Balance Transfer Question

[Anonymous]

I received and offer in the mail from Barclays regarding doing a balance transfer with a 3.99% interest rate until March 2017 on my Rewards Mastercard. It included 3 blank checks that I would write to myself. I have never done a balance transfer so I am unsure as to how this works or if its a good idea. I have been on maternity leave the past 3 months and plan on going back to work in 2 weeks. It was unpaid besides 2 weeks. I have accumulated about $1200 on a few of my current cards during this time. I plan on paying them all off once I get back to working but was wondering if it would be a good idea to cut myself a check from barclays for the total balance owed on all cards and pay them off?  That way I will just have one card with a balance and a way lower interest rate? Any thoughts or suggestions. TIA

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I received and offer in the mail from Barclays regarding doing a balance transfer with a 3.99% interest rate until March 2017 on my Rewards Mastercard. It included 3 blank checks that I would write to myself. I have never done a balance transfer so I am unsure as to how this works or if its a good idea. I have been on maternity leave the past 3 months and plan on going back to work in 2 weeks. It was unpaid besides 2 weeks. I have accumulated about $1200 on a few of my current cards during this time. I plan on paying them all off once I get back to working but was wondering if it would be a good idea to cut myself a check from barclays for the total balance owed on all cards and pay them off?  That way I will just have one card with a balance and a way lower interest rate? Any thoughts or suggestions. TIA

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It's hard to know whether this is something you should do.  all depends on whether you will accrue more in interest on the cards you have with balances before you can pay them off vs the balance transfer fee and interest for the Barclays card.  Tbh for only $1200 and if you're going to be able to pay them off when you go back to work,  I wouldn't bother.

[RonM21]

Run!!!
In all seriousness, I would not recommend taking any balance transfer offer from them, based on their past history with others. They have been known to AA accounts for whatever reasons related to several things...and one of them appears to be BT's.

Ymmv, but there is a history of this with them that is well known.

[Turbobuick]

There are usually transfer fees involved, typically 2-5%. Those fees are added to the BT on your statement. If the fees + 3.99% are substantially less than your current rates, then yes, I would write myself a check, deposit it, and use those funds to pay off the higher rate balances. 

edit: The point was made that $1200 isn't a huge debt, the savings would likely be negligible unless your currents rates are exceedingly high.

[takeshi74]

You need to consider much more than just the rates.  Consider the BT fee.  Consider your credit profile.  It's never just about score but the scores in your signature seem a bit low.  You need to consider what the revolving utilization would be on the card you're BT'ing to and how long it would take you to pay it down.  Unless the revolving utilization would be low after the BT you will probably want to be able to pay it down very quickly.

All that said, as others stated, this doesn't seem like it would be worthwhile for $1,200 but you can do the math and analysis to verify.

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@RM21 wrote:
In all seriousness, I would not recommend taking any balance transfer offer from them, based on their past history with others. They have been known to AA accounts for whatever reasons related to several things...and one of them appears to be BT's.

Ymmv, but there is a history of this with them that is well known.

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As always, one must consider the source(s).  AA isn't just about BT'ing or not BT'ing and is all about risk analysis which includes one's entire credit profile.