Is there a downside to doing a balance transfer? I owe like 3 to 4k on my barclays card and the 0% APR is going away in jan. I have a BT offer from my cap 1 venture card where they will give me a 16 month 0% apr. I don't use the venture card at all (its a 11k credit line), so parking a balance there and then paying the balance off over the next several months isn't a big deal. Is there any downside to doing this? I've been carrying a balance on my arrival card for the past year so its not going to change my credit score from what it is now. Would the activity on my venture card help with a potential CLI down the line? It seems like a decent deal to me, but I thought I'd ask to see.
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@ddemari wrote:
I've done my share of balance transfers. As long as the balance transfer doesn't spike your cards utilization really high it won't hurt you.
The card I am transferring from has only a 7.5k credit line and the card I am transferring to is an 11k credit line, so on paper it will look like I am using less of my available credit on the individual card although my overall util will remain consistent.
@Anonymous wrote:You said it's 0% APR, but is there a BT fee? Often they're in the neighborhood of 3%. Sometimes there are no fee offers. Not saying that means you shouldn't do it if there's a fee if it helps in other ways. Just want to make sure you're aware of the cost if there is one.
Yea there is a 3% fee, but the longterm 0% apr makes it worth it to me. I'd probably pay down the barclays card to 3k and then transfer the rest. I don't recall getting any no-fee offers (at least not ones where I would have the 0%apr). Chase sent me a 2% offer for my chase sapphire card but the problem is I actually use that card for restautant spend, so don't really want to be putting a long term BT on it.
@CreditMagic7 wrote:
@ddemari wrote:you bill be fine. plus getting the balance off barclays long term is never a bad idea.
+1
Be cautiously vigilant though (you can read other posts of results) and monitor your Barclay account a little more just to be sure that no unwelcome surprises crop up on it after clearing the balance..
If they did that to me over what is a small amount of my overall available credit then I have no use for a company like that and no desire to use any of their products. I got the signup on the arrival plus but with the changes made to the card I see no reason to pay the AF and their other cards that I can app for are lackluster. I won't lose sleep over the loss of a 7.5k credit line. I will just apply for a discover it card and will likely get much more, along with a card that I would have an actual reason to use. That just seems like they would be being vindictive. If I had high credit util I could understand but that wouldn't be the case here.