Need BT Advice

[Anonymous]

So my pops just got a Navy Platinum card with 0% for 12 mos on BT's. He got it specifically to transfer about $12k in balances on 4 or 5 other cards. Navy gave a 8k limit (recon didnt work for more). He really doesnt want to open a second BT card but my question is: how much can he transfer without hurting his score as far as nearly maxxing out an individual card....? I heard its 91.7% but is even 70% safe? Ideas please! Fico around 740, no baddies, retired with pension probably 68k income. Util probably 45% overall

[Anonymous]

Individual card utility is (I think) anything over 88% 

SInce there are 5 cards, I would recommend getting 4 or so BT'ed and saving

either the lowest balance or lowest apr on that 5th card and just pay it

off seperate and paying a bit of interest.

I am not sure if the navy has any fee for BT, but if so you can

break down the math and figure 2-3% fee may be more or less than

a few payments of interest.

If this doesnt make any sense, list the 5 cards balances and apr.

and also list the navy BT offer fee.

Someone or I can break it down to the penny for you. 

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:
So my pops just got a Navy Platinum card with 0% for 12 mos on BT's. He got it specifically to transfer about $12k in balances on 4 or 5 other cards. Navy gave a 8k limit (recon didnt work for more). He really doesnt want to open a second BT card but my question is: how much can he transfer without hurting his score as far as nearly maxxing out an individual card....? I heard its 91.7% but is even 70% safe? Ideas please! Fico around 740, no baddies, retired with pension probably 68k income. Util probably 45% overall

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Sorry but he can't transfer more than $2250 without getting some kind of points off on the new account. 

But you don't tell us what his balances & limits are on the accounts from which he will be transferring balances, so we can't say whether he's better off sustaining some pain in the new account to alleviate some pain in the old accounts.

[HeavenOhio]

Navy isn't going care about the balance. It's not their thing.

Pops might want to consider that other lenders might notice. Generally, to avoid that, staying at 68.9% or below is the number generally recommended around here. But if he has no baddies, he's probably fine with the card close to maxed (88.9% or below). And I'd guess that he'd have several happy banks that have just been relieved of balances.

[Anonymous]

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@HeavenOhio wrote:

Navy isn't going care about the balance. It's not their thing.

Pops might want to consider that other lenders might notice. Generally, to avoid that, staying at 68.9% or below is the number generally recommended around here. But if he has no baddies, he's probably fine with the card close to maxed (88.9% or below). And I'd guess that he'd have several happy banks that have just been relieved of balances.

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Hold on, up to 68.9% utilization for a BT card is acceptable? If that's right, that actually helps me because I've settled on my Apple FCU Visa (which has the lowest APR of all my cards and is a plain-vanilla card without rewards, so I'm not really giving up anything) for BT purposes. Since the current CL on that card is $7K, that means...let me see...I could have up to a $4,823 balance on it from BT'ing. I'm currently only planning to BT about $1150 more in balances to that card which would have it well under 28.9% util, but by the under-68.9% benchmark I could BT a fair bit more than that.

[HeavenOhio]

I'd rather stay under 28.9%, which is considered "responsible" borrowing. The second best choice would be to stay under 48.9%.

How a situation like this is handled really depends on what one's profile looks like and whether or not one is going to be applying for new credit. I'm assuming that Pops has scores that can take a dip while remaining reasonably decent.

I wouldn't want to make a blanket statement saying that 68.9% is acceptable. It's not acceptable for applying for new credit, for instance. I'd be more apt to call it tolerable, provided that scores are still decent and that balances on other cards are in check.

The third factor to consider is the bank or banks involved. High utilization doesn't seem to spook Navy. Capital One is another that doesn't seem to get nervous. They're not going to reward you with limit increases while you're carrying a high balance, but they're likely to leave you alone and let you pay in peace. If this were Synchrony, I'd be a lot more careful.

[Anonymous]

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@HeavenOhio wrote:

I'd rather stay under 28.9%, which is considered "responsible" borrowing. The second best choice would be to stay under 48.9%.

How a situation like this is handled really depends on what one's profile looks like and whether or not one is going to be applying for new credit. I'm assuming that Pops has scores that can take a dip while remaining reasonably decent.

I wouldn't want to make a blanket statement saying that 68.9% is acceptable. It's not acceptable for applying for new credit, for instance. I'd be more apt to call it tolerable, provided that scores are still decent and that balances on other cards are in check.

The third factor to consider is the bank or banks involved. High utilization doesn't seem to spook Navy. Capital One is another that doesn't seem to get nervous. They're not going to reward you with limit increases while you're carrying a high balance, but they're likely to leave you alone and let you pay in peace. If this were Synchrony, I'd be a lot more careful.

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Thanks for the clarification. I do intend to keep my utilization on any one card under 28.9% going forward, same for overall utilization. Glad to know that about Navy, since they're #1 on my list when I come out of my gardening period in early 2019. Actually, I'm hoping to still be able to stay under 8.9% overall by the time I do apply to Navy, so we'll see.

[Anonymous]

I will agree it all has to do with ones profile, and the bank, and also future credit endevors.

I actually wrote a "BT" check out to myself earlier this year

on my PNC card for $9k and also had a 2% fee of $180. (CL $10200)

I payed the fee as soon as I could and either way had 89% reporting.

I have been paying it down obviously, but now 4 or so months later,

PNC actually gave me an AUTO CLI of $1400 to $11600

What seriously? I'll take it lol

I was also around the 70%+ mark when I also applied and was approved for

6 cards for a CL higher than $50k total

Including a NFCU card for $10k

SO this is all relative to one profile, I would say.

If Pops isnt needing to apply for much anything soon, all should be good.

And even moreso if he profile is thick and good.

 no baddies ever here...im sure that helps too.

hth