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To Balance Transfer or Not?

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Anonymous
Not applicable

To Balance Transfer or Not?

Good morning,

 

Recently my Discover card's 0% APR ended and I have a $2,000 balance on this card.

 

Am I better off doing a BT (BOA @ 0% for 12 Months, CL: $6,300, 3% Fee) or paying off the balance directly to Discover? I can pay it off most likely by June/July.

 

I'm just worried that if I do a BT then Discover will deny any future CLI's.

 

EDIT: Another thing that worries me about the BOA BT offer is that it states that if I do a BT and make more purchases then those purchases will incur interest Smiley Frustrated does anyone have any experience with this? Does that mean if I don't pay them off or regardless if I do pay off the new purchases they will still incur interest?

 

Sorry for the redundant thread, if any, even though I'm 2 years into my rebuild I'm finding out that I still have a lot to learn.

Message 1 of 5
4 REPLIES 4
Dalmus
Valued Contributor

Re: To Balance Transfer or Not?

 Credit Card companies will, with very few exceptions, apply your payments to the portion of your balance with the lowest APR.  So if your BOA account is only a special offer 0% on balance transfers, but NOT purchases, then any purchases you make will not be paid off until the 0% portion of your balance is paid.

 

 If, however, it is a new account, and its 0% BT and 0% purchases for 12 months, then you will not incur interest on new purchases until that intro period expires.

 

 Did that help, or did I muddy the water?  Smiley Happy

 

NFCU MR: $25K | Venture: $21K | Amex ED: $18K | NFCU CR: $18K | Amex BCE: $15K | IT #1: $17.5K | PNC Core: $15K | PPMC:  $12K | Wells Fargo: $11K | Savor: 12K | Cap1 QS: $8.5K | Barclays Rewards: $7.75K | IT #2: $7.3K | MLife: $9.5K | Sportsman's Guide: $8.7K | PenFed PR: $5.5K | Elan Plat: $2.3K | TRV: $3.6K | BotW: $3K


Current FICO 8 Scores: EQ: 828| TU: 805 | EX: 814


Message 2 of 5
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: To Balance Transfer or Not?


@Dalmus wrote:

 Credit Card companies will, with very few exceptions, apply your payments to the portion of your balance with the lowest APR.  So if your BOA account is only a special offer 0% on balance transfers, but NOT purchases, then any purchases you make will not be paid off until the 0% portion of your balance is paid.

 

 If, however, it is a new account, and its 0% BT and 0% purchases for 12 months, then you will not incur interest on new purchases until that intro period expires.

 

 Did that help, or did I muddy the water?  Smiley Happy

 


Makes perfect sense; it appears than my best bet would be to do a BT to Citi, as their wording on the BT is different than that of BOA's BT.

Message 3 of 5
vanillabean
Valued Contributor

Re: To Balance Transfer or Not?


@Dalmus wrote:

 

Credit Card companies will, with very few exceptions, apply your payments to the portion of your balance with the lowest APR.  So if your BOA account is only a special offer 0% on balance transfers, but NOT purchases, then any purchases you make will not be paid off until the 0% portion of your balance is paid.


 

Fortunately for us, it's the opposite. The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 says that any excess amount beyond the minimum payment must be applied to the balance with the highest interest rate.

 

Message 4 of 5
Dalmus
Valued Contributor

Re: To Balance Transfer or Not?


@Anonymous-own-fico wrote:

@Dalmus wrote:

 

Credit Card companies will, with very few exceptions, apply your payments to the portion of your balance with the lowest APR.  So if your BOA account is only a special offer 0% on balance transfers, but NOT purchases, then any purchases you make will not be paid off until the 0% portion of your balance is paid.


 

Fortunately for us, it's the opposite. The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 says that any excess amount beyond the minimum payment must be applied to the balance with the highest interest rate.

 


 Sorry, I should have been clearer with the way I explained it...I should have said 0% portion of the payment rather than balance.  I knew what I meant, but for some reason people can't read my mind!  its infuriating sometimes... lol

 

 If your minimum payment is $100, and you pay $100, then all of that payment will (probably) go towards the balance with the lowest APR.  To avoid interest on $200 in new purchases, you would have to pay the minimum payment PLUS $200.

NFCU MR: $25K | Venture: $21K | Amex ED: $18K | NFCU CR: $18K | Amex BCE: $15K | IT #1: $17.5K | PNC Core: $15K | PPMC:  $12K | Wells Fargo: $11K | Savor: 12K | Cap1 QS: $8.5K | Barclays Rewards: $7.75K | IT #2: $7.3K | MLife: $9.5K | Sportsman's Guide: $8.7K | PenFed PR: $5.5K | Elan Plat: $2.3K | TRV: $3.6K | BotW: $3K


Current FICO 8 Scores: EQ: 828| TU: 805 | EX: 814


Message 5 of 5
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