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Credit Card Balance Transfers Help?

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Legions36
Frequent Contributor

Credit Card Balance Transfers Help?

Hey guys i have a question about balance transfers. Im au on a good protion of my girlfriends cc's so im helping her bring down the utilization. I just saw that alot of her cards have balance transfers and they fall like in the middle of the month so i have time to play around with it. What do u guys think about doing transfers to bring down utilization right before statement closing dates on these cards? I don't so much mind the fees as it will buy me more time to help pay down her cards in the meantime while giving her score boosts so she can get more lines of credit and also cli on the cards that r do for them. What do u guys think of this method will it actually work provided i make sure the cards report low balances by statement closing date? 

EQ-784 TU-777 EXP-772 12/11/15

NFCU(11.5k), USAA(6k), DCU(10k), Sapphire(5k), Duck(5k), Freedom(1k), Quicksilver(3k), DiscoverIT(2k), AmexBCE($800),
New cards 12/12-NFCU-MC(18.5k), Simplicity(9.2k),Slate(7.5k),Amex(3.8k)
Message 1 of 32
31 REPLIES 31
Crashem
Valued Contributor

Re: Credit Card Balance Transfers Help?

It works.  However I don't know if it is worth The cost.  Are these low or no interest bt offers?  Also, you know there is usually a bt fee that can be a few points that is assessed right away.  So if bt fee is 3%, you are raising her debt by 3% right away.  Its not much, but what's the point.  If you can list out debts and interest rates and fico score, and howlunch you can pay off, I might be able to give advice.  You might find because of timing and her credit, that you do this and raise her debt and cant get her what she needs card wise to help out.  I am assuming since you are au on her cards, that you have your own credit issues.  These tricks don't really work in long term and often not in short/medium term. Just need to bear down and pay debt.  Evensuccessful, getting more credit to solve util issues doesn't really work unless genuine change in attitude towards credit.  Since she has util issues, is this really the case?  More credit can easily equal bigger problems.

               LIMITS IN CARD DESCRIPTIONS
Message 2 of 32
jamesdwi
Valued Contributor

Re: Credit Card Balance Transfers Help?

Pay the small bills, no need to pay an extra 3% for a $50 balance.  If she has one card with a high limit and perhaps a 0% promotion interest and a low BT fee. Combine as much debt as possible on  1 or 2 cards like this. Don't move debt repeatedly, Sure its only 3% but it adds up once you have consolidated pay far more than the minimum payment on those cards. Ignore Statement cut date until you pay down the debt, you don't need to maximize scores until you are actually apping for new cards. 

 

Once she has a handle on paying the bills you can help eliminate more interest by pushing normal spending through cards that have balances, for example you have a $300 cellphone bill that would usually just get paid directly, make a $300 payment to a credit card, and schedule a payment for the phone the day before the phone bill is due.  This removes interest on the $300 of the card balance for at least 25 days. With a 20% interest rate that saves nearly $5 in interest for the month. You need to have availible credit on the card and use the money as intented not as a short term loan or it can go bad fast. 

 

 

Cards: Chase Southwest 20k & CSR 17k & CSP 10k & FNBO 30k Oregon Duck 5k, & AMEX BCP 32.5k & Amex Magnet 15k&amg; Hilton Surpass 7.5k & Delta Gold 12k & Zync NPSL, Fidelity AMEX 17k Commerce5.9k & Cash Forward 7.5k & Sams Club MC 20k, Paypal Extras MC 10k, Paypal Credit 7.25k CapOne Venture 15k, QS 2.5k, QS 750, Amazon 10k, Walmart 10k, Citi Simplicity 18k, Discover IT 23k and a nice stack of store cards.
Landmarkcu Personal Loan 10k
Message 3 of 32
youngandcreditwrthy
Senior Contributor

Re: Credit Card Balance Transfers Help?

If you have enough liquidity/cashflow, you might consider using the cash you normally pay bills/living expenses with to pay down the high rate cards and charge your bills to the lower rate, hopefully 0% cards. That would avoid the BT fee assuming. You need to have a low rate on purchases though for that to work. You may even be able to get cashback on those purchases if you have the right card
Marriott PR$25k | BCE $24.5K |BankAmericard Visa $25k| BOA Better Bal $17.5k |Wmt Discover $12.5k | BR Visa $17.5k | Amex Delta Gold $10k | Discover IT $10k | Paypal Extras MC $15k | Amazon Store $10k|Smile Gen $7.25k | Dillard's $10k | West Elm $4k| Express $3.05K | Mypoints.com Visa $4.5k | Freedom Visa $1k| Amex Surpass $1k
Message 4 of 32
Legions36
Frequent Contributor

Re: Credit Card Balance Transfers Help?


@Crashem wrote:

It works.  However I don't know if it is worth The cost.  Are these low or no interest bt offers?  Also, you know there is usually a bt fee that can be a few points that is assessed right away.  So if bt fee is 3%, you are raising her debt by 3% right away.  Its not much, but what's the point.  If you can list out debts and interest rates and fico score, and howlunch you can pay off, I might be able to give advice.  You might find because of timing and her credit, that you do this and raise her debt and cant get her what she needs card wise to help out.  I am assuming since you are au on her cards, that you have your own credit issues.  These tricks don't really work in long term and often not in short/medium term. Just need to bear down and pay debt.  Evensuccessful, getting more credit to solve util issues doesn't really work unless genuine change in attitude towards credit.  Since she has util issues, is this really the case?  More credit can easily equal bigger problems.


