How should I do this balance transfer

[Anonymous]

I have about $6000 on my chase credit card that my 0% promotional offer is about to expire in less than a month.  I just applied for two cards.  Alliant Credit union (0% balance transfer fee, 4k limit) and Citi Simplicity (3% balance transfer fee, 5k limit).  Should max my Alliant Credit union card to take advantage of the 0% transfer fee? 

I dont plan on applying for any major loans in the next year or so.  Should I even worry that my utilization rate will be high for the alliant credit union card if I max it?

[JSS3]

I wouldn't max it unless I planned on paying a chunk towards it montly to get it down fairly quickly. In your case however, you won't have a choice. One card has to be maxed because you don't have a high enough limit on either. If you're trying to save on fees, I suppose you could put 3,000 on Alliant then 3,000 on Simplicity. That saves you a little. If I did that, I'd be more aggressive in paying down Alliant.

The main focus is to move that 6,000 and save lots of interest over time. The 3% fee usually cost less than the interest; making it worth it.

[Anonymous]

I would also split it. At a certain point, a card can be flagged as "maxed out" and have more of an impact on your credit. While this may not matter if you are not persuing new lines of credit, I'd still try to avoid it. Split the transfer and pay down the card with the higher UT.

[NRB525]

Welcome to the forum.

What is the limit on the Chase card with the $6k balance? This relates to "What is utilization today?". What other cards do you have and their CL? This relates to "overall utilization measures".

The Alliant offer is $0 fee for a 0% APR BT? If so, that's a good offer. By "maxing the Alliant" do you mean putting $4,000 onto the Alliant card? That leaves no room for incidental fees, no breathing room for utilization. I have gone to 90%+ on BT offers, quite often, but I always leave some available credit, just in case.

This would still leave $2k on the Chase card, which you may want to BT to the Simplicity card.

On the other hand, you have two relatively good limit 0% APR offers to work with. Why not split $3k to each of them? The delta in cost is only $30 additional BT Fee to Citi, and then your utilization isn't pushing a limit on either card.

Then the follow on question: What pace are you paying this $6k down? This BT to two new 0% cards is fine, but I suspect once you move the funds off the Chase card, it is unlikely you would get other BT offers in the future. So these two cards, you'd want to make significant progress in the next 12 months paying down the $6k, correct?

[takeshi74]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Should max my Alliant Credit union card to take advantage of the 0% transfer fee? 

How long would it take you to pay it down?  Revolving utilization matters on cards used for BT's as well.  It's not just the scoring impact that matters.  It's also how your creditors -- not just Alliant as your creditors routinely SP you -- view it as risky activity.

[Anonymous]

You talk about the BT fee for the two cards, but not the APR. Are they both 0% rate also? And if so, for how long? And as others have asked, how quickly do you plan to pay it down? 

Example: Discover often offers 4.99% with no transfer fee for 18 months and 0% with a 3% fee for 12 months. If one is going to carry the balance a short time, the 4.99% rate with no up front fee is better. If one is going to carry it for close to the year, then the 3% fee is better.