Balance transfers in and of themselves don't cause score dings. But some of the side effects might. These could include:
- The acquisition of a new card, which would generate an inquiry and lower your AAOA (average age of accounts) and AOYA (age of youngest account). That's a small ding that will be regained in time.
- The possibility that the transferred balance could briefly be reported on two cards at once. That's potentially yucky, but it'll clean itself up quickly.
- The possibility that the transferred balance could cause high utilization on a single card.
There are also a couple of ways that a transfer could cause a score increase:
- The possibility that a new card could decrease one's overall utilization, offseting the effects of AAOA and AOYA and the inquiry.
- The possibility that the transferred balance appears on neither the donor nor the recipient card for a brief time. Enjoy it, but know it won't last.
The above is mostly minutia. First, consider the financial impact and whether or not you'd benefit. And consider what's probably the biggest risk when applying for a new card. That's the possibility that the new card's limit won't be enough to accommodate the amount you'd like to transfer. Ideally, the new card's limit should be equal to or higher than the limit on the card that the transfer is coming from.
Congrats on the CLI to $15k on the Barclays.
It sounds like the $10,000 is new debt after you did the BT to Barclays? If it were me, I would tread very carefully here, due to the potential reaction by Barclays. That means I would not get another card right now.
Can you list list out all your cards, which bank, credit limit and current balance? If there is room on existing BT cards, that would be a preferred option.
And I suspect with the $10k increase in debt scores are more likely to go down a bit, not up. Just my hunch.