Ok well i took her cards away at the moment so she cant rack up more debt. But im on here credit as im trying to build my own from nothing. I want her to have more of a line on her cards that deserve it so i was gonna pay them off and use them threwout the month without showing balances. Not like im getting more into debt with the spending because its for my materials for my job that i get my money back from, so its a win for both of us. I just really want her cards to get higher limits and in like 6 months apply for new credit cards. Would i be able to request cli on her cards if i just don't let them report balances? meaning if i just payoff 1 card or wait until i keep the cycle of all of her cards to start asking for cli?Her fico is 649 now eq.

Heres here cards and limits: royal carribean 12k limit(maxed), citi diamond 3k limit(2k on card) new line 0%apr, boa rewards $1500limit($1490), credit one $450 limit(maxed), orchard bank $700 limit (maxed), best buy rewards $3oo limit(maxed), first premier $700limit(maxed) $400 limit ($300), Merrick bank $600 limit($0), Amazon $1350 limit(maxed), Mets $2400 limit(maxed). Im auth user on citi, boa rewards, amazon visa, and mets. Im not worried right now for low ut for me as i can pay off these balances to give the boost when im done building. 

Thanks for your help and i might steer away from transfers, i have to find out more and see about the bt fees for the cards.

EQ-784 TU-777 EXP-772 12/11/15

NFCU(11.5k), USAA(6k), DCU(10k), Sapphire(5k), Duck(5k), Freedom(1k), Quicksilver(3k), DiscoverIT(2k), AmexBCE($800),
New cards 12/12-NFCU-MC(18.5k), Simplicity(9.2k),Slate(7.5k),Amex(3.8k)
Message 5 of 32
jamesdwi
Valued Contributor

Re: Credit Card Balance Transfers Help?

With so many cards showing maxed out or close to it, I would worry about creditors balance chasing down to 0' 

Cards: Chase Southwest 20k & CSR 17k & CSP 10k & FNBO 30k Oregon Duck 5k, & AMEX BCP 32.5k & Amex Magnet 15k&amg; Hilton Surpass 7.5k & Delta Gold 12k & Zync NPSL, Fidelity AMEX 17k Commerce5.9k & Cash Forward 7.5k & Sams Club MC 20k, Paypal Extras MC 10k, Paypal Credit 7.25k CapOne Venture 15k, QS 2.5k, QS 750, Amazon 10k, Walmart 10k, Citi Simplicity 18k, Discover IT 23k and a nice stack of store cards.
Landmarkcu Personal Loan 10k
Message 6 of 32
Legions36
Frequent Contributor

Re: Credit Card Balance Transfers Help?

Why she has had most of these cards for sometime now? But i can pay some down and see what happens. She has paid on time every month, never ever a late.

EQ-784 TU-777 EXP-772 12/11/15

NFCU(11.5k), USAA(6k), DCU(10k), Sapphire(5k), Duck(5k), Freedom(1k), Quicksilver(3k), DiscoverIT(2k), AmexBCE($800),
New cards 12/12-NFCU-MC(18.5k), Simplicity(9.2k),Slate(7.5k),Amex(3.8k)
Message 7 of 32
Crashem
Valued Contributor

Re: Credit Card Balance Transfers Help?

Still thinking on advice, but I will tell you now the credit card companies love her.

               LIMITS IN CARD DESCRIPTIONS
Message 8 of 32
youngandcreditwrthy
Senior Contributor

Re: Credit Card Balance Transfers Help?

It's going to be hard to get cli or bt offers with that many cards close to their limits :-/. Paying on time every time is important, but creditors hate to see super high util on even one or two cards. It's really important at this point to pay a couple times the min pmt, so the
creditors know you/ your gf can handle the debt.
Marriott PR$25k | BCE $24.5K |BankAmericard Visa $25k| BOA Better Bal $17.5k |Wmt Discover $12.5k | BR Visa $17.5k | Amex Delta Gold $10k | Discover IT $10k | Paypal Extras MC $15k | Amazon Store $10k|Smile Gen $7.25k | Dillard's $10k | West Elm $4k| Express $3.05K | Mypoints.com Visa $4.5k | Freedom Visa $1k| Amex Surpass $1k
Message 9 of 32
Legions36
Frequent Contributor

Re: Credit Card Balance Transfers Help?

Hey from the cards that i showed u do u see her getting cli from paying them off and not showing balances? Im going to start making sure most of her cards dont show balances and also she wont have to pay so much interest.

EQ-784 TU-777 EXP-772 12/11/15

NFCU(11.5k), USAA(6k), DCU(10k), Sapphire(5k), Duck(5k), Freedom(1k), Quicksilver(3k), DiscoverIT(2k), AmexBCE($800),
New cards 12/12-NFCU-MC(18.5k), Simplicity(9.2k),Slate(7.5k),Amex(3.8k)
Message 10 of 32
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