Today I received a blank check from PenFed saying that I had been pre-approved for a personal loan up to $25,000 with no origination fee.
I was thinking that I would write myself a check for the full $25,000 -- deposit it into several new checking accounts with minimum opening balances that also come with bonuses -- in the range of $250-$500 each, and there would be roughly three of them. After the minimum six months time open for these new bank accounts, withdraw them down to zero and use the funds to pay down the balance of the original PenFed personal loan. But -- I wouldn't pay off the whole balance, just enough to get it down under 8.9% of the original balance amount.
This would in effect give me a $25,000 loan, with a current balance of $2,000. No origination fee, and the interest would be covered by the bonuses from the bank account openings. One of the things I get dinged on my reports is loan balance to original loan amount is too high. I had thought this was also a benefit for the self-lending loans.
I'd take a hit when they did a hard pull for the loan, I'm sure. But I haven't had any new accounts in over a year, no inquiries in 13 months so one wouldn't be too bad. And a hit for age of newest account and overall AAoA would drop (currently pushing 4 years). But would that solve the pesky balance ratio problem? And it would set up a precendent for taking out and paying back loans with PenFed.
Thoughts?
