What card/combo would you use for upcoming expense?

[Anonymous]

I posted on another thread about the unfortunate closure of my Care Credit card. My intention was to use it this Friday to pay for some dental work so now I’ll have to us other options and I was hoping the forum would help me get the most out of the situation.

• My dental work costs approximately $1800.00.
• I figured I’d put it on my Discover, my Freedom or both.
• Discover is 0 percent interest until April 23. My CL is 17K and I carry about 2% balance.
• Freedom is 0 percent interest until October 18. CL is only 3k but 0 balance (as are all the rest of my cards.
• Because of the holidays, anniversaries and saving for a house I’d like to take 6 months to pay it off with 0% interest.

My quandary is whether to put it all on my Disco to get the 2% cashback and then BT to Freedom what might be left over.  Or should I take the cleaner way out and put it all on Freedom and take the hit for high utilization for a month or two? I could also put half on the Freedom (this would put me at 30% utilization) and the rest on Discover and somewhat preserve overall utilization.  Note, since I’m buying a house soon, using an HP for a higher limit on my Freedom is not an option.

Your opinions/suggestions are most appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Pay with Discover. Do not BT if you can pay off what is left a month or two after 0% ends - the BT fee will be higher than the interest you would have paid.

The sorta risky option is to put it all on Discover and then ask them to extend your 0% deal when it expires. But it isn't that risky anyway because you will only have like $300 left by then, right? So even in the bad scenario you pay one month interest on a low balance, which may be cheaper than the BT. 

Doing some on Freedom and some on Discover makes sense too, so go that route instead if it's not an issue. Definitely don't whack out your uti in the middle of your homebuying!

[Anonymous]

Put $800 on freedom and $1000 on discover. You stay under 30% utilization.

[SunriseEarth]

My vote is all on Discover.   You'd get more cash back and have better UTIL.   Since you're paying it off in 6 months anyway, the intro period shouldn't be an issue.   

EDIT:   Actually, you didn't say you were paying off in 6 months, but said you wanted at least 6 months at 0%...Oops.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Salt Water I haven't started the home buying process yet,  but the charge will still have me below 8 percent.

Sunriseearth I think I made it confusing, but basicly I'm affraid my intro 0 percent from Discover will end before I can pay it off. I know I can pay it off in 6 months but my intro period ends April 23. It's not really worth it to me to risk paying all that interst if I'm not going to make it when I have almost a year siting pretty on my Freedom. Edited to say yes, I will be paying it off in 6 months.

Bob, I think I'm going to go that rout. As much as I want it all on Discover, it seems like too much of a risk with my intro  rate ending. Of course I supose I could call them and ask them to extend it because I'm considering putting a large purchase on my card...

[Anonymous]

Update! I just got off the phone with Discover. Gosh calling them is such a pleasure. Bad news is they aren't able to extend the promo interest rate until it is near experation but good knews is my promo actually doesn't expire until July 5th!  I'm now leaning toward using my Discover completely. As much as I wanted to give my Freedom love, cash back is cashback.  I'm open to more openion. D day is not until Friday.

[OmarGB9]

Just put it all on Disco and ride out your zero percent offer.

[Anonymous]

You get 3 months more with freedom. I would be on the safe side and put some on freedom. Cashback mean $%&+ when your paying interest.

[Anonymous]

Put it all on Discover, this way you dont max out your other card.

[takeshi74]

What I'd do doesn't really matter. You have to make decisions based on your own priorities and preferences, etc.

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@Anonymous wrote:

My quandary is whether to put it all on my Disco to get the 2% cashback and then BT to Freedom what might be left over.

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If you have to BT -- even on 0% -- then rewards may not matter much.  Consider the BT fee.

Can you not pay this off before 0% expires on Discover?

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@Anonymous wrote:

and somewhat preserve overall utilization. 

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Not sure what you mean here.  No matter how you allocate overall revolving utilization will be the same.  You're only changing individual revolving utilization with allocation.