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Put BT on one card or split it up?

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Put BT on one card or split it up?

So I’m going to have to transfer around 10000 of debt in the next month or so.

I currently have a BT offer with Discover for 0% for 18 months with 3% fee. I also have a BT offer for my other Discover card for 0% for 12 months with 4% fee. Now I know I’ll save money in fees by transferring to the one with the 3% but i don’t want my score to take too big of a hit.

Now My limit on the Discover with the 18 month offer is 12500. My limit on the other is 11800.

I still have to pay down a balance on my BBP by May 2020 which isn’t reporting to my personal report because it is a business card. The balances on this is around 2000$. I was also considering consolidating this as well on one of my discovers so I’ll have one less bill but I may just leave it since I don’t want it reporting.

Should I throw all this on one card or should I split it between both? I currently have around a 600 balance on the one with the 12500 limit. That is currently under a 0% Purchase APR.
Message 1 of 10
9 REPLIES 9
K-in-Boston
Credit Mentor

Re: Put BT on one card or split it up?

Assuming you’re not borderline where all of your lenders are going to freak out if you have a card with very high utilization and you don’t plan to apply for anything in the near future, I would just take the temporary score hit for what makes the most sense financially.

 

One card near the max vs 2 cards at like 50-60% won’t be too different for many profiles, especially with that many open accounts. FWIW Discover doesn’t seem to care about high util on their cards, and some of the biggest Discover CLIs I have seen were after paying off large BTs.

Message 2 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Put BT on one card or split it up?

Ok thanks K! I’ll just do that then. My overall utilization across all my cards is still under 9% so that wouldn’t be an issue. Good to know that discover doesn’t freak out with high utilization. I’m thinking as long as I don’t eclipse 88.9% utilization I should be fine.
Message 3 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Put BT on one card or split it up?

It's not that big of a deal having high balance as long as you reduce the balance about 2-3 months before you are planning to apply for credit. I was at 90%+ utilization before reducing it to below 20% about 2-3 months before applying and getting approved for Chase, Citibank, Discover, and Barclays. Important thing is not missing payments.

Message 4 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Put BT on one card or split it up?

At least if you keep it to one, the other can still be used for the rotating categories and purchases. If you split it, you wouldn't be able to use either for any new purchases w/o PIF to avoid interest charges.

Message 5 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Put BT on one card or split it up?


@Anonymous wrote:

At least if you keep it to one, the other can still be used for the rotating categories and purchases. If you split it, you wouldn't be able to use either for any new purchases w/o PIF to avoid interest charges.


This is a valid point. I never even thought about that. I’m going to just throw it all on 1 and call it a day

Message 6 of 10
AverageJoesCredit
Legendary Contributor

Re: Put BT on one card or split it up?

I would just app a 3rd DiscoSmiley Happy

Oh wait, not possible lol. Actually if both were over a year id combine, close one then app anotherSmiley Wink. Put it all on the 12k card and enjoy your next cli of 5kSmiley Happy
Message 7 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Put BT on one card or split it up?


@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
I would just app a 3rd DiscoSmiley Happy

Oh wait, not possible lol. Actually if both were over a year id combine, close one then app anotherSmiley Wink. Put it all on the 12k card and enjoy your next cli of 5kSmiley Happy

Just got the 2nd disco like a couple months ago so not possible. My plan is to combine after the 2nd disco reaches a year. I’ll prob combine it into my oldest one which I believe is 4 years old now.

Message 8 of 10
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Put BT on one card or split it up?


@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
I would just app a 3rd DiscoSmiley Happy

Oh wait, not possible lol. Actually if both were over a year id combine, close one then app anotherSmiley Wink. Put it all on the 12k card and enjoy your next cli of 5kSmiley Happy

Some people have enough trouble staying in the garden without the encouragement to leave. lol

Message 9 of 10
Jnbmom
Credit Mentor

Re: Put BT on one card or split it up?

I combined 2 disco cards, my second one was only 9 months old when it was done.

EXP 780 EQ 791TU 795
Message 10 of 10
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