You might want to pull your auto scores before you commit to this strategy. For me anyway, my Auto 8s and 9s have always typically been higher than my Fico 8s and 9s. I'm not saying that will be the same for you, but you may already be in the top tier. I guess it also depends on what score your lender is going to pull.
Regardless, I can't say I would pay a $475 transfer fee plus all the added interest you're going to eat by moving the balance away from a 0% card. You might also consider getting that balance down to under 30% ($7k) and go from there.
@RF_Guru wrote:That's kinda my thinking. Moving the balance would be to another 0%, so that's not a concern, but $475 seems a steep price to pay.
My dilemma is timing. I'm buying the car 12/14. My card statement date is 12/8, which is when they will report to the bureau, and I recently reduced the balance by $5k. I was going to do the FICO subscription, but it only updates monthly. I wanted to save that first pull for after the reduce balance reports to the bureau. If I did the transfer, I'd want to do that now, so that the reduced utilization tier was used. If I timed perfectly, I could buy the car right between when the current balance reports on 12/8 and when the transferred balance on the higher CL card would report on 12/17, so for those few days, there would be zero balance on either. But again, I'm probably way overthinking the potential of a few points. Thanks for your input!
You could also transfer $2600 (or so) to the Chase card which would lower the transfer fee, and also keep that card under 9% UTI, bringing your UTI on the other card to under 30%. You'd also be clear of the "too many accounts with balances" penalty since less than 50% of your accounts would be reporting balances... Just a thought anyway.
@RF_Guru wrote:I'm looking to purchase TWO new vehicles within the next few weeks. Current score is 782. Current debts are as follows (other than mortgage):
Type / Bal / CL
Chase / 0 / 43700
Cap One / 0 / 30000
Barclays / 0 / 7600
Citi / 9500 / 23500 @ 0% promo till 10/2025.
Store Card / 0 / 740
Personal Installment Loan / 25000
So this puts my aggregate utilization @ 8.5%, but my single card utilization is at 41%. Was thinking of transferring the $9500 balance from the 23500 CL card to the 43700 CL card to drop a utilization tier to 23% (including $475 transfer fee). Everything I have is perfect payment history, 2 recent inquiries. Not sure it's worth paying $475 to transfer a balance to drop a utilization tier, but if I can get 10+ points it may be? I know per card utilization can be hit or miss depending on individual profile. My goal is ability to be approved top tier for both vehicles (~55k each). Income is not a concern. I plan to pay off the 0% whether on current card or moved to another by the end of the promo period. I haven't pulled Auto scores yet, i'm waiting for a recent large payment to post first.
Thanks for your thoughts!
You would get a score increase by paying off $3000 of the Citicard balance. Since "Income is not a concern" why not just take some of that income and pay it down rather than do a balance transfer.
@RF_Guru wrote:Thanks all! I went and made another $3000 payment on the Citi and I'm just going to leave it there. My last reported balance was $14,800 on that Citi (I said $9500 because I had already paid it down), so with the next score update that should bring my individual utilization from 63% to 27.7% and aggregate from 13% to 5.79%. Having cross two thresholds on individual and one threshold on aggregate, I'd hope to see a decent boost of 20 points or so. Citi should report on 12/8 so I'll see what happens then. Thanks again!
Yes I think you'll get a good boost from that.
