To BT or not to BT...that is the question

Anonymous · ‎01-28-2017

As my SO and I are pretty new to the strategies of the credit world, I'm hoping some of our MyFico friends will weigh in.

Here is the scenario. My SO has a personal loan with an $18K balance at around 17%. Her payment is $690 a month. She has a NFCU Visa with a $25K CL and she is considering moving the $18K to the Visa to take advantage of the 2.99%. She spoke to a CSR at NFCU and he said that a personal loan (Best Egg) could be a BT. Starting in March, she will be putting $2K a month toward the balance, so it will be PIF before the end of the year. She has no plans to app for anything else in 2017.

Her total revolving credit lines are about $200K and her utilization overall is always around 2-3%. Besides the obvious utilization ($18K on a $25K card) she isn't seeing a downside.

Since we are newbies, we'd sure appreciate the perspective of others who are far more knowledgeable before she pulls the BT trigger. What are we missing?

Thanks as always, we really appreciate it.

Chapter 7: Discharged November 2015
Total Revolving Credit Lines January 2016: $2600
Total Revolving Credit Lines January 2017: $148K
11/15 Fico 8: EQ-585, TU-550, EX- 551
01/17 Fico 8: EQ-695, TU-703, EX-673
Advantis CU Siggy Visa $25K, NFCU Cash Rewards Visa $4600> $22K, NFCU CLOC $15K, NFCU Go Rewards Visa $5,500, PenFed Promise Visa $10,500, PenFed Platinum Rewards Siggy Visa $5500, Redi+ Siggy Visa $5K, SPGVisa $4,500>$5250, Cap One Platinum $2K>$4K, Cap One Quicksilver $3K, Good Sam Visa $1800, Discover $1800>$2K>$2300, Lowe's $6K>$17K, Overstock $7K>$7300>$7700, Evine $1K>$5K, HSN $3750, PenFed Thrifty $500, That's right...Credit One Visa is G-O-N-E!

Anonymous · ‎01-28-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
As my SO and I are pretty new to the strategies of the credit world, I'm hoping some of our MyFico friends will weigh in.

Here is the scenario. My SO has a personal loan with an $18K balance at around 17%. Her payment is $690 a month. She has a NFCU Visa with a $25K CL and she is considering moving the $18K to the Visa to take advantage of the 2.99%. She spoke to a CSR at NFCU and he said that a personal loan (Best Egg) could be a BT. Starting in March, she will be putting $2K a month toward the balance, so it will be PIF before the end of the year. She has no plans to app for anything else in 2017.

Her total revolving credit lines are about $200K and her utilization overall is always around 2-3%. Besides the obvious utilization ($18K on a $25K card) she isn't seeing a downside.

Since we are newbies, we'd sure appreciate the perspective of others who are far more knowledgeable before she pulls the BT trigger. What are we missing?

Thanks as always, we really appreciate it.

Chapter 7: Discharged November 2015
Total Revolving Credit Lines January 2016: $2600
Total Revolving Credit Lines January 2017: $148K
11/15 Fico 8: EQ-585, TU-550, EX- 551
01/17 Fico 8: EQ-695, TU-703, EX-673
Advantis CU Siggy Visa $25K, NFCU Cash Rewards Visa $4600> $22K, NFCU CLOC $15K, NFCU Go Rewards Visa $5,500, PenFed Promise Visa $10,500, PenFed Platinum Rewards Siggy Visa $5500, Redi+ Siggy Visa $5K, SPGVisa $4,500>$5250, Cap One Platinum $2K>$4K, Cap One Quicksilver $3K, Good Sam Visa $1800, Discover $1800>$2K>$2300, Lowe's $6K>$17K, Overstock $7K>$7300>$7700, Evine $1K>$5K, HSN $3750, PenFed Thrifty $500, That's right...Credit One Visa is G-O-N-E!

I would do it! In fact I did. I paid a loan off with my Venture. I did a balance transfer of $17,860 to my Venture at 0% for 18 months with a 2% transfer fee. It brought my card uti to 64% and made my aggregate UTI 14%. This was 2 months ago. Since then I brought the balance down to $7700.

My loan was at 11.49 for 4 more years. I saved a ton.

Cap1 could of cared less. I don't think NFCU will mind either. Just pay more than the minimum and the plan for paying 2k a month soon is awesome.

Chris679 · ‎01-28-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
As my SO and I are pretty new to the strategies of the credit world, I'm hoping some of our MyFico friends will weigh in.

