pay down before app for a transfer card ?

[missmama]

OK so my BF has a Citi Bank Choice CC that has a limit of 25,000. He has had it foreeeeever!! It has horrible rewards and is pretty useless. He wants get a better rewards card so we are lookind into that. For all those year, he had always used it and paid it off every month... the past few years he has been carrying a balance, he always pays way more than the minimum due though. Right now it is as close to the limit as it has ever been, about 23,500   

Never late on anything ever, he only has this one credit card, mortgage and a car loan. And is a cosinger on one of my loans.  His credit score was 747 (they used equifax) in April when he refinanced. 

So 2 questions are:

1. He wants the card balance down. He has 5000 to pay toward the card. In looking at getting a better rewards card, one with 6 mos no interest... his big thing is he wants the same credit limit. My question is will he be better of applying for a new card now, transfering the balance from Citi card and then.... paying 5000 on it? or paying the 5000 on the Citi card first and then doing an app for a new card?

2. Giving the info I gave, do you think he will be able to get the same credit limit on a new card?

Thanks for any info!!

[MyCreditSucksTheMost]

What's his income like? Does he have a farely low DTI ratio?

Firstly, If he wants to same limit I'd try to get Citi to offer him a product change to one of their newer cards with better rewards;

if that's not possible I'd be suprised if a different bank matched his current limit because of the high utilization on his one card, Chase ussually has high starting cl's, as well as a few credit unions(NFCU) for example.

He's going to look better on the application by paying down his balance by 5k first, to improve his utilization.

My first attempt would be to call Citi, explain the long history, and ask for a product change to a card that better rewards his large spending.

[missmama]

debt to inncome is good. he just refi'd so we know that for sure. I believe Citi had nothing to offer that was better last time he checked, but that was a longgg time ago. Maybe they are better now. Ya, will try them first... I mean he has excellent credit, he has to be able to get something better than he has. thanks for the info

[ac921ol]

He's at 93% on that card, I see it quite hard for a CC to give him another card with a balance that high. I would pay those 5k to the 23k and lower the utility. Slowly pay down another month or 2 and then app for a card with better rewards. What is he looking for as rewards?

[youngandcreditwrthy]

That's a great score.
Imo though, even if he pays the $5k, it wouldn't reduce the util low enough to get a high cl on a new card.
I'd say app without paying it, he might get a $5-10k cl on a good Bal Xfer card( try something like Slate) then tackle the debt with the $5k plus whatever you can from BT cards. You might even have him app for a couple of good BT cards at once.
BOA seems to be good with high cls lately. I was able to get a $10k BOA card, but my util is like 15-20%.

[Creditaddict]

Apply for Chase Slate, it's 0% for 15 months and $0 bt fee.
Then use the $5k if he can't transfer all of it.

[coldnmn]

Definitely the utilization will make the op look desperate applying for another card. What is wanted IMHO even paying it down to 70% isn't possible. Following the previous posters recommendations is the best route. 

[takeshi74]

Utilization plays a signiifcant role.

$23,500/$25,000 = 94%

$18,500/$25,500 = 74%

74% is better than 94% (which is maxed) but it's still not a good utilization for apping.

[Redissochi]

I would try Citi first and then try for the Duck card. I have seen many people get approved for the Duck card with way worst profiles and get great CL's. I was approved for one, I dont know what my limit is yet. And they have rewards and a BT offer for 12months. I know for sure he would probably qualify for that card and more than likely they will match his higest limit.

[B335is]

+1^