New Credit Card w/12 Months Interest Free vs. Personal Loan

[james3332]

Am I better off seeking a small/$5K personal loan, paying about 10% interest, and paying off in a year or getting a new credit card that will let me carry a balance, interest free for a year, and paying that off within a year? I understand I'll be paying interest for a year with the personal loan vs. not with carrying a credit card balance.  Thanks!

[M_Smart007]

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@james3332 wrote:

Am I better off seeking a small/$5K personal loan, paying about 10% interest, and paying off in a year or getting a new credit card that will let me carry a balance, interest free for a year, and paying that off within a year? I understand I'll be paying interest for a year with the personal loan vs. not with carrying a credit card balance.  Thanks!

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Hi @james3332 ,

Welcome to the forum.

Personally I would go the 0% route.

There are some good 0% cards, but we are not sure what you would qualify for?

Having said that,

you might list your current debt/cards/scores/recent inquires/how many new accounts in the last year?

So forum members could give you more detailed advice.

[SouthJamaica]

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@james3332 wrote:

Am I better off seeking a small/$5K personal loan, paying about 10% interest, and paying off in a year or getting a new credit card that will let me carry a balance, interest free for a year, and paying that off within a year? I understand I'll be paying interest for a year with the personal loan vs. not with carrying a credit card balance.  Thanks!

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The credit card sounds better to me.

[james3332]

Have many cards, prob 12 or so, from CSR, to Amex Plat, to Amex BCP, to CFU, CIU, CIP and more.  Without looking and doing all the math, guessing have total available credit around $60K or so, never carry a balance, have prob gotten two new cards this year, score of 794.  Have a Chase offer for a Flex card that includes 15 mos. 0% interest intro offer, so that's in the bank in terms approvals.

[james3332]

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@M_Smart007 wrote:

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@james3332 wrote:

Am I better off seeking a small/$5K personal loan, paying about 10% interest, and paying off in a year or getting a new credit card that will let me carry a balance, interest free for a year, and paying that off within a year? I understand I'll be paying interest for a year with the personal loan vs. not with carrying a credit card balance.  Thanks!

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Hi @james3332 ,

Welcome to the forum.

Personally I would go the 0% route.

There are some good 0% cards, but we are not sure what you would qualify for?

Having said that,

you might list your current debt/cards/scores/recent inquires/how many new accounts in the last year?

So forum members could give you more detailed advice.

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Btw, thanks for the answer on this.  I'm pretty confident that I'll get approved for over $5K for just about any standard card so that's not much of a concern for me.  Any suggestions on cards, some of which I might already have anyway.  Only Chase card I don't have is the Flex, have most Amex cards, and that's it.  No Citi, BofA, US Bank, etc.  Oh, do have a Cap1 QS One and Venture One.  Maybe with with at bonus I should go for the Venture, grab the 75K pts, and the $3K spend will be easily taken care of.  Haven't even checked if Venture offers 0% intro APR.

[CH-7-Mission-Accomplished]

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@james3332 wrote:

Am I better off seeking a small/$5K personal loan, paying about 10% interest, and paying off in a year or getting a new credit card that will let me carry a balance, interest free for a year, and paying that off within a year? I understand I'll be paying interest for a year with the personal loan vs. not with carrying a credit card balance.  Thanks!

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I just got the Wells Fargo Reflect card on Saturday for my partner.   It's 18 months at 0% interest and if you pay all payments on time they give you an extra 3 months, so it's 21 months in total interest free.   Received a $10K limit which is lower than most existing cards but enough for this balance transfer.  

[OmarGB9]

Are you looking to carry a balance/do a BT? If so, for how long roughly and for how much?

Or is this more for acquiring a SUB?

[docbang]

Best route for me is, find a bank card with 0% APR for X amt of months and a 0% Balance transfer fee.  Personal loan (signature loan) charges quite a high APR.

[james3332]

This is more to pay a bill I'll have coming and want to pay it over time.  But I think a CC with 0% intro APR offer is best option.  Either do a balance transfer or charge rent.

[mrphilli]

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@james3332 wrote:

This is more to pay a bill I'll have coming and want to pay it over time.  But I think a CC with 0% intro APR offer is best option.  Either do a balance transfer or charge rent.

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Depending on how old they are, it might be worthwhile to ask if there are any promotional offers available for some of your current cards. I've had good luck in the past with chat agents at Discover and American Express giving me 0% promotions for older cards. The worst thing that could happen is they tell you there are no offers for your account. You still have the option of applying for a new card with an introductory offer.

If that's something you're interested in trying, then it'd just be a matter of figuring out what company and card makes the most sense to inquire about. I also have the Blue Cash Preferred card; it was a pretty simple process for them to get the promotion added to my account for that card.

That being said, a new card could be helpful; it would afford you some extra utilization space as you paid the bill off.