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Hi everyone!
Seasons greetings! Long time, no see -- I hope everyone is healthy and doing okay.
I've had a fine time gardening and caring for my credit, but presently, I'm looking to restructure my credit card debt. Presently, I can afford the payments, but based on my financial review, I could save and pay off faster if I obtain an additional card with an initial low APR that's made for balance transfer.
Generally, I'd like to find a card that has an 0% APR for 12 to 18 months for balance transfers, but most importantly -- I'm looking for a card from a bank that primarily pulls from Equifax. The reason I ask for any insights or experience in obtaining a card-provider that relies on Equifax is that, right now, my inquiries are sort of lopsided -- heavily on Experian (9), less-so on Transunion (4) and barely any in Equifax (2, with one falling off very soon).
When placing applications, I've always tried to spread them around a little bit with information I could glean, so the pulls were more even throughout the 3 bureaus. But, lately, it seems like everything is going to Experian (anyone else noticing that, btw? Perhaps worthy of a separate topic, if there's not one already).
So, any advice on ANY card provider or card that my lean toward Equifax would be appreciated -- especially so, any that would be good candidates for balance transfers.
P.S. I have to update my score info, that's included on my signatures --and though I'm just looking for general advice on Equifax pull providers, not general credit card advice, if it helps, right now, my scores are 680-760 throughout the three providers, with Equifax being the highest (due to the inquiries being lopsided).
@Anonymous wrote:Hi everyone!
Seasons greetings! Long time, no see -- I hope everyone is healthy and doing okay.
I've had a fine time gardening and caring for my credit, but presently, I'm looking to restructure my credit card debt. Presently, I can afford the payments, but based on my financial review, I could save and pay off faster if I obtain an additional card with an initial low APR that's made for balance transfer.
Generally, I'd like to find a card that has an 0% APR for 12 to 18 months for balance transfers, but most importantly -- I'm looking for a card from a bank that primarily pulls from Equifax. The reason I ask for any insights or experience in obtaining a card-provider that relies on Equifax is that, right now, my inquiries are sort of lopsided -- heavily on Experian (9), less-so on Transunion (4) and barely any in Equifax (2, with one falling off very soon).
When placing applications, I've always tried to spread them around a little bit with information I could glean, so the pulls were more even throughout the 3 bureaus. But, lately, it seems like everything is going to Experian (anyone else noticing that, btw? Perhaps worthy of a separate topic, if there's not one already).
So, any advice on ANY card provider or card that my lean toward Equifax would be appreciated -- especially so, any that would be good candidates for balance transfers.
P.S. I have to update my score info, that's included on my signatures --and though I'm just looking for general advice on Equifax pull providers, not general credit card advice, if it helps, right now, my scores are 680-760 throughout the three providers, with Equifax being the highest (due to the inquiries being lopsided).
IMHO credit unions are the best source of balance transfer cards, specifically their non-rewards, low interest, no balance transfer fee, platinum cards. Some credit unions which offer that type of card and pull from Equifax are Digital, SECU MD, Dept of Interior, Dept of Commerce, Virginia CU, and AOD.
PenFed pulls from EQ, but they charge a 3% fee for BT's.
As an aside I wouldn't necessarily strictly focus on only targeting reliable EQ pullers especially if the majority of your inquiries led to new accounts, and you'll need to keep in mind that it isn't uncommon for an issuer to HP from 1 CRA and also SP from one of the others.
If the debt is not on your NFCU card you may be able to leverage a 0% or low APR w/0% fee BT offer on your current card if they extend them next month.
Insofar as a reliable EQ puller I would point at DCU as a reliable EQ FICO 5 puller but their January 0% BT offers are for 6 months and they tend to be fairly conservative with starting limits. Another potential option if you're in their footprint would be the Citizens Bank clear value card which has 0% 18 months with 3% fee.
A really good place for you to start is to research this thread:
PenFed CU pulls from EQ 09.
Just got their PenFed Gold Visa $10K SL and thinking of doing a BT for 12 months 0%.
@coldfusion wrote:As an aside I wouldn't necessarily strictly focus on only targeting reliable EQ pullers especially if the majority of your inquiries led to new accounts, and you'll need to keep in mind that it isn't uncommon for an issuer to HP from 1 CRA and also SP from one of the others.
If the debt is not on your NFCU card you may be able to leverage a 0% or low APR w/0% fee BT offer on your current card if they extend them next month.
Insofar as a reliable EQ puller I would point at DCU as a reliable EQ FICO 5 puller but their January 0% BT offers are for 6 months and they tend to be fairly conservative with starting limits. Another potential option if you're in their footprint would be the Citizens Bank clear value card which has 0% 18 months with 3% fee.
A really good place for you to start is to research this thread:
Agree with @coldfusion . If debt is not on NFCU, they have a platinum with a 0% interest BT for 12 months. Must apply by Jan 3. I applied and got a $3K CL (smh). But I was able to reallocate $10K from another NFCU card to make the xfr useful. And I love that there's no BT fee but hate that they mail a check to the CC you want paid off. Why can't they just pay it off via wire xfr. Oh well, at least it only took 7 days; could have easily been 14 days.
Citi is a fairly consistent EQ puller
BB&T also was, not sure now that they're Truist. Sadly, it seems like their soft pull prequal is gone.
They are not consistent EQ puller. Citi jumps around depending on your location.
For me, it's always EX, and thankfully only EX
@heyryan wrote:Citi is a fairly consistent EQ puller
BB&T also was, not sure now that they're Truist. Sadly, it seems like their soft pull prequal is gone.
I wouldn't say consistent, IME. It'll vary for different individuals. They've pulled any of the 3 for me on several cards and a few of them were double pulls. So, I'd say Citi is YEMV.
BB&T appears to still pull EQ after the Truist transition.
Yeah -- odd thing with the Truist (BB&T) situation:
I applied, but I couldn't even get the application through online or via telephone rep, I think, due to identification verification -- which, with the telephone rep, even she said she hadn't seen that before.
I would really love to start a relationship with Truist with their card; it's exactly what I am looking for. Has anyone else has this issue with them? I think I have a high likelyhood of being approved.