Balance Transfer Advice ( Chase, BofA)

[nytokyobred79]

Hi Fello MyFICO Family,

Seeking some advice on BTs. I recently took my first ever BT offer on one of my new BofA cards for $3K at 0%. It's good until August 2024( although I'll be paying it off in next 2 months). Since that $3K balance posted on my reports, Chase has since offered me a similar BT on my CFU as well until the end of this year at 0%. Btw, I've already paid down 500 dollars of that balance with BofA as of today so it's 2.5K now. 

Here's where the advice would be welcome- in parallel, I have around a $10K balance on my CFU with a cl of $46.8K that I also plan to pay off in 2 months. Will be getting a bonus in next 2 months and can pay it all off by then. Would it be better to transfer the remaining $2.5K to my CFU bringing it roughly to $13K and pay that off in the next 3 months? By doing this, I'd go from 2 accts with a balance for next 2 months to just my CFU reporting a balance. Overall UTI would be around 8-9% and the CFU would be at around 28% UTI. 

Am I overthinking this and should just let the 2 separate balances report(of course making payments in interim) until I pay them both off in next 2 months? Or would there be any benefit to have it all on my CFU? Like mitigating AA from my other lenders by having 1 card vs 2. I've been in the Chase ecosystem for 1.5 years whereas just got my BofA cards in Feb this year. 

Sorry for the convoluted explanation. 
Any advice or suggestions welcome. 

My sigs are up to date below. 
No baddies, all on time payments, etc. 

[somotao]

Thank you for sharing your question, I personally think that you should proceed with your plan of paying them off in the next two months and not worry to much about having two cards report a balance. Unless you need your scores to be as high as possible, and need to apply for some sort of loan. Also I have both BOFA and Chase cards and while I regularly get balance transfer offers on both cards, I notice the balance transfer fee on Bofa (3%) is always lower than the balance  transfer fee on Chase (5%). So I never really take advantage of the chase offers. Notwithstanding in two months you will have fully paid both cards off, well done!!

[K-in-Boston]

Are there balance transfer fees on those offers?   Because you are paying them off so quickly, those fees would work out to a rather astronomical effective APR if so and the dollar amount of interest accrued for just carrying the balances that short-term at regular purchase APR would likely be a lot less than the typical 3-5% of the entire balance paid up front.  With fast payoffs a 0% promo APR can cost a lot more than 15-25% APR.

[nytokyobred79]

Thank you both for your advice here.  @somotao @K-in-Boston 

I think I may have overthought this plan and should just proceed to pay down the balances over the next 2 months as planned. 

@somotao I have no loan apps or any intention to apply for any new cards. I think I was spooking myself that somehow having 1 card with the big balance report 2 months( notwithstanding some smaller payments before 2 months is up) would somehow be any better than 2 cards with balances. I've noticed my scores don't budge even if I do let 3 cards report a balance so AZEO doesn't seem to impact my scores much. 

@K-in-Boston Yes, Chase has a 5% fee so you're right. I'd be adding interest right back after already having paid down some of the original BT on my BofA card. So it makes no sense for me to transfer that existing BoFA to Chase bc I'd be adding 100-200 bucks right back to the existing balance. I think I was overthinking this one and will just let both report balances organically. I've let high balances post before so it wouldn't be the first time, albeit the highest I've ever let report was like 8K on a card twice last year. And didn't have any AA bc I paid them off relatively quickly. I didn't anticipate I would be able to pay them off so quickly as I had projected 4-6 months but with a bonus coming up, I just want to knock them out and get the stress of the balances gone. 

Thanks both for the advice and the additional thoughts. I didn't really think through what the fees would be doing by adding money right back 😣

Appreciate you both taking the time to reply. It was just the first time to ever use a BT so I hadn't thought it through thoroughly. 

[nytokyobred79]

---

@K-in-Boston wrote:

Are there balance transfer fees on those offers?   Because you are paying them off so quickly, those fees would work out to a rather astronomical effective APR if so and the dollar amount of interest accrued for just carrying the balances that short-term at regular purchase APR would likely be a lot less than the typical 3-5% of the entire balance paid up front.  With fast payoffs a 0% promo APR can cost a lot more than 15-25% APR.

---

Yes, there are 5% fees on the Chase offers at the moment. As I replied above, I totally hadn't thought through how those fees would effectively negate the BT offers by paying them so quickly. 

Sometimes, the wheels get spinning and I start overthinking simpler plans of action. 

