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BALANCE TRANSFER CARD

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Anonymous
Not applicable

BALANCE TRANSFER CARD

My score isn't the greatest and I've made mistakes; working hard on bouncing back.  I have a Discover card that is maxed out and would really love to get a 0 balance transfer card so I can pay it off.  Any suggestions? EQU 649; TRA 632; EXP 623.  thank you!

Message 1 of 7
6 REPLIES 6
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: BALANCE TRANSFER CARD

Chase Slate is highly recommended because of the 0% transfer fee and 0% APR for 15 months. Others I've used are Citi Diamond Preferred for 0% for 21 months and BoA BankAmericard for, iirc, 18months- both have a 3% transfer fee.

Message 2 of 7
FinStar
Moderator Emeritus

Re: BALANCE TRANSFER CARD

Define maxed out. What is the balance? Are there any other tradelines with high utilization or just Discover? Any negatives? AAoA?
Message 3 of 7
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: BALANCE TRANSFER CARD

I'm just under 2k on it (limit is 2k); and the others are high utilization also, but they're smaller cards (2).  Yes, a couple of old negatives. 

Message 4 of 7
Nan425
New Contributor

Re: BALANCE TRANSFER CARD

Last week I received a mailer for citi double cash and applied online with the invite code. I was approved for $3000 instantly. It is 0 interest for 18 months on balance transfers only. They pulled eq. My fico Eq was 655 with 5 inquiries. My uti is at 80%. I think citi double cash card would be a good choice for you.
Message 5 of 7
Cookiegrabber
Regular Contributor

Re: BALANCE TRANSFER CARD

Incomplete list of credit unions that have cards with 0% B/T fees, in no particular order. Some have 0% APR promos, most don't, but I guess if you're not in a position to pay off all your balances every month, you might as well use CU cards since their interest rates are much much lower than banks.

 

 

DCU
PenFed
Mountain America CU
Andrews FCU
Justice FCU
State Department FCU
Alliant
NASA FCU
Mid Illini CU
US Senate FCU
Wings Financial CU
Pen Air FCU
Redstone FCU
Self Help CU
Southeast Financial FCU
Kinecta FCU
Hanscom FCU
Apple FCU
BECU
Stanford FCU
Affinity Plus FCU
Chartway FCU
Fort Knox FCU
American Heritage FCU
Garden Savings FCU
American 1 CU
Veridian CU

 

There's also a funky card from Heartland CU (https://hcu.coop) that has no grace period for purchases and charges something like 4% for balance transfer fees, but the APR's at 5.9% -- perfect if you have to carry a balance month to month. Minimum monthly payment for this credit union's cards are 4%, not the usual 1-2%.

 

Some places like DCU will also let you refinance your exisiting auto loan, and if there is leftover market value of the car on top of what's left of your old loan, they'll give you that difference as cash. You can repay your card balances with that, get the credit score benefits of having a 0% utilization, and be left with lower interest car payments until everything's paid off. This route may be easier if your score/history prevents you from getting approved for new cards.

 

Disclaimer: this info is from research. I don't have loans or cards from any of them.


Starting Scores: No Scores (03/2018)
Current Scores: 779 - 789 (08/2023)
Goal Scores: 780 across the board

Current Total Credit Limit: $109,900 (08/2023)
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Message 6 of 7
NRB525
Super Contributor

Re: BALANCE TRANSFER CARD

OP what are the other cards? Limits and balances? Interest Rates?
What interest rate are you paying on Discover?

$2k is an amount that should be relatively easy to tackle, even with a high APR. If your rate is 24%, that still only works out to $40+ per month for interest, so a 0% BT will save some, but you need to stay focused on paying what you owe now.

The risk with a BT card is, your Discover will be freed up to charge up again, so you may end up with even more debt overall.

The reason for asking about the other cards, sometimes there are opportunities to carve off some of a larger debt to smaller lower rate cards. Or pay off one of the smaller cards, and use that strictly for PIF, no carrying balances, then concentrate on paying the other two off with no new charges to those two.
High Bal Jan 2009 $116k on $146k limits 80% Util.
Oct 2014 $46k on $127k 36% util EQ 722 TU 727 EX 727
April 2018 $18k on $344k 5% util EQ 806 TU 810 EX 812
Jan 2019 $7.6k on $360k EQ 832 TU 839 EX 831
March 2021 $33k on $312k EQ 796 TU 798 EX 801
May 2021 Paid all Installments and Mortgages, one new Mortgage EQ 761 TY 774 EX 777
April 2022 EQ=811 TU=807 EX=805 - TU VS 3.0 765
Message 7 of 7
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