New balance transfer card vs maxing out current card at zero Interest.

[Anonymous]

So I'm new on here. Ive been pretty good at building my credit and my future ex-wifes credit throughtout the years.

Right now with Experian it has gone down to 717 which im not happy about.

I am headed towards divorce and add on a neck injury/ and a trip to Disney right before the whole divorce issue came up my balances are very high. This is what I have

Chase Freedom Unlimited/ B: about $5800 0% interest as as a balance transfer/ Limit 15,200

Capital One/ Platinum B: $670/ Limit $5750 - Quicksliver B: 8600 0% interest. Limit $10,000

Discover It/ B: $7,500/ Limit $9,000

Synchrony/ B: $0/ Limit $6,900

Zales/ B: $0 / Limit $4,000

So my question is should I just about max out the Chase freedom with another 0% balance transfer or do I try get another card. I should quilfy butI'm not sure for how much but I want to get the Discover down since it has interest. I will be apying off the capital one with the balance of $670 in the coming weeks, Then gonna start working on the rest while trying to keep the balance low on my everyday card which is the Discover it. 

I will be able to pay some of these balances once the divorce is in swing or she chooses to go to mediation or dare I say Therapy! And yes for certain reasons all the savings are in my wifes name which is why I have this issue and she doesnt wanna give any of of it up. Please any advice o the best course is welcome. Thank you

[NRB525]

Divorce is no fun. Hopefully your neck injury is healing well.

As far as I know, all Capital One cards have a no-fee BT capability.

Does your Discover have BT offers online? Often there are two types, a BT Fee type for 12 months, and a "pay interest" type with no BT fee, but 4.99% APR for 18 months.

If these two cards have these capabilities, then I would suggest....

1) Pay the Cap One Platinum off.

2) Transfer $4k to $5k from the Discover to the CapOne Platinum. This is a temporary placement, for maybe 4 weeks. My experience is Capital One doesn't charge interest for the first month of a BT. Your experience may vary, but I doubt you will get charged interest right off.

3) Transfer the remainder off Discover, $2,500 or $3,500 to the Freedom Unlimited for the 0%.

4) Use one of the Discover BT offers to bring the $4k or $5k back from the CO Platinum, after it has been on the Platinum for a few weeks.

5) Acknowledge the value of the CapOne Platinum no-fee transfer and show them a little love by using the card for regular swipes.

It's always best to be paying as much as you can. Once you have cards on 0% or low APR balances, then you kind of have to manage what is available, to get balances to a point you can change them up again.

Also, if you have not had a 0% APR on Purchases on Discover in a while, then you can call up Discover to ask for that. They may be able to offer you 12 months with no Purchase APR, which allows you to get the 5% categories rewards, while still carrying a BT offer.

[Anonymous]

Really interesting solution.

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@NRB525 wrote:

Divorce is no fun. Hopefully your neck injury is healing well.

As far as I know, all Capital One cards have a no-fee BT capability.

Does your Discover have BT offers online? Often there are two types, a BT Fee type for 12 months, and a "pay interest" type with no BT fee, but 4.99% APR for 18 months.

If these two cards have these capabilities, then I would suggest....

1) Pay the Cap One Platinum off.

2) Transfer $4k to $5k from the Discover to the CapOne Platinum. This is a temporary placement, for maybe 4 weeks. My experience is Capital One doesn't charge interest for the first month of a BT. Your experience may vary, but I doubt you will get charged interest right off.

3) Transfer the remainder off Discover, $2,500 or $3,500 to the Freedom Unlimited for the 0%.

4) Use one of the Discover BT offers to bring the $4k or $5k back from the CO Platinum, after it has been on the Platinum for a few weeks.

5) Acknowledge the value of the CapOne Platinum no-fee transfer and show them a little love by using the card for regular swipes.

It's always best to be paying as much as you can. Once you have cards on 0% or low APR balances, then you kind of have to manage what is available, to get balances to a point you can change them up again.

Also, if you have not had a 0% APR on Purchases on Discover in a while, then you can call up Discover to ask for that. They may be able to offer you 12 months with no Purchase APR, which allows you to get the 5% categories rewards, while still carrying a BT offer.

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[Anonymous]

Beware that Capital One has been known to close accounts who use their $0 interest float for a month to move a balance before transferring it elsewhere. It doesn't always happen but it has happened and it also gets you blacklisted with them if you get your account closed for it. 

[NRB525]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Beware that Capital One has been known to close accounts who use their $0 interest float for a month to move a balance before transferring it elsewhere. It doesn't always happen but it has happened and it also gets you blacklisted with them if you get your account closed for it. 

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A valid point. To minimize this risk, I would keep it on CapOne for two months. The APR on OP's Discover and CapOne is probably the same, but the balance still must be removed from Discover to free up that BT possibility.