Best Balance Transfer Card?

[onepeace25]

Last year I went through a tough time financially. I was laid off in March and only just now in January got a job. Job market is tough right now. I've had a good relationship with all my banks the past few years. No lates, paid on time no balance carried over. During my time unemployed, I leveraged my relationship with banks to help me make it through. I now have like 10k+ in debt and want to transfer my balance. Looking for recommendations, right now I'm looking at the WF Reflect and Citi Diamond Preferred. Both have 0 APR on BT for 21 months with a 5% BT fee. Looking for a card with a long period but also would give a large credit line to transfer in as much as I can. Thanks

[omgitsMatt]

What cards do you already have? That'll help me narrow down a suggestion. I have a dozen easily.

What's your credit profile look like too? Specifically your hard pulls and new accounts, but utilization and scores if you got those

[omgitsMatt]

American Express - Blue Cash Everyday Card - 0%/15 Months (3% BT Fee)

https://www.americanexpress.com/us/credit-cards/card/blue-cash-everyday/

- No HP for active account holders, but they do soft pull TU.

- You can reallocate credit limits

- The maximum balance transfer amount for American Express is $10,000 or 70% of the approved credit limit, whichever is less.

- They have a pre-qualifation section thats generally trustworthy.

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Navy Federal Credit Union - Platinum - 0%/12 Months (0% BT Fee)

https://www.navyfederal.org/loans-cards/credit-cards/offers/platinum.html

- TransUnion for new credit card applications.

Wells Fargo - Reflect Card - 0%/21 Months (5% BT Fee) (There's other cards with 15 months though)

https://creditcards.wellsfargo.com/reflect-visa-credit-card/

- Experian (for me in the past) but others have reported TransUnion HPs in Ohio, could be anyone. 

- Responds well to accounts like checking and savings.

- Used to be you could reallocate limits if you haven't used your card for anything in six months, but it was just reported last month by someone that they were able to do it as soon as they made sure there was no balance on the donor card.

- Their pre-qualification section seems genuine, when looking see if they give you a firm APR in the terms, that might indicate you have good odds.

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KeyPoint - Platinum Card - 0%/16 Months (2% BT Fee)

https://kpcu.com/Loans/Credit-Cards

- Experian HPs.

- Pre-qualification pages is a good indication of your odds, but they haven't delivered on the quantity of spending limit on the pre-qualifier for others for what seemed like thinner profiles or people who app'd without being a member first, but often they delivered on what they projected for _already_ active members. Maybe have a checking/savings for 3 months before applying?

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Fairwinds - Preferred Cash Back - 0%/12 Months (0% BT Fee)

https://www.fairwinds.org/personal/credit-cards/cash-back-credit-card

- Equifax HP and verified they SP Equifax too.

- They have a pre-qualification section, _seems_ helpful, but idk how confident I'd be in it.

- Probably should make sure you're a member for a few months before applying for a card to raise your odds.

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OneAZ CU - Visa Choice Rewards - 0%/12 Months (0% BT Fee)

https://www.oneazcu.com/personal/credit-cards/visa-state-forty-eight/

- Experian HP

- They also have a pre-qualification section, also best to make sure you're a member to increase your odds.

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PenFed - Gold - 0%/15 Months (3% BT Fee)

https://www.penfed.org/credit-cards/gold-visa

- Equifax HP, they also SP'd Equifax during a pre-qualification application when I reviewed my credit reports.

- You can use the pre-qualification page, back out of the "you're pre-qualified" jargon and circle back to the account dashboard and see a message indicating you have a pending application (or it'll tell you denied), which would be your pre-qualifying app you _just_ did but abandoned. It has details that seemed to indicate this is real and not fluff.

- Idk if you need to be a member to do the pre-qualification, but you do need to be a member to see what limit they were gonna give you and if you were gonna get denied.

- They're tight, I'd pass on this if your profile is thin for now.

- No HP for membership anymore I've read.

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KeyBank - Latitude Credit Card - 0%/15 Months (4% BT Fee)

https://www.key.com/personal/credit-cards/keybank-latitude-mastercard.html

- Equifax HP.

- Best to have a checking/savings before applying for a few months. They're tight to new account holders but generously with ppl who have a banking history over time.

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U.S. Bank - Visa Platinum Card - 0%/21 Months (5% BT Fee)

https://www.usbank.com/credit-cards/visa-platinum-credit-card.html

- TransUnion HP in the past (8/9/23), but others reported Equifax too.

- You'll have to search the forums to see how much you want to trust their pre-qualification section, IDK personally

[omgitsMatt]

BMO - Platinum Credit Card - 0%/15 Months (4% BT Fee)

https://www.bmo.com/en-us/main/personal/credit-cards/bmo-platinum-credit-card/

- TransUnion HP.

- When looking at "My Offers" on the BMO website, there's a featured offer to apply for cards. Probably have to have an account for a few months to see something triggered.

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Alliant - Visa Platinum Credit Card - 0% (up to 5.99%)/12 Months (2% BT Fee)

https://www.alliantcreditunion.org/rates#credit-card

- TransUnion HP.