Here is the scenario. My SO has a personal loan with an $18K balance at around 17%. Her payment is $690 a month. She has a NFCU Visa with a $25K CL and she is considering moving the $18K to the Visa to take advantage of the 2.99%. She spoke to a CSR at NFCU and he said that a personal loan (Best Egg) could be a BT. Starting in March, she will be putting $2K a month toward the balance, so it will be PIF before the end of the year. She has no plans to app for anything else in 2017.

Her total revolving credit lines are about $200K and her utilization overall is always around 2-3%. Besides the obvious utilization ($18K on a $25K card) she isn't seeing a downside.

Since we are newbies, we'd sure appreciate the perspective of others who are far more knowledgeable before she pulls the BT trigger. What are we missing?

Thanks as always, we really appreciate it.

Chapter 7: Discharged November 2015
Total Revolving Credit Lines January 2016: $2600
Total Revolving Credit Lines January 2017: $148K
11/15 Fico 8: EQ-585, TU-550, EX- 551
01/17 Fico 8: EQ-695, TU-703, EX-673
Advantis CU Siggy Visa $25K, NFCU Cash Rewards Visa $4600> $22K, NFCU CLOC $15K, NFCU Go Rewards Visa $5,500, PenFed Promise Visa $10,500, PenFed Platinum Rewards Siggy Visa $5500, Redi+ Siggy Visa $5K, SPGVisa $4,500>$5250, Cap One Platinum $2K>$4K, Cap One Quicksilver $3K, Good Sam Visa $1800, Discover $1800>$2K>$2300, Lowe's $6K>$17K, Overstock $7K>$7300>$7700, Evine $1K>$5K, HSN $3750, PenFed Thrifty $500, That's right...Credit One Visa is G-O-N-E!

You did not mention a fee for the BT assuming it is only 3% or so this is a no brainer. The only downside to the BT is dip in credit score but my motto is to never let your credit score cost you money.

Anonymous · ‎01-28-2017

Thanks for the input donny10 and for sharing your personal experience!

When my SO spoke with the CSR at Navy, she explained that she was hesitant, as the utilization on the card would initally be around 72% bringing her total utilization to just under 12% for the next 45 days. He said he understood her reluctance but NFCU hopes that their clients can take advantage of great offers like 2.99% with no BT fee when they feel it's a make sense. In our minds the difference in rate is huge. She receives her 2016 bonus payout monthly, from March to October, so she would just allocate part of that each month to payoff the card and retire the debt in November. She flat out asked if Navy would look poorly on the strategy and the CSR said that as long as the payments are being made on time, they are happy that she feels the offer would save her some money on interest.

It sounds like you did it right donny10 and I'm glad it worked so well for your situation. Again, thanks for taking the time to respond and I hope you have a great weekend!

Anonymous · ‎01-28-2017

@Chris679, thanks for your perspective and you are so right. She is prepared to take the dip in score, as saving money is always a priority.

Right now, NFCU is offering the 2.99% with no BT fee which makes it so attractive.

Sometimes when we want to make something work, we don't always see the pitfalls until that beautiful hindsight 20/20 kicks in . That's why it's so great to get opinions from MyFicoer's such as yourself.

Thanks for taking time out of your weekend to respond!

Anonymous · ‎01-28-2017

@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks for the input donny10 and for sharing your personal experience!

When my SO spoke with the CSR at Navy, she explained that she was hesitant, as the utilization on the card would initally be around 72% bringing her total utilization to just under 12% for the next 45 days. He said he understood her reluctance but NFCU hopes that their clients can take advantage of great offers like 2.99% with no BT fee when they feel it's a make sense. In our minds the difference in rate is huge. She receives her 2016 bonus payout monthly, from March to October, so she would just allocate part of that each month to payoff the card and retire the debt in November. She flat out asked if Navy would look poorly on the strategy and the CSR said that as long as the payments are being made on time, they are happy that she feels the offer would save her some money on interest.

It sounds like you did it right donny10 and I'm glad it worked so well for your situation. Again, thanks for taking the time to respond and I hope you have a great weekend!

Anytime, my friend. That's what we are all here for.

AverageJoesCredit · ‎01-28-2017

BT

Anonymous · ‎01-28-2017

Thanks AJC!

AverageJoesCredit · ‎01-28-2017

You are welcome Wade

best of luck on SO's Bt

Anonymous · ‎01-28-2017

No brainer in my mind! Dooo ittttt!!!