Balance Transfer Question...

[cristina47454]

I have been getting BT offers from my Citicard and I am wanting to take advantage of it. The thing is...all of my cc are close to maxxed out bcs they keep chasing the balances. One of them has been closed, the other (another citicard with a huge balance) I closed bcs they were changing the terms on me and I wouldn't have been able to afford the minimums. I am never late on payments and am trying hard to snowball my debt, but am making slow progress.

I have about $5k available on the Citicard that is offering the BT, but the offer also says "subject to approval" (boilerplate stuff I think). If I send in the BT check to my Discover card, is there a chance it will be declined by Citi? If I call Citi to do it over the phone is there a higher chance they'll decline me than if I use the paper check? (BTW, this citicard suddenly just INCREASED my limit in Dec without my asking...) I know it's not a personal slight if they deny me, but in this credit climate and d*amn Chase and BofA chasing my balances, if I AM denied, my worst fears are realized (basically that my credit has been damaged) and I don't feel like facing that right now. Except that moving 4k from a 16% card to a 1.99% offer sounds enticing...

Sorry so rambling...thanks in advance for any advice...

[chely7425]

I don't know about the declining thing but 16% to 2% is a HUGE deal as far as paying off cards.  I would definitely try to do it because it will make paying your debt off much easier.  IMO worth the slight risk of them denying it!

[sarah_bella1050]

Isn't there a transfer balance fee?  Most that I have seen have 3% charge added to balance transfers so that would be $120 added on to your debt

[JesKace]

Originally Posted by sarah_bella1050 

Isn't there a transfer balance fee?  Most that I have seen have 3% charge added to balance transfers so that would be $120 added on to your debt

There is usually always a fee for a balance transfer, so watch out for that... Sometimes it can be a simple % of the transfer, and sometimes I think they charge a percentage and a flat fee.

Also, you need to read the fine print because the interest rate of 1.99% may only be for 6 months to 1 year and then you may end up paying a much higher rate on the transfer.  So unless you're going to have that balance paid off in full before the interest rate increases you may end up paying more in the long run when you add in the cost of the balance transfer fee and then an increasing interest rate.

I'd also be concerned because you said citicard changed the terms of another card you have and you had to cancel it because the minimums were going to be too high... I'd be worried that they may try to do the same with this card as well since it's the same bank.  Could you afford for that to happen?  If you had to close this acct, would you be okay without that available credit?

If it is a really good deal and it will save you a good amount of money, it may be worth the risk of trying and possibly being declined.  If you're having a hard time getting all of your debt paid it might be beneficial to move the balance from the Discover card to the Citi card and have one less minimum payment each month (Discover) That way you can send what you were paying to Discover to Citi and you'll be taking more off the principle each month.  You won't know until you give it a shot though.  If you're worried about being declined then I'd do the business over the phone instead of just sending the paper check to the Discover card and hoping for the best.  If you're declined, well then you know where you stand and you'll just have to keep on paying what you can and doing what you're currently doing.

[cristina47454]

Yes, there is a 3% fee, but it's for two years and after that it goes to 15.99% which is still less(although barely) than the 16.25% I am currently being charged.

I got ANOTHER offer in the mail today.  I sure would be nice if the reason they were sending you the offer was bcs you qualified! Apparently I can try to do it online as well. Maybe that would save me the heart palpitations of waiting on the phone line.  Don't know why I'm being such a wimp about this!

[Contrariety]

I would assume that if they are sending them to you, there's a very good chance you'll be fine to use them.  I get those all. the. time. from Citi.  They can't stand it that I have a $0 balance, and they quite frequently raise my limit and I have never asked.  I think I orginally had it a $1,100 limit and now it's like $11,000.  I have done some balance transfers with them in the past and it was easy peasy.  The temporary stress of the potential rejection would be worth the significant rate reduction, IMO.  I'd do it.

[rhiandmoi]

You can usually do it all online or over the phone. I like to do it online so I get a printout of the balance transfer. When you do it online they usually let you know your actual available amount that you could do a BT with.