Balance Transfer Bank Discretion?

[twpounds]

I've recently been looking at applying for a 0% balance transfer card to help my wife with some really old/bad credit card debts. None of these credit card debts are delinquent, just very high balances and very high interest. A lot of this was done before we were married and we're trying to figure it out. I have very good credit and utilization isn't extremely high so I feel pretty good about being approved for a new card on my own with her places on it as an authorized user. My question after researching a lot of these types of cards is that they typically have a clause stating that a balance transfer is at the bank's discretion. I wouldn't want to apply for a new card if the sole intention is to use it as a means to roll the high interest debt into a 0% card. Could anyone tell me what reasons the bank might have to issue a card, but deny a balance transfer? No purchases would be made with this card.

[pizzadude]

I think they'd do this if for some reason they suspected fraud, but I've rarely ( if ever ) heard of creditors outright rejecting a balance transfer request. 

[twpounds]

I appreciate it. Definitely no fraud involved, just some poor decisions. I don't have many credit cards myself and have been very hesitant about getting anymore. We have been trying to snowball, but the problem is the balances are really high combined with life happening like auto repairs/house maintenance type things. We are at a point that it's affecting our family in a negative way and we need a way to kick the snowball down the mountain and see some of these balances going down. We have been paying the minimums so nothing is late, but it doesn't leave very much at all to live off of. I've run the numbers and with a 0% balance transfer for 18-21 months, we could actually begin taking back some of our money somewhat quickly.

[FicoMike0]

here's a link

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/list-of-0-apr-credit-card-offers/

[GZG]

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@twpounds wrote:

I've recently been looking at applying for a 0% balance transfer card to help my wife with some really old/bad credit card debts. None of these credit card debts are delinquent, just very high balances and very high interest. A lot of this was done before we were married and we're trying to figure it out. I have very good credit and utilization isn't extremely high so I feel pretty good about being approved for a new card on my own with her places on it as an authorized user. My question after researching a lot of these types of cards is that they typically have a clause stating that a balance transfer is at the bank's discretion. I wouldn't want to apply for a new card if the sole intention is to use it as a means to roll the high interest debt into a 0% card. Could anyone tell me what reasons the bank might have to issue a card, but deny a balance transfer? No purchases would be made with this card.

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the far bigger concern would be not getting a high enough limit for the balances you want to transfer over as ^^ said above, BT's don't typically just get denied for some black box reason 

if you have a discover card, consider asking them if they have any BT offers for you, same with Chase, you can move your current limits over to a Chase Slate that you apply for, for the 18 months 0% APR if they give you a small upfront limit 

[FlaDude]

I've used 0% BT cards a lot over the years and never had a problem. Make sure to check the fees, a few years back 0% with $0 fees wasn't too hard to find, now the BT fees range from 3-5% with most lenders.

[twpounds]

I've been looking at some of the balance transfer cards and it seems that they typically have a short time available to complete the transfer. Generally, 2-4 months on 0% transfers for 18-21 month introductory periods. Is that typically how these types of cards work? Ideally, I'd like to start slowly and see what could be paid down in like 6 months and if all is well then transfer more for the remaining 12-15 months. If the time periods are that short then you have to be very careful. If I was to move a large sum, then the minimum payment may be too large to make. If I moved too little then it just spreads out a smaller balance over a longer time, but you really don't see a major reduction in balance. What is the best way to use these cards? Do you typically know how much credit limit you would be approved for before actually accepting the card? Is it like a pre approval type thing where you could change your mind if the credit limit was very small?

[Xanthos472]

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@twpounds wrote:

I've been looking at some of the balance transfer cards and it seems that they typically have a short time available to complete the transfer. Generally, 2-4 months on 0% transfers for 18-21 month introductory periods. Is that typically how these types of cards work? Ideally, I'd like to start slowly and see what could be paid down in like 6 months and if all is well then transfer more for the remaining 12-15 months. If the time periods are that short then you have to be very careful. If I was to move a large sum, then the minimum payment may be too large to make. If I moved too little then it just spreads out a smaller balance over a longer time, but you really don't see a major reduction in balance. What is the best way to use these cards? Do you typically know how much credit limit you would be approved for before actually accepting the card? Is it like a pre approval type thing where you could change your mind if the credit limit was very small?

