Balance Transfer Offers to Reduce Debt

[luckydiva95]

My Amazon Chase Card is offering 0% interest on balance transfers with a 4% fee, the promotional period ends in January 2023 and then my standard APR is 22.24%. I currently have a 0 balance on the card with $2700 credit line which I know isn't high. I have several cards with high interest rates and high utilization. I'm working on paying them down. I just paid $970 down to lower the balance within the last week on the Barclay's and they won't budge on lowering my interest rate with 6 years of perfect payment history. I've never done a balance transfer before and I don't want to lower my credit score. I'm considering two options for cards that have high interest rates. Even if I just don't do the balance transfer, I'll have one of these cards paid off in 4 months or less. Discover is also offering transfer balance promo but I have a 48% utilization on that card and I don't want to max out the card with a balance transfer. What do you think I should do? Any advice would be appreciated.

1. Wells Fargo: $1305 25.99% interest rate

2. Barclay's: $1518.65 26.99% interest rate.

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balance transfers can temporarily lower your score when both lenders report the same balance. for example baclays statement cuts and reports $1518. you balance transfer to chase amazon and the statement cuts and reports $1518 before the next barclays statements cuts at $0. if you are careful with the timing you can avoid it.

I took some numbers from your other post I responded to. currently, monthly interest alone is $477. anything over that amount is what gets applied to the actual debt amount.

CURRENT	apr	balance	credit limit	util	mo interest $
best buy visa	25.24	2056	3900	53	43
amex bcp	23.99	5545	7000	79	111
credit one	23.90	1309	2600	50	26
capital one qs	22.90	5795	7300	79	111
capital one s	22.90	0	500	0	0
amex edp	19.99	5544	7000	79	92
apple	0.00	366	3000	12	0
barclay’s	26.99	1518	3250	47	34
wells fargo	25.99	1306	3300	40	28
discover	22.99	1644	3600	46	31
chase amazon	22.24	0	2700	0	0
sum	22.82	25083	44150	57	477

if you balance transfer barclays $1518 to chase amazon monthly interest gets reduced to $443. $1518 + $61 fee equals $1579 balance. so the first two months savings pays for the fees.

OPTION 1	apr	balance	credit limit	util	mo interest $
best buy visa	25.24	2056	3900	53	43
amex bcp	23.99	5545	7000	79	111
credit one	23.90	1309	2600	50	26
capital one qs	22.90	5795	7300	79	111
capital one s	22.90	0	500	0	0
amex edp	19.99	5544	7000	79	92
apple	0.00	366	3000	12	0
barclay’s	26.99	0	3250	0	0
wells fargo	25.99	1306	3300	40	28
discover	22.99	1644	3600	46	31
chase amazon	0.00	1579	2700	58	0
sum	21.14	25144	44150	57	443

if you balance transfer discover to chase amazon THEN balance transfer barclays+wells to discover you save more dollars with monthly interest at $383. again, the first two months savings covers the fees. remember that you start with $366 at 0% and finish with >$5000 at 0%.

OPTION 2	apr	balance	credit limit	util	mo interest $
best buy visa	25.24	2056	3900	53	43
amex bcp	23.99	5545	7000	79	111
credit one	23.90	1309	2600	50	26
capital one qs	22.90	5795	7300	79	111
capital one s	22.90	0	500	0	0
amex edp	19.99	5544	7000	79	92
apple	0.00	366	3000	12	0
barclay’s	26.99	0	3250	0	0
wells fargo	25.99	0	3300	0	0
discover	0.00	2937	3600	82	0
chase amazon	0.00	1710	2700	63	0
sum	18.20	25262	44150	57	383

in either situation you lower your blended apr (in red) which saves you money over time. in a way, 0% balance offers can be a game of shuffling debt to save.

ultimately your best option would be a low apr personal loan to cover it all. you stated previously low debt to income and your score is "mid 700s." at a certain point your score will determine the apr and the difference in rate will be negligible with a higher score. pull the trigger on lenders like sofi, prosper, marcus, etc that will give you options with a soft pull and let us know what you're offered.