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Best balance transfer cards and approval odds?

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Best balance transfer cards and approval odds?

I'm getting ready to refinance my mortgage and want to try and transfer the remainder of my Citi card onto a 0% balance transfer card at some point after we close on that. I wish that I could do it now, but I know that I shouldn't be applying for new credit before a refi. 

 

I just paid off my Discover card last week (such a great feeling!!) and am down to 2 credit cards. Current balances are as follows:

 

Costco Citi card - $10,640/$17,000 @ 17.24%

Chase Freedom - $4,350/$4,900 @ 0% until Oct 2020

 

My goal would be to transfer the entirety of my Citi card so that I can be free of interest charges and focus on paying down the balances without losing progress each month. My question would be which FICO scores do these credit card companies tpyically use? As of today my FICO 8's are reporting as 736, 745 and 759 (EQ, EX, TU respectively). 

 

One of the balance transfer cards that I was looking at as a potential option is the American Express Blue Cash Everday card. If they use FICO 8's, how likely am I to get approved to move a balance this large? Is it more likely that I will only be able to move a portion of this balance? 

 

Besides the card mentioned above, does anyone have any suggestions about which card I should get? Or any other advice?

18 REPLIES 18
AllZero
Mega Contributor

Re: Best balance transfer cards and approval odds?

FICO score wise it looks decent.

How is your DTI %?

What is your aggregate % utilization?

Are you a member of a credit union? If not, have you considered joining one? Some offer 0% BT fee, 12 month 0% APR, low interest APR after promo CC.
Message 2 of 19
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Best balance transfer cards and approval odds?


@AllZero wrote:
FICO score wise it looks decent.

How is your DTI %?

What is your aggregate % utilization?

Are you a member of a credit union? If not, have you considered joining one? Some offer 0% BT fee, 12 month 0% APR, low interest APR after promo CC.

Not really sure where my DTI is at.

Just dropped my aggregate down to 27%. 

Yes I am, but I've never asked them about a balance transfer before. Ideally I'd like to shoot for a 15 month promo if possible so that I have plenty of time to get it fully paid off by the 14th month. 

Message 3 of 19
AllZero
Mega Contributor

Re: Best balance transfer cards and approval odds?

I'm not aware of 15 month promos. Maybe some other members can chime in.

Navy Federal Credit Union - membership restrictions.

Pentagon Federal Credit Union - open membership. 3% BT fee.
Message 4 of 19
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Best balance transfer cards and approval odds?


@AllZero wrote:
I'm not aware of 15 month promos. Maybe some other members can chime in.

Navy Federal Credit Union - membership restrictions.

Pentagon Federal Credit Union - open memership. 3% BT fee.

Most of the ones that I have seen advertised on CK are for 0% 15 months with a 3 or 5% transfer fee. One of the Citi ones was 18 months. I transferred to the Chase Freedom Unlimited earlier this year which is also 0% for 15 months 

Message 5 of 19
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Best balance transfer cards and approval odds?

Going to need to look elsewhere - as I recall, Amex caps BTs at $5000. Might be worth checking Discover.
Message 6 of 19
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Best balance transfer cards and approval odds?

I kind of figured that would be the case.. when I applied for Chase Freedom it said that there were basically 2 levels.. lower gives $4900 limit and the upper tier was up to $15,000. I am not sure what my FICO scores were at the time, but I think that they were under 700. I'm curious if I might be able to get approved for the higher limit now or if I'd have to be in the 800 club for that. I will have to look into Discover a bit more. I guess that I could always take out a personal loan for the other $5000 too, but I'd obviously prefer to just move it all to 0%
Message 7 of 19
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Best balance transfer cards and approval odds?

I think your best option might be Discover or a credit union. The good thing about Discover is that they have a soft pull prequalification that’s pretty solid.

Message 8 of 19
Remedios
Credit Mentor

Re: Best balance transfer cards and approval odds?

Hi and welcome to the forums

Completely realistic answer...it's going to be hard
While you're taking advantage of 0% promo, that cards looks maxed out completely.
Your citi card, while not quite maxed out, is pretty close.
Maxed out cards are not conducive to new approvals as you now appear as a high risk customer
Depending on a limit of your discover card and presence of BT offers, you might be able to move some of the balance there.
Amex is probably not happening with your utilization as is right now.
Your best bet may be a local credit union. While I doubt you'll qualify right now for anything that would allow $10K BT, you might want to give it a try, something is better than nothing.

Also, another option is to get utilization down to a bit more bearable level by making larger payments, then attempt to do a BT with remainder of the balance.

Do you have any other cards with existing BT offers?
Message 9 of 19
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Best balance transfer cards and approval odds?

You said that you just paid off Discover, what's your CL with them? If not enough perhaps request a CLI and then BT to them. Discover always seems to run BT promos. And a CLI is a SP. Then you could try Amex to see what tehy give you, and basically split teh balance on two cards. 

 

The tough part about apping for a new card for a planned BT, is if said card doesn't come with a sufficient SL. Getting a new card just to have high utilization isn't going to help your scores any either. Even though Chase is interest free, it's considered maxed out.

 

 

 

 

 

Message 10 of 19
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