@glamchick wrote:
Ok so my one card has a $500 limit. I paid it to a 0 balance. Now can I transfer my other credit card balance of $486.00 to this credit card? Will this hurt my score? This will make my utilization at 10%.
I just keep reading that BL's can hurt your score? Im so confused? And I only see bl's talking about on myfico with a new credit card.
Generally speaking, there's no FICO penalty from transferring your balances, in and of itself. However, FICO does cares about your utilization, on individual cards & overall.
Transferring a balance of $486 to a card with a $500 limit will cause that card to be maxed out, so you'll take a FICO hit for having a maxed out card. Additionally, you may (depending on the terms of the BT offer) end up paying more money than you would have if you hadn't transferred the balance. For example, there are often BT fees applied, frequently in the range of 3 to 5% of the amount transferred. Some lenders also treat BTs as "cash advances" and charge you a higher APR.
Can you give us a little more info?
- What is the limit & applicable APR on the card that you want to transfer the balance *from*?
- Do you have a special BT offer from the card that you just paid off & want to transfer the balance to? If so, what is it? Is it financially advantageous to transfer the balance?
- If you DON'T have a special BT offer, what will the applicable APR be on the card that you'd be transferring to?
- Do you have a pay-off strategy/exit plan for getting this debt paid? What's the minimum payment, and how much will you be paying? Are you planning to use the card again before the transferred balance is paid off?
