Flooring financing options?

[GA8080]

We finally closed on our home last week and now the renovation fun begins! My scores are 680-690s and my income is good. My low scores are due to a lot of lates from 2012-2014, some 120 days. No collections. We are going to install hardwood floors and it is looking like it is going to be around $20k. Since this is the biggest chunk of the renovations we are doing we would like to try to finance at least part of it, 0% promo period would be great.

Can anyone recommend a credit card with a 0% promo that would give me a decent limit? Do I have to receive a mailer with a code or anything to get the promo? I am basically a credit card rookie and I have no clue where to start. I have 1 Cap One card with a $5200 limit. We have been waiting to close on this mortgage to get a couple more credit cards because we know we need to build our credit profile better.

Any other suggestions for how to finance a portion of the flooring? The flooring company uses citi financial and we are willing to try that too.

[MrDisco99]

Do you see yourself being able to pay it all off within a year?  If not, then a credit card probably is not the best form of financing.

You can get a credit card with a 0% intro APR and that's actually a great way to take care of short term debt, i.e. over less than a year.  However, most cards have their real APR kick in after a year or 15 months or so.  Once that happens, you'll likely be paying around 20% interest on that debt, which is a terrible rate long term.

Also, it's uncommon to get approved for $20K right out of the gate.  You can't usually specify how much of a limit you want when you apply, so it's a roll of the dice whether you'll be able to get enough from a card to cover something like that.

If you expect to take more than a year to pay, you're probably better off going with their in-house financing or taking out another installment loan at much lower rate than a credit card would give you.

[GA8080]

Thanks! I should have mentioned that we will be paying it off within a year. My husband's bonus will cover the floors but we can't wait until then because we can't move in until the floors are done. Maybe we will start with the in-house financing. We still want to get established with a bank credit card at some point soon though too.

[AverageJoesCredit]

Any chance you or your husband can join Navy Federal? They are known to give big limits out the gste.

[GA8080]

I will look into Navy Federal to see if I have an in somewhere. Thank you for the suggestion!

[Anonymous]

My wife got approved for USAA card with 0 interest for 15 months with 25k credit limit.  However her scores are in the 800s.  

[Anonymous]

Have you considered doing it in stages. DW and I bought our house over  5,000 sq ft and paid cash but the entire house was outdated. We replaced kitchen, bathrooms, pool house before we moved in. Each year we work on atleast one room for a few thousand dollars and pay cash. This year was storm damage year and had to shell out over $10K but did some upgrade work on the rooms being storm repaired at the same time. We did not want  big credit card bills for upgrades/updates.    

[Chickenpotpie]

Unless you can get a really good rate on a card, I'd recommend a PELOC instead.  NFCU is a good choice (if you can join!)  I was able to join based on my job.  PenFed may also be an option though they can sometimes be a bit tough.  (easier to get in than NFCU)

[me12345]

My wife just applied on line yesterday with PenFed (Membership & Card)  according to the PenFed notice her Equifax score was 681, (she also has 10 medical collections) and they just gave her a Rewards Card with a $17,500.00 SL right out of the gate, 0% BT for 12 months. Her other highest other card is a Cap 1 with a $500.00 limit!!

I love Pen Fed...

[GA8080]

Wow, I will check into PenFed! Thanks!

We actually have a good chunk of cash from the sale of our old home, and have budgeted the renovations within that amount, using every penny. We know that additional expenses can pop up when doing projects of this scale which is why we want to try to have a financing option available on the largest expense. Plus, we need to establish a few lines of revolving credit since we each only have 1 cc so we figured we could kill two birds with one stone. My husband receives an annual bonus in a few months which will be around $30k so we could wipe out any debt then. The reason for not working in stages is because I have severe pet dander allergies and the prior owners had cats and dogs, so there are a lot of things that must be done before we move us or any of our belongings inside. We got a steal on an amazing home on our dream lot though!