Question:

Will this adversely affect my FICO score AND/OR Create a problem if I needed to rent or purchase a home?

Card One- $2700 credit limit; $2500 balance; 11% interest rate
Card Two- Initially $7500 credit limit (limit was cut to $5400 w/o my knowledge last week); $5300 balance; 22% interest rate (I’ve been less than a week late twice in the last 6 months)… this card has also increased my monthly payments by double in the last 2 months.
* I also have an approved credit line of $1500 with my credit union with a 9% interest rate that I have not tapped into.

I would like to transfer the $5000 balance to another card, but I am afraid that I will apply and be denied. I believe that my credit score is about 650 (which is disheartening because it was about 740 this time last year). I don’t want to hurt my credit score any more by applying and being denied, but I really have minimal options. I have to get out from the high interest rate card, but I also need an “emergency fund” card for unexpected expenses… and now I have ZERO available credit after they cut my limit.

Would I even qualify for a balance transfer card? Would the credit limit be high enough to tackle the $5000 that I would like to transfer? I, like many other middle class Americans right now, feel like I’m drowning and it all happened so fast. If ANYONE has suggestions about how to go about tackling my credit card problems please reply.

John

I am looking at doing a Cash Advance from Discover, Capital One, BankOfAmerica or AMEX to my account and then balance transfering it out immediatly. At the same time request a balance transfter from one of the zero guys. I have a chase offer for 15 months and no fees just waiting for my call. I would rather not incur the fees that go with the cash advance.

Or can I somehow do a balance transfer to myself and then use the cash to pay off some of the home equity loan? I am unsure of what questions they will ask.

Do I just need a business name for the balance transfer?

PS, only the capital one has a balance on it of about $3k. As soon as I can figure a way to transfer all of the funds around, I will close all but my longest standing card and pound down the balance.

What do you think?

Don’t understand how you get a balance transfer into a bank account? Usually a balance transfer form one credit card goes diretcly to the new credit card. Please explaion

John

0% balance transfer credit cards, when used properly within the framework of the transfer rules most definitely can help you pay off your credit card debt, and indeed help you pay off your high interest card faster. Because you don’t have to pay interest during the duration of the 0% APR period, all of your card payments go towards the principal. Plus there is significantly less stress and desperate urgency when you don’t have to worry about compound interest hanging over your head.

In my opinion, I don’t think it’s necessarily any more difficult to qualify for a new 0% transfer card after the first one, presuming of course that your FICO credit score remains intact. While FICO scores tend to dip shortly after you acquire a large balance transfer on your card, if you are only shifting the balance from one high interest card to the 0% balance transfer card, the effect on your FICO will probably be minimal.

I have about $4,000 in credit card debt ($966 on a card that I haven’t used in a long time, I’m just paying it down, and $3,123 on another card). Anyway, I’m a student in college (I used the cards to help pay tuition), and now I barely have enough for my minimum monthly payments and all my other bills, too. Basically I’m wondering if I transfer the balance, will it just minimize my monthly payments or will it allow me to pay off the card faster, too? And is it harder to get approved for a 0% transfer balance after the first one, in case I want to transfer from one to another to another until it’s paid off?

Thank you SO MUCH!
A broke college student

Absolutely. There is rarely any reason to cancel those cards even after you use up the 0% balance transfer offers and pay back the balance in full. If you simply have credit card spending issues and feel having so many cards is too tempting, my suggestion is to call the company and ask them to lower your credit limit, rather than canceling them altogether.

But ideally, you’re better off keeping those cards active since it helps to increase the total amount of credit limit available to you. I personally own a great number of credit cards - more than 10. Most are now spent balance transfer cards and retain their credit limits. As a result of my low usage ratio enabled by having a high total credit limit that is unused - my FICO credit score is almost 800 at this point.

If you were somehow mislead or misinformed by your customer service rep that the payment would be otherwise immediate, you may have a case. Other than that, you can try to speak to the credit card issuer to discuss your timing problem. Tell them that you paid off the card on the same day and were led to believe it would be applied prior to the incoming 0% balance transfer.

Some card issuers like Citibank tend to be more flexible and will give you the benefit of the doubt. I missed a minimum balance transfer payment for a 0% balance transfer card one time by a few days due to paperwork problems and my card issuer was gracious enough to let it slide rather than reset the entire balance at an insanely high APR interest rate.

Try discussing with your credit card issuer - that’s my advice. I really hope it works out!

If I understand your question correctly, you are asking me what would happen with a pre-existing balance on a 0% balance transfer credit card that assumes a new promotional 0% balance, transferred from another high interest card. The concern I have with that is the fact that if the new 0% balance is added to the promo card before you first adequately pay off the existing balance on the card, you won’t be able to direct any new payments towards getting rid of that existing balance until the new 0% card balance is paid off first. This is because payments are generally applied to lower interest balances (0% APR) before being applied to higher interest balances.

If you transferred the 0% balance offer onto the card on the same day as you supposedly paid it off, there may be a timing issue. I personally would have waited a few days to ensure the card was completely paid off before starting the 0% transfer.