Want to apply in a year need some CC debt advice

Anonymous · ‎05-13-2016

Hello all my scores are 755+ and no bads and worked for my company for 12 years

.Now my question is, due to medical nightmares I have about 8K in amex debt
and my intro APR expires in July.

since I dont want to pay the APR, should I get a new Chase Freedom Unlimited (or another card) card
and pay it off on that (within a year) and take a hit on my score for a new account
but have 0 APR for 12 mo

OR

Transfer 7500 of it to my PenFed freedom that has a 7500 CL with a no transfer
fee offer and 5% for 12 months wich would max that card out temporarily
but it would not ding me for a new accouint and its only 5%.

please help!

StartingOver10 · ‎05-13-2016

If those are your mortgage scores - then get the new zero balance card since you don't plan on applying for your mortgage for another 12 months. JMO

If they aren't your FICO mortgage scores, check those first here on MyFICO. It is a consumer pull and not a HP. Get the 3 B report. You may be in just as good a shape as your FICO 8's - we don't know because they are different algoriums.

Anonymous · ‎05-13-2016

Can I get the service just to pull my mortgage scores? I hate paying all those months for nothing.

StartingOver10 · ‎05-13-2016

@Anonymous wrote:
Can I get the service just to pull my mortgage scores? I hate paying all those months for nothing.

Sure, you can pull a 3 B report one time - you don't need to do the monitoring at all.

Anonymous · ‎05-13-2016

Can you compare the cost of pulling the 3b report 1x versus getting the monthly service that includes that (I assume)

I do not need any credit repair done at this time. TY

@StartingOver10 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Can I get the service just to pull my mortgage scores? I hate paying all those months for nothing.
Sure, you can pull a 3 B report one time - you don't need to do the monitoring at all.

Anonymous · ‎05-13-2016

If you are going to get a new card specifically for a balance transfer, why don't you get a Chase Slate (0% apr for 15 months and no BT fee), or a Citi Simplicy card which is 0% apr for 21 months but a 3% BT fee. Slate is probably better for your purposes since it waives the BT fee for 60 days.

Anonymous · ‎05-13-2016

Yeah I'm weighing a new account versus BT to Penfed Promise with no BT and 5% for 12 months. I really dont like the hit on account age and the HP in CASE I apply before 12 months.

Anonymous · ‎05-14-2016

I will preface this by saying I'm not a loan officer. IMO you are really placing too much emphasis on one HP and new account impact. If it were me, I'd be more concerned with getting the debt paid down and not paying one penny of interest on it.

Even if you change your mind and decide to buy sooner than 12 months, some lenders don't even pull inquiries that old (mine didn't). I had 20+ inquiries in the 4 months prior to applying, just saying, inquires are not the end all be all of the mortgage application.

Make sure you apply for a card that's going to give you enough of a limit without putting your utilization on that one card through the roof (that'll hurt more than the inquiry). Chase can sometimes come back with a low starting limit and then the card will be maxed or unusable for a BT.

Also, I'm not sure what cards you already have, but have you checked to see if any of those lenders have a 0% promo offers.

Anonymous · ‎05-14-2016

Don't worry about the small hit your score might take, you have plenty of time to recover. Right now focus on whatever puts you in the best financial situation going forward. As you pay down the bal your scores will see some improvement anyway.

Anonymous · ‎06-01-2016

my situation has changed as my landlord wants me to buy the house THIS year or he will sell it.

In that case i should not get a new 0 into APR card right? Instead i could BT to %5 penfed PLOC
and then ask each month for Amex to decrease APR?

New card