[SouthJamaica]

---

@nytokyobred79 wrote:

Hi Fello MyFICO Family,

Seeking some advice on BTs. I recently took my first ever BT offer on one of my new BofA cards for $3K at 0%. It's good until August 2024( although I'll be paying it off in next 2 months). Since that $3K balance posted on my reports, Chase has since offered me a similar BT on my CFU as well until the end of this year at 0%. Btw, I've already paid down 500 dollars of that balance with BofA as of today so it's 2.5K now. 

Here's where the advice would be welcome- in parallel, I have around a $10K balance on my CFU with a cl of $46.8K that I also plan to pay off in 2 months. Will be getting a bonus in next 2 months and can pay it all off by then. Would it be better to transfer the remaining $2.5K to my CFU bringing it roughly to $13K and pay that off in the next 3 months? By doing this, I'd go from 2 accts with a balance for next 2 months to just my CFU reporting a balance. Overall UTI would be around 8-9% and the CFU would be at around 28% UTI. 

Am I overthinking this and should just let the 2 separate balances report(of course making payments in interim) until I pay them both off in next 2 months? Or would there be any benefit to have it all on my CFU? Like mitigating AA from my other lenders by having 1 card vs 2. I've been in the Chase ecosystem for 1.5 years whereas just got my BofA cards in Feb this year. 

Sorry for the convoluted explanation. 
Any advice or suggestions welcome. 

My sigs are up to date below. 
No baddies, all on time payments, etc. 

---

Yes you're overthinking it. There's nothing to be gained by moving it over.

[nytokyobred79]

---

@SouthJamaica wrote:

---

@nytokyobred79 wrote:

Hi Fello MyFICO Family,

Seeking some advice on BTs. I recently took my first ever BT offer on one of my new BofA cards for $3K at 0%. It's good until August 2024( although I'll be paying it off in next 2 months). Since that $3K balance posted on my reports, Chase has since offered me a similar BT on my CFU as well until the end of this year at 0%. Btw, I've already paid down 500 dollars of that balance with BofA as of today so it's 2.5K now. 

Here's where the advice would be welcome- in parallel, I have around a $10K balance on my CFU with a cl of $46.8K that I also plan to pay off in 2 months. Will be getting a bonus in next 2 months and can pay it all off by then. Would it be better to transfer the remaining $2.5K to my CFU bringing it roughly to $13K and pay that off in the next 3 months? By doing this, I'd go from 2 accts with a balance for next 2 months to just my CFU reporting a balance. Overall UTI would be around 8-9% and the CFU would be at around 28% UTI. 

Am I overthinking this and should just let the 2 separate balances report(of course making payments in interim) until I pay them both off in next 2 months? Or would there be any benefit to have it all on my CFU? Like mitigating AA from my other lenders by having 1 card vs 2. I've been in the Chase ecosystem for 1.5 years whereas just got my BofA cards in Feb this year. 

Sorry for the convoluted explanation. 
Any advice or suggestions welcome. 

My sigs are up to date below. 
No baddies, all on time payments, etc. 

---

Yes you're overthinking it. There's nothing to be gained by moving it over.

---

Cheers. I figured I was overthinking this. I mean, the balance will remain the same but just be on 2 cards vs 1. And since AZEO won't really come into play bc my scores seem to stay the same with up to 3 cards reporting( haven't tried 4 yet), I guess there's no point. I got this silly idea in my head that somehow have that big balance be on 1 card would be any different from being split on 2 😃

Thanks @SouthJamaica 

[Remedios]

Some CUs have no fee BTs, so if you want to stretch it and aren't opposed to new apps, that's one option for you, either now or later. 

[nytokyobred79]

---

@Remedios wrote:

Some CUs have no fee BTs, so if you want to stretch it and aren't opposed to new apps, that's one option for you, either now or later. 

---

Thanks @Remedios 

I appreciate that advice. I've never had any CU relationships and will certainly consider that. Probably not for this go round bc I think I'll be good to pay these balances down shortly but down the line. And also, I've read so many good things about CUs( such as what you mention) on this forum so I have thought about them in general for future apps as well. 

[creditduck1]

Can someone explain the fast pay off piece, I'm not sure I quite understand. If OP were to pay off card on a 0% promo BT in let's say, 2 months, there would be a penalty? Asking because I am considering doing the same - transfer balances to a new BT card and pay it off with my bonus.