CareCredit for dental? How to stop AA/balance chasing?

[Anonymous]

Hi! This is my first post but I have been a periodic lurker. I think this is the right place to post but it can definitely fit in other places on the forum. I have two (related) questions.

1) Unfortunately, I have to get some expensive dental work done - about 10k more than I can afford. I am leaning towards applying for CareCredit. Should I also consider 0% APR reward cards or other options? At the moment, I cannot qualify for a loan.

2) I played the "rack up CC debt and refinance" game for a few years. Once COVID hit, lenders cut limits and balance chased. I paid off about 30k and have about 8k remaining on 0% promo cards. I can't make substantial payments for a few months. This represents about 15% of my total limit. Fico 8 hit 650 before AA started. It went down to 590 but is now back up to 710, and should be 740 when all balances post. Should I expect lenders to continue slashing limits? Is this something I should be worried about when applying for CareCredit or other cards?

[LakeLife]

I think the fact that you've managed to get your total UTIL down as much as  you have (great work, BTW!) will keep you safe from balance chasing going forward.  Keep us posted and good luck!

[AverageJoesCredit]

youve done an amazing job paying off debt. 30k is no chump change. I assume you have a high paying and stable job to do that so that can help going  forward.  Unfortunately no one can tell you what a lender will do in near future especially Sync but if you need it and its worth the risk go for it. Even if they close the account they still have to honor the promotion or card agreement. Good luck

[Anonymous]

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@AverageJoesCredit wrote:

youve done an amazing job paying off debt. 30k is no chump change. I assume you have a high paying and stable job to do that so that can help going  forward.  Unfortunately no one can tell you what a lender will do in near future especially Sync but if you need it and its worth the risk go for it. Even if they close the account they still have to honor the promotion or card agreement. Good luck

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Thanks! Yeah, I saw some of the posts about Synchrony. My biggest line is their Amazon card. Hopefully, they will approve for CareCredit so I can get the promo rate.

I think I got a bit lucky to pay the 30k off. Most of it came from bad undergrad spending. I did not have financial support from family so I had to figure out paying for everything on my own. I planned to just live at home and work to pay off the debt but ultimately decided to go to graduate school instead.

Short story is that I got lucky and got a summer internship making ~45k. Recently signed an offer with them for next summer. Hopefully, if the company is still around, I can knock out all of this CC debt/expenses and work towards paying off some student loans. It felt like they wanted to bring me on board after graduation, so hopefully, that will be some lifechanging money for my family.