CC Balance transfer from a card that is not yours.

[Anonymous]

Well my cousin has really good credit and I'm going to ask him if I can use one of his CCs to boost my score to get a better rate. He has a WaMu and Chase card. I'm going to ask him if I could use one of his cards to balance transfer from one of CC accounts. With the lower utilization I can get a lower APR and then transfer it back after a few months.

Good idea?

[Anonymous]

This is just my opinion......A transfer could hurt his scores!  Right now AUs are still being reporting.As an AU you would get credit for his CL and UTIL....it might be the way to go.

I would NEVER allow anyone to transfer debt onto my CC. And Im easy (but not cheap)  lmao.

[Anonymous]

Would id really hurt his credit in the long run? Say 3-6 months. I've read that people used up 50% of their credit limit for a year. Their scores did drop, but after they paid it all off, their scores either increased or went back to where they were originally.

[haulingthescoreup]

I love my family, but I would never ever ever allow them to BT a single buck to one of my accounts.

Also, CCC's can see when you're moving money from point A to point B. I don't know that it would get an APR reduction for you.

Have you looked into local credit unions to get a personal loan that would allow you to pay off your card? (Don't go to a consumer finance agency.) You should be able to get a lower rate than on your CC, and adding an installment loan could actually help your credit mix, if you don't currently have any.

My feeling is that those who incur the debt should keep it, and pay it down without involving others. JMHO

[Anonymous]

I think I see where you are going with this. If you are talking about paying off your debt to lower your UTL to request a better rate with a higher score, then transfer it back to your debt at the newer rate to save money... Bad idea!! They have BT Finance charges up front. Probably 3% even if at 0% apr. There are too many possibilities to go wrong. And no guaranty you will get a lower rate. And you are putting family and money together. Double and triple bad.

Have you tried calling a CSR to lower your rate currently with your debt?

Citibank (not Citi Financial) has personal installment loans. If you want your score higher an installment could deposit money in to your checking account and then you can pay off your debt with that. Don't do a consolidation loan, just a personal loan. But that wouldn't really benefit you until you pay the loan off and you're looking at around 14% int. This will ding your credit with an inq and new account for 1 year too. If your UTL is greater than 40% you could benefit. But honestly your best bet is probably to pay it off. If you can't pay it off in less than 8 months and you have high UTL I would recommend taking a personal installment loan over 1,2 years or what ever you need to remove it from revolving credit.

But the simple answer to your original question. Very bad idea. We have seen many of things that can go wrong. Is it possible it could work out, maybe, but dangerous, very dangerous.

[Anonymous]

Yea I guess something can go wrong. I'm trying most of the tricks in the book so far. Removed 2 delinquencies. Called for Lower APR and higher CLs without a hard pull. I found out about this forum about 2 weeks ago and its been very helpful. This plan would speed up the process of getting out of debts since I'm paying about 15% APR on a 20k balance. So I pay about $250 in interest a month. If I can get that to a 0% APR then that would be awesome. Then I would free up my Util and get lower APRs for everything. But you guys are right, anything can go wrong.

[Anonymous]

If he has a good CL and UTIL  ask him to add you as an AU   you would get credit for his hx,CL and it would add CL to your CL & UTIL.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

If he has a good CL and UTIL ask him to add you as an AU you would get credit for his hx,CL and it would add CL to your CL & UTIL.

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This is true!

[Anonymous]

And I would offer to allow him to keep the card rather than give it to you.

[Anonymous]

The AU plan sounds good. Yes I will not even see the CC. He'll cut it up or something.