Help with a BT?

[arjames01]

Okay short story. I have never done a balance transfer. I want to ideally only  use one credit card. I currently have balances on a Discover card and a Chase Card. My Chase card has a limit of $7k of to which I am using about $2500 of. On my Discover there is a limit of $3k and I am using about $2200. I would like to transfer my Discover card balance to my Chase. That way I only have to worry about one credit card payment. I went to the Chase website and clicked on the balance transfers under that account. I got two options: 5.99% Fixed APR until the first day of your billing cycle that includes 6/1/11 (Respond by: 7/31/09)  AND  0.99% Fixed APR until the first day of your billing cycle that includes 12/1/09 (Respond by: 7/31/09).  I don't really know tooo much about BTs. Are any of these good deals? And what is your opinion on me doing this?

[score_building]

you also have to calculate the BT fee you will be charged which is a percentage (usually 2-5%) of the amt transferred to see if a BT is a good move for you.

ideally you will BT to a card with a zero balance since your ccc will apply any payments made after the BT to the lowest apr balance first. 

if the rates appeal to you and will save you money it may be a good offer for you unless you have better ones available to you.  personally i don't trust chase to carry balances and recommend that you keep your uti under 50% (not carrying more than about 3.5k on a 7k account for eg.) in an attempt to avoid AA that can sometimes be prompted by high uti.  many have had success carrying highish uti for BT etc. but can be risky- particularly in this climate.  imo, a considerably better option than a BT to chase would be to BT to a good CU CC.

[GregB]

As any payments to any CC always go toward the lowest interest balance, it doesn't make any sense to use a BT from an account that has a balance.

Simple explaination: you must pay off one account completely BEFORE you use that account to BT to another account. Then you must not use that card until the BT is paid off. I suppose you could calculate the results of just haveing a very low balance on that account instead of zero, but that will get real complicated.

[Itsmeagain]

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@score_building wrote:

  imo, a considerably better option than a BT to chase would be to BT to a good CU CC.

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Based on this comment, I contacted Alliant to see if they offered balance transfers on the Visa card.  They responded immedietely and said:

"Yes you can contact our Visa Contact Center at 866-444-8529 to inquire about a cash advance to pay off other credit cards or bills."

In addition, if you are considering a Chase BT . . . I received a notice that they were increasing their BT service fee to 5% on August 1.

[Itsmeagain]

WHOA!! . . . I called the number and discovered that a BT to the Alliant CC would involve the "cash advance" feature of the card.  So, no low interest BT there . . .

[Cory]

I have questions about this feature too. I have balanced transferred funds from my other CC to Penfed. If I was to make a purchase with the same CC and make a payment, what will the payment be applied toward, the new purchases, or the balance transfers?

Cory

[Anonymous]

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@Cory wrote:

I have questions about this feature too. I have balanced transferred funds from my other CC to Penfed. If I was to make a purchase with the same CC and make a payment, what will the payment be applied toward, the new purchases, or the balance transfers?

Cory

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Payments will be applied toward the balance with the lower interest rate. Assumably that would be your BT...no payments will go toward your new purchases until this is paid in full. So, you will be paying interest on the new purchase for the duration of the BT. 

[arjames01]

I went ahead and did the BT with the 5.99% option. I just want to mainly get down to one card, I hate having to make more than one credit card payment. I plan on paying it fairly quickly, and tonight I am going to chop up my unneccesary cards. The only other bills I have is a car payment and a cell phone, so it should be well paid off before the June 2011 date.

[arjames01]

Also, wouldn't you want to pay the BT balance first anyhow? Like I said my APR on my purchases is 13% so it's not a terribly high amount of interest.

[score_building]

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@arjames01 wrote:
Also, wouldn't you want to pay the BT balance first anyhow? Like I said my APR on my purchases is 13% so it's not a terribly high amount of interest.

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not unless you like giving chase more of your money.  did you read any of the responses to your OP?