No credit card required
Browse credit cards from a variety of issuers to see if there's a better card for you.
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?
@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.
@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
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.
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.