Looking to see if this could be a good idea, and if it works out in real life like it is in my head:
13500 balance on a Wells Fargo card, 0% in ending in one month, closing 6/24/2024 (so whatever I don't pay off now is going to have an interest charge next statement closing, correct? Or is that NEXT (July) statement?)
I "could" balance transfer a portion of the balance to my USbank platinum which has a apr of 19.74% off the Wells Fargo @ 25.24%. There is a 3% fee, 10k $300. The remainder on the Wells Fargo would be paid in full before the statement in which I start getting charged interest. I don't know if that is julys or junes.
The Platnium statement closes on the 6th every month. making the transfer after that day, could technically give me until 8/3 until the balance is due and interest hits, giving me weeks and weeks to pay on it.
Am I right in this thinking? Is this a good idea?
Disclaimer: carrying balances is not fun. Pay in full.
pay attention closely to your statement. For example above, interest start accumulating after expired which is 03/08/24
you could look into local credit union or take out personal loan for anything that below than 10% is better.
@Gregory1776 wrote:Looking to see if this could be a good idea, and if it works out in real life like it is in my head:
13500 balance on a Wells Fargo card, 0% in ending in one month, closing 6/24/2024 (so whatever I don't pay off now is going to have an interest charge next statement closing, correct? Or is that NEXT (July) statement?)
I "could" balance transfer a portion of the balance to my USbank platinum which has a apr of 19.74% off the Wells Fargo @ 25.24%. There is a 3% fee, 10k $300. The remainder on the Wells Fargo would be paid in full before the statement in which I start getting charged interest. I don't know if that is julys or junes.
The Platnium statement closes on the 6th every month. making the transfer after that day, could technically give me until 8/3 until the balance is due and interest hits, giving me weeks and weeks to pay on it.
Am I right in this thinking? Is this a good idea?
Disclaimer: carrying balances is not fun. Pay in full.
Definitely agree with your Disclaimer, @Gregory1776. Unfortunately, and this may include yourself, many of us have found ourselves in this situation due to external factors such as medical expenses or income interruptions from career changes, as a couple of examples. Been there, done that myself, and it took a long time to dig out from that setback.
Agree with both @ptatohed and @Kforce that more details about your ability and plans to repay should be considered. What is tricky about this one is that the interest rate improvement is marginal and there is no BT fee waiver. When I rolled balances before, I was usually rolling from a much-higher standard APR to 0% or a low 2% to 6% as examples. So yes, you'd have to run the numbers based on your scenario.
Your question seems to be whether the transfer would buy you more TIME, not save you MONEY. Is that correct? In this situation, with a BT processed combined with the varying closing dates between the cards could indeed buy you a short "breathing space" with a lower payment due. But whether that brief respite is overall beneficial (lower cost) is highly questionable unless you are trying to compensate for an anticipated short-term cash-flow interruption.
That's what happened. I both left and was terminated from my old employer, I knew it was going to happen, but I didn't plan as I should have for that. That, and as a result leading up to that missed out on 2 months pay.
My goal is to put two paychecks a month at the card, while keeping a healthy balance in cash (~4-5k month) and paying it off before the end of summer. The balance transfer isn't worth the effort I think, and I'll probably try and recuperate a portion of the cash lost in interest charged by opening a checking account, and grabbing that $325 from Wells Fargo.