@myquestionsfico wrote:So, I've been rebuilding for a few years. I have some new cards, including a couple from PenFed, which pretty much always lets you balance transfer for 12 months no interest (with 3% fee).
I've worked hard to keep every card I have under 8.9% utilization, but I'm at a point where I want to limit interest on cards that do carry a balance. So I'm thinking of balance transferring all balances to my 2 PenFed cards, which will cut the utilization of others to nothing but really raise those two. Can I expect a big hit on my FICO scores if I go up to 30-40% utilization on a card or two? It will save on interest for a year, so I can pay down more quickly.
Assuming you add no additional debt, your scores should move minimally. You'll take a hit for individual card over 28.9% utilization, but your aggregate utilization won't change.
Potentially, your mortgage scores could improve because of percentage of card's at zero.
As other's say often (not always often enough) finances before scores.
If you have no plan's to make a major purchase (house or car) in the next year there is no reason I can see not to save on interest... if you are planning a large purchase, you'll want to crunch the numbers closer to insure all aspects align for savings.
