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Balance transfers

September 20th, 2011 at 06:34 pm

These BTs are becoming a huge pain in the butt.

I want to move money around in a way that makes the most sense. I moved $4k from the US Bank to the new Citi Simplicity Card, taking the interest from 11.99% to 0.00% for 21 months.

I want to move ~$10k from the old Citi card around so that it gets me the lowest APR. I could move it to either Discover or US Bank at purchase APR which are 9.99% and 11.99% respectively.

I also have three Chase accounts that I could move it to. Two cards have BT offers: either 1.99% until 01/2013 or 0.00% until 07/2012. Unfortunately both of those cards have low available credit: $1,900 and $1,100. The third card has $4531.00 of available credit but no BT offers. So I called and asked about getting something. The person said there was nothing they could do aside from consolidate two cards which would mean closing one and moving the available credit to the other. This would be okay except for that I like the Flex Rewards on the card that would have to be closed. So I'm trying to decide what to do.

I suppose it won't matter much since I'm no longer using CCs. Once I get the debt paid off, I was considering using the Flex card to pay for bills to get the rewards but paying the debt is more important.

So long story short, I'm frustrated trying to figure this all out. I'm happy that I got some of the debt to a lower interest card but I'm hoping I can get most of it moved!

Post publishing edit: I gave the Chase rep the opportunity to "sell me Chase." I told him the options I had weren't reasonable and I wanted to know why I should bring my money over to Chase. He basically said it was my decision! So I'm leaning toward not doing anything with Chase. It doesn't seem like they want my business. Also, I just called US Bank and have 5800 available credit to play with. Even though it only cuts my APR down by a few points, it's better than nothing!

Posted in Credit Cards, Debt, Personal Finance | 3 Comments »

3 Responses to “Balance transfers”

  1. Petunia 100 Says:
    September 20th, 2011 at 07:00 pm 1316545240
    1316545240

    What is the balance transfer fee? I would be unwilling to move debt @ 14.24% to 11.99% if I had to pay any fee whatsover. Remember, the fee is not annualized like the interest is, it is an up front fee paid on the entire balance. If you have to pay an upfront 3% fee in order to save 2.25% annualized, you will come out behind on that deal.

    I think you should just keep your eyes open. As your debt decreases, you will receive more balance transfer offers. Some of them will be worth taking.

  2. Jerry Says:
    September 25th, 2011 at 09:16 pm 1316985371
    1316985371

    Yeah, I would worry about those transfer fees, as well. They can add up and lead to problems overall. The good thing is that you have the insurance of not using the CCs any more, so that you can make progress on getting things paid off sooner than later. Good luck!
    Jerry

  3. anonymous Says:
    September 30th, 2011 at 02:35 pm 1317393344
    1317393344

    The big banks are dead meat that should have been allowed to fail. It takes over a week to transfer money between accounts in the same branch. They are issuing warning letters (such as if you use an online vendor, heavens, it must be suspicious because their fellow weasels won't find work) and fees inconsistently and cluelessly all over again. Their average staff is at least twenty IQ points lower than they have any right to be. Don't blame them entirely, they have been bludgeoned endlessly by regulators, they are clueless. They scurry about with mindless business trying to stay alive while pretending to work. Universal banking should only have been allowed if they started from scratch, not by merger. These guys are clueless as to how to integrate these things, because they have so many weird pieces which will never fit together. If you employ anyone who used to work at a big bank, you should get fired. They would drown you in penalties just because someone got sick and couldn't pay - it is irrational how they think they will make it up in short term freak fees if they make you go under. Ibrahimic (not just Islamic) finance is the future - now they call it debt equity convertability.

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