for the advice.

Yes, discover is the only one w/balance. The others add up to `1000 or so.  I plan to pay off the balance in about 6-8 months ... I guess i need to do math on BT fees and the intrest (9.99% ) ..

By the way, i called discover and they offered o% for up to 4K , which is good..  They sugegsted caling before making purchse in future ....

[Anonymous]

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@good_credit wrote:

Thanks for the advice.

Yes, discover is the only one w/balance. The others add up to `1000 or so.  I plan to pay off the balance in about 6-8 months ... I guess i need to do math on BT fees and the intrest (9.99% ) ..

By the way, i called discover and they offered o% for up to 4K , which is good..  They sugegsted caling before making purchse in future ....

---

Hey, every little bit counts, right? So at least you only have to worry about 7k of it right now.

I'm not sure how to take the part in red, though - did they mean that you should ask for a low-apr offer before making a purchase on the future? That's what I'm assuming, but it also sounds like an Amex-ish "we might just decide to decline your purchases" threat too.

[Anonymous]

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@good_credit wrote:

Thanks for the advice.

Yes, discover is the only one w/balance. The others add up to `1000 or so.  I plan to pay off the balance in about 6-8 months ... I guess i need to do math on BT fees and the intrest (9.99% ) ..

By the way, i called discover and they offered o% for up to 4K , which is good..  They sugegsted caling before making purchse in future ....

---

Your best bet would be to call Citi and ask for a BT offer if you don't already see one in your online account. According to the information you provided here is how I would proceed in your situation. 

@Transfer $7k to Citi Card @ 0% APR for 12 months (assuming they give you that as a current card holder) with 3% BT fee=$210

Pay off the remaining $4k with the 0% APR Discover offered you

Let's do some math now on how much you will save. $11k X .10 (9.99%)=$1,100 for a years worth of interest divide that by 12 months=$91.67 x 8 months=$733 - $210 (BT fee)=$523 savings just in 8 months and more if took longer to pay off. 

[Anonymous]

I'm glad fusion did the math, since after spending all weekend on math exams and homework, I really didn't feel like it

But yeah, that's what I was trying to say earlier - even with a low 9.9% APR, the BT fees are still LESS. Unless you can pay off debt fast, or you have some abnormally low rate (which you'll never get on a CC, realistically speaking), a 0% BT offer is almost always going to save you money, even with fees involved.