Not that i EVER obsess about scores (cough) HOWEVER - I was thinking about transfering balances right before a due date on a card for a temporary score boost. For example - If my Bofa cc due date is on August 4 - and a week before that I bt all of the balance to - lets say - a Citi card - who's due date is Aug 12 - and then transfer back the money a few days before the Citi due date - wouldn't that bring up - temporarily - my score - as both cards would show a low balance?
Mark, I wouldn't do this unless I had a specific reason to boost my score (i.e. car or house purchase, or new credit card during that month). Transaction fees can go with BTs these days, and if you do it often enough, the issuers might get antsy and suspicious. If you want to permanently hide your utilization, you might want to look into a card that never reports (i.e. Generations Bank).
Works like a charm. I did it last month because I was doing a refi and needed a little boost to make sure I was in the 700 club. bofa is tough to use for this though, they are mighty slow with the bt's. I think mine took two weeks. Works much better with Chase or citi, they can get it done in a couple of days.
The problem I had with this is that Citi did not report the new lower balance to the CRA's. I know I could dispute, but that takes time and may aggravate them at a time I need them in my corner. It was six months before they reported. It is still worth a try. It will work to a degree.