- I was pre-approved for $10,000 on Visa Platinum with their lowest APR offer of 15.49% on 2/26/2025 then denied during pre-qualification for Visa Signature. Gives me confidence a little in that process.

- You'll need to be a member.

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Bank of America - BankAmericard - 0%/18 Months (3% BT Fee)

https://www.bankofamerica.com/credit-cards/products/bankamericard-credit-card/

- Experian HP for personal cards and TransUnion for business cards. If you freeze your Experian report they will pull your TransUnion credit report for personal cards (?) That needs verified though, idk for certain.

- Likes to give credit cards to their deposit account holders, especially preferred rewards account holders.

- 3/12 rule where they'll typically deny if 3 or more accounts opened in past 12 months, where an existing relationship with BOA raises that to 7/12.

- There is 24 month rule before applying for the _same_ product.

- Difficult lender, so should be one of the first applications if done at all. I'd suggest trying something else.

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Discover - it - 0%/15 Months (3% BT Fee)

https://www.discover.com/credit-cards/cash-back/it-card.html

- Experian HP in the past.

- They offer a lot of promotions for existing customers on balance transfers, on 2/20/2025 was offered 2.9% for 6 months on purchases.

- I always had good experiences with their pre-qualification being trustworthy, just low starting limits at times tho.

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Citi - Simplicity Card - 0%/21 Months (3% BT Fee)

https://www.citi.com/credit-cards/citi-simplicity-credit-card

- Equifax HP verified on me 1/2024.

- They have been known to pull from two CRAs, so could be anyone.

- Tight lender w/ low starting limits, try someone else if you need a decent starting limit.

- Extremely inquiry/new account sensitive, probably the most sensitive I've listed.

- No HPs from anyone in 7 days or you'll get denied.

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Chase - Slate Edge Credit Card

0% on Balance Transfers for 18 Months (3% BT Fee)

https://creditcards.chase.com/balance-transfer-credit-cards/slate/edge

- Experian & TransUnion (8/9/23) double HP on me.

- If you open a checking account and put about 5000 in a checking account, you'll have the opportunity to be pre-approved for chase cards by the banker in person(?)

- 5/24 rule, you cannot have opened five or more personal credit cards across all banks in the last 24 months.

[onepeace25]

This is incredible, thank you! All cards are listed in my signature. Utilization is about 94%(I know..I'm not proud). Some late payments here and there but overall everything is current. HP is one about a year ago. About 6 inq at the moment, but 5 will drop this year. I burned Chase about 6 years ago so they're a no go for a while. Credit score is roughly 610 as of this month (it's been increasing since I've been paying things down already)

[omgitsMatt]

Make sure if you're considerinf any of the credit unions I listed above to double check if they hard pull for membership (search these forums for past data points) and also double check if you have an attainable path to becoming a member.

Some are difficult to get into, but everyone except Navy has a way I believe to get in that wasn't difficult for me.

Navy, you need a immediate family member, spouse,  or current roommate to get in. Or to have served. No way around any of that.

Hopefully you can get into NFCU, thats your absolute best bet if you can get a checking/savings account for three months.

You'll get the limits you need with them

[omgitsMatt]

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@onepeace25 wrote:

This is incredible, thank you! All cards are listed in my signature. Utilization is about 94%(I know..I'm not proud). Some late payments here and there but overall everything is current. HP is one about a year ago. About 6 inq at the moment, but 5 will drop this year. I burned Chase about 6 years ago so they're a no go for a while. Credit score is roughly 610 as of this month (it's been increasing since I've been paying things down already)

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That's some tough data points to work with, let me skim later today your signature and I'll give you some suggestions 

[omgitsMatt]

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@onepeace25 wrote:

This is incredible, thank you! All cards are listed in my signature. Utilization is about 94%(I know..I'm not proud). Some late payments here and there but overall everything is current. HP is one about a year ago. About 6 inq at the moment, but 5 will drop this year. I burned Chase about 6 years ago so they're a no go for a while. Credit score is roughly 610 as of this month (it's been increasing since I've been paying things down already)

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How quickly do you need this done? If you can season a "relationship" with a few of the CUs, those would be your best chanc

Can you break down your balance/limit on your cards for us?

How long ago exactly are your late payments?

With such high utilization and dereogs on your credit profile, you'll have to be very strategic in what you apply for.

Try to provide as much detail about your credit profile, take your time and circle back. I'll try to help once I have more information

[onepeace25]

What luck. I just took In a roommate to help with the bills and he was in the Army. Might get more info and go that route. Saw some cards to low CL so I'd like a one and done solution to help keep HP down

[omgitsMatt]

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@onepeace25 wrote:

What luck. I just took In a roommate to help with the bills and he was in the Army. Might get more info and go that route. Saw some cards to low CL so I'd like a one and done solution to help keep HP down

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That is very very very fortunate, because they're absolutely your best shot if you do a handful of things leading up to applying for a credit card.

1.) Get in ofc.

2.) Set up your employment direct deposit with them.

3.)  Open a shared pledge loan and pay it down immediately to less that 9%.

4.) About three months of that reporting, and then three months of banking and direct depositing with them, you very possibly can get the one and done limit you need with them

I'm just leaving work, but if you post some more data points about your profile we can come up with alternative game plans too