Let me give you a little background to begin with...My FICO is about 730 or so, I am 25 years old. I have a 3 (Visa, MC, DISCOVER) CC accounts that have always been paid on time, never been late. I have never had a fixed payment loan, always paid cash. None of my current BT are offering any good BT offers. I recently came across a great deal on a motorcycle and paid with my credit card...I need a card I can transfer about $4,000 to with 0% interest and preferably a low BT fee. I just need 3-4 months to get it paid off. Would it better for me to go to a bank or CU and try to get a fixed payment load, or open another credit account?
Your "utility" of doing either is at most the cost of interest on the $4000 for 4 months, leaving it where you now have it, possibly increased by interest on any other balances on that card that you would normally have paid off in full. At 18% APR, you are talking about trying to save at most about $240 interest, assuming you can BT to a 0% card with no fees, and would pay off in 4 months regardless. If your interest rate is different than 18%, this potential savings will vary. What interest rate are you currently going to pay on the $4000? With FICO of 730, your credit is good. What terms are you being offered on new or current accounts with balance transfer offers?
Neither of the other 2 cards have current BT offers...I will be charged the cash advance rate on the $4000 because I used Western Union to transfer the money (I didn't know that counted as cash advance) so the interest rate is ~24% as opposed to my APR of 12.24% I was just thinking that it is coming time for me to buy/build a house and if a fixed payment loan would substanially improve my credit since I have never had one, then maybe I should do that and pay it off over say a year or so
At 730, you have good credit, which will likely improve with your credit history length whether or not you add a fixed loan or not. You do, however, want to be careful about debt to available credit ratio, particularly with relatively short credit history, and only 3 accounts. Although a fixed loan might push FICO up due to an additional type of credit, it does not add available credit, only debt, to your debt to available credit ratio. Another revolving account with good terms might do the same just as well, due to increased available credit, after you paid it off. Since you appear to preemptively manage your credit needs, you may want to build a range of credit relationships to give you choices. Some CC companies appear to repeatedly push BT offers. Prime rate, with 3% fee, is no great deal. 0%, with a 3% fee, for only 6 months, is no big deal either, although it would appear to meet your current needs. They are usually looking to get the return they want after the 0% rate ends when many consumers still have an outstanding transferred balance. Others may only push cash advance "convenience" checks at cash advance rates, which is of no value at all. Others may not do BT offers at all. What companies are your cards with?
I have Discover (5K), BOA Visa(7K), Chase Mastercard(10K), I also have a couple other cards with 2-3K credit limits and a Sears Card with a 6K limit. I don't even know where the other CC's are, I have never used them...just got them and destroyed them.
What are your current cards offering? Call and see if they have any BT offers. Alternatively, you can transfer any cash advance balance by shifting your payment strategy. For example, if you normally run up and pay off $2K of purchases each month on one of your cards at 12%, instead make minimum payments on that, and divert the cash flow to paying off the card with the cash advance. In 2 months you have transferred it to 12%.
4 months at 24% on $4000 is about $320. Considering the $75 fee, you save $245 in 4 months by transferring it. That is good enough to just do it, and don't waste further time looking for something better. Given a choice, don't let it sit at 24%, even for a few days, since you are paying interest from the date of the cash advance, and it is costing you about $80 a month, or $2.63 a day. And be careful to pay off the next month's statement, too, since it will have a residual "tail" of interest based on when your payment was posted.
