What can be BT'd to a CC?

Discussion in 'Credit Talk' started by smontoya5, Mar 5, 2003.

  1. smontoya5

    smontoya5 Well-Known Member

    Hubby now has a Corvette MC ($2K), GM Card ($1K) and Union Plus Card ($2,500).

    They're all offering 0% on balance transfers for the first 6 months, no fees.

    We don't keep a balance from month to month, any balance gets paid off at the end of the week (I love online billpay!).

    My question is, can we only transfer debt owed to other credit cards to one of these accounts? I do have a student loan through Wells Fargo (ConSern)I took out in 1999 with a $331.00 balance. My father cosigned for the loan- the interest rate is in the neighborhood of 11%.

    I was thinking of transferring this over to maybe the GM Card (they'll give you earnings on BT's made in the first 60 days) and then paying it off before the 6 month intro APR ended.

    Is this possible? We've gotten a ton of those "balance transfer" checks and I see nothing in the fine print that restricts what sort of companies you can send them to.

    Thanks guys!
     
  2. lakpr

    lakpr Well-Known Member

    Hi,

    I have used balance transfer checks in the past to pay my rent and utilities. There is no restriction that you have to send them only to credit card companies. Yes it's possible, and go for it!

    -- lakpr
     
  3. chitown

    chitown Well-Known Member

    smontoya5,

    You could do a BT to your debit card (checking account). This should not be a problem I done it before.
     
  4. Hedwig

    Hedwig Well-Known Member

    If it's a card issued by Citibank you can call them and they will send you a check, made out to you. You can put it in your checking, savings, or whatever you want to do with it. If you get a good deal like 0% for some number of months, take the max and put it in a money market or CD account. Just pay the minimum, keep any extra money where it earns interest. When the 0% expires you can use the money you put in the account to pay it off, and you get to keep the interest!

    Make sure you don't use the balance transfer card for anything else. They'll apply all your payments to the low interest rate first and you could end up paying several times over for some small purchase. Make sure you don't have any automatic charges like your internet on the card you're using for BTs.
     
  5. azur24

    azur24 Well-Known Member

    You can balance transfer student loans. I have had a card company soliciting asking me if I had a high interest student loan I would like to transfer to my card.
     
  6. keepmine

    keepmine Well-Known Member

    I've known a couple of people who BT'ed the balance of an auto loan to a low interest credit card.
     
  7. smontoya5

    smontoya5 Well-Known Member

    Thanks for the responses everyone!

    We've never really had a card that you'd WANT to BT to before... hehe my First Premier with that 19.98% interest and $200 credit line doesn't afford for a whole lot.

    This whole thing has me intrigued. I'm trying to think of anything else I still owe on so I could BT it and pay it off at a much lower rate.

    Couldn't a person then, in theory, like Chi-Town said, write a check to yourself and deposit it in your checking account and then give yourself a short term interest free cash loan?

    Wow....the power! So, this is what it feels like to have a decent credit card lol
     
  8. lakpr

    lakpr Well-Known Member

    Re: Re: What can be BT'd to a CC?

    No theory; that's what I did and earned a grand total of 12 dollars in interest on a 6 month CD with money borrowed from Citibank.

    Where they get you is, if you make any purchases on the card after doing the BT, any payments you make are first applied towards the BT amount. Thus, you make a BT of $3000, and charge $25 in purchases, until the $3000 is paid off, your purchase of $25 is being charged interest at the rate of 15%, which more than makes up for the amount you would earn on the "free" money

    -- lakpr
    :)
     
  9. smontoya5

    smontoya5 Well-Known Member

    Re: Re: What can be BT'd to a CC?

    Now I'm thinking of doing this to get some sort of share secured loan. Build another positive TL and build credit with a reputable bank at the same time.


    Hmmm....
     

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