@PlasticOrPlastic wrote:
@GoodCredBen wrote:I carry a relatively high balance with my overall credit limits, but as of today, all of my balances will be on one card, and i will be making a hefty payment to that card rather then fighting 3 different lenders to pay down some high APR (29.99% on one of them) ....
i find it is easier to have one central location to then chop it down from there.... all the other cards, will have 0 balance.
Since you only need one card reporting a minimal balance for scoring purposes, it will help a ton.
I did think about BT'ing all my balances on to my Discover at 0% interest for 12 months, that way I could also send large payments a couple times a month to that one card. Problem is if I BT my other balances my card will be at like 93% UTIL...that doesnt look good at all.
This 100%. It will look bad for a while, but it will help you pay down the balances much faster considering you are not throwing money away at interest. I had to carry a little bit of a balance to finish paying off my college because I could not get another loan at the time. I put it on a card I had. App'd for a new card with 0% BT for 18 months, and was able to pay it off within the promo period because I wasn't paying a dime towards interest.
How long have you had the Discover? I don't have one myself so I don't know if they auto CLI, but if they don't, it is definitely worth a shot at requesting a CLI now before the balance transfer as that will certainly help with the utilization.
I usually keep using it even when I have a balance. However, I also pay zero interest. For instance, if I have a New Balance of $750, with a due date of June 23rd.. I'll charge around $800 of daily expenses from now until June 23. Concurrently I'll pay several lump payments.. say $250, $300, $150, and $50. So by the time 6/23 comes around, I've paid equal to $750, avoiding interest, yet having a balance of $800.
Of course, I could just pay $750 in one lump, zeroing it out, then charge $800 in new charges. But I find it easier to pay as I go along. It certainly doesn't matter if your card "fills back up again," as long as you're paying no interest.
@PlasticOrPlastic wrote:
@jd352 wrote:
@PlasticOrPlastic wrote:
@GoodCredBen wrote:I carry a relatively high balance with my overall credit limits, but as of today, all of my balances will be on one card, and i will be making a hefty payment to that card rather then fighting 3 different lenders to pay down some high APR (29.99% on one of them) ....
i find it is easier to have one central location to then chop it down from there.... all the other cards, will have 0 balance.
Since you only need one card reporting a minimal balance for scoring purposes, it will help a ton.
I did think about BT'ing all my balances on to my Discover at 0% interest for 12 months, that way I could also send large payments a couple times a month to that one card. Problem is if I BT my other balances my card will be at like 93% UTIL...that doesnt look good at all.
This 100%. It will look bad for a while, but it will help you pay down the balances much faster considering you are not throwing money away at interest. I had to carry a little bit of a balance to finish paying off my college because I could not get another loan at the time. I put it on a card I had. App'd for a new card with 0% BT for 18 months, and was able to pay it off within the promo period because I wasn't paying a dime towards interest.
How long have you had the Discover? I don't have one myself so I don't know if they auto CLI, but if they don't, it is definitely worth a shot at requesting a CLI now before the balance transfer as that will certainly help with the utilization.I've only had the card 3.5 months. I started at $800 CL and took a HP to go to $2000 at 3 months, last week or the week before I did another HP which took me to $3000...wishing I would have asked for more but didnt want to push my luck.
I would say do the balance transfer. I think Discover auto CLI's anyway from what my brother told me about the card now that I think of a discussion we had. After about 6 months, you will hopefully be more than halfway to paying down your debt. In a year, you will be debt free. They may issue an auto CLI with the balance and they see you aggressively paying it down. But, to me, it just doesn't make sense to justify throwing money away just to keep a higher score now. Getting the debt cleared will give you the freedom to app for better cards down the road. Your score will grow with your AAoA growing and you decreasing your DTI.
I did a BT with my Citi Card immediately when I got it. I used another card to pay my college tuition and transferred the balance to the Citi Card to avoid interest fees. The transfer was nearly 90% of the credit line at the time of the balance transfer. I think they expect you to use the credit line or they wouldn't offer you the BT offer. In fact, now that I have the card (tuition) paid down to 10%, I called for a CLI today and they were able to bump the limit from 6,500 to 15,000.
@Creditaddict wrote:I think having 1 card at 90%+ util. and having remaining cards at $0 or maybe 1 other one for your monthly spending and PIf and all others reporting $0 is WAY better for credit score then say having 5 accounts all report balances even if they are under 20%.
I have always seen Fico scoring harder on more accounts with balances then 1 account with high util.
Depends what credit strata you're in but generally I agree with this: it's especially true if you have otherwise solid credit.
Agree with everyone else, do the BT that makes financial sense.
Maxxing out a single tradeline isn't a the big bugaboo that everyone makes it out to be (except maybe for Penfed): yes, it'll be a temporary FICO ding, but if you're paying down the debt nobody is going to care. It's when there's a pattern of high utilization on tradelines and just the minimum payment is being made (which they can see FYI on a AR pull) where lenders get skittish typically and may balance chase you or other AA. Discover won't since they know exactly why you have the maxxed out line (BT baby!) and the rest won't blink unless you don't make payments.