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   Don't believe I've seen any amounts or credit scores mentioned, which would be quite helpful  in the context of providing advice. 

   With regards to issues, neither I nor my wife have run into any; and we've BT'd at least 400K between us in the last 4-5 years.

   For minimum payments: just to give an example, wife is currently running out the clock on a BT check offer on a Citi Doublecash.

Terms were as follows; 3% BT fee paid up front on the amount transferred, and 0.99% ongoing APR.

At the time of use, the offer length was 18 months. Minimum payment was $240-odd to start, with roughly $20 of that being interest from the 0.99% interest.

This was with a credit limit of 22K odd and the check being used for almost all of the limit.

[twpounds]

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@Xanthos472 wrote:

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@twpounds wrote:

I've been looking at some of the balance transfer cards and it seems that they typically have a short time available to complete the transfer. Generally, 2-4 months on 0% transfers for 18-21 month introductory periods. Is that typically how these types of cards work? Ideally, I'd like to start slowly and see what could be paid down in like 6 months and if all is well then transfer more for the remaining 12-15 months. If the time periods are that short then you have to be very careful. If I was to move a large sum, then the minimum payment may be too large to make. If I moved too little then it just spreads out a smaller balance over a longer time, but you really don't see a major reduction in balance. What is the best way to use these cards? Do you typically know how much credit limit you would be approved for before actually accepting the card? Is it like a pre approval type thing where you could change your mind if the credit limit was very small?

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   Don't believe I've seen any amounts or credit scores mentioned, which would be quite helpful  in the context of providing advice. 

   With regards to issues, neither I nor my wife have run into any; and we've BT'd at least 400K between us in the last 4-5 years.

   For minimum payments: just to give an example, wife is currently running out the clock on a BT check offer on a Citi Doublecash.

Terms were as follows; 3% BT fee paid up front on the amount transferred, and 0.99% ongoing APR.

At the time of use, the offer length was 18 months. Minimum payment was $240-odd to start, with roughly $20 of that being interest from the 0.99% interest.

This was with a credit limit of 22K odd and the check being used for almost all of the limit.

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Ok so here's the scenario. My credit scores range from 790-801. Hers are very low and I really don't know exactly how low. We have a combined total of $48k in cc debt and a balance on a car of $7k. We do have a mortgage, but we are handling that okay. I opened a Citi card yesterday with a $15k limit on it at 0% for 21 months. My intention is to balance transfer $15k of the $48k. So yeah maxing it out. I know it's not ideal, but we would be able to pay that $15k off within the 21 months. $5k of the $48k is on a deferred interest promotion for mattresses we bought and that would be paid off around the same time as the $15k Citi card. The remaining $28k would still be earning interest and we would try to snowball it the best we could. The plan is to wait until after the 1st of the year for tax purposes and pull some funds from a beneficiary IRA out to finish paying the car off. At that point the car would be around $3k. The car note is a little over $600/month. That $600/month would be added to our existing snowball of about $300/month plus the minimum monthly payments for the remaining $28k. Would be about $1.200/month payment going towards the $28k. That would take us approximately 2 1/2 years to knock out the $28k after picking up some from the snowball growing. Am I thinking about this correctly? It makes me nervous to max out the Citi card but I've thought of a lot of scenarios and none are exactly comfortable. Would it be more beneficial to open a 2nd balance transfer card to split the $15k up and possibly add some of the $28k to the 2nd card so the utilization isn't maxed out? I know my scores are gonna take a hit which does make me nervous, but I guess I'm wondering how much of a hit would this be? I appreciate any help you all can give. Thanks! 

[twpounds]

Does anyone have any advice on this situation?