Making Money From Balance Transfers – What Happens After The First Year?

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This is a follow-up to my series on How To Make Money From 0% APR Balance Transfers, where I discuss borrowing from credit cards for over a $1,000 in profit last year. (If you’re curious about this, I highly recommend reading it first – It’s all carefully laid out, step-by-step.) Now, several people have already done this and were wondering what to do after the initial 0% period is up – Do you cancel the old card? Apply for another one right away? How do you keep the gravy train running?

First of all, do not cancel your existing cards. Why not?

Canceling won’t help your credit score, and can even hurt it. Once you’ve opened the account, closing it will not help. You could have 100 credit cards and still have a top credit score if you use them responsibly. I have over 15 cards and my scores are just fine.

The only time I ever cancel a card is when I reach the maximum amount of cards per issuer. (Added: I also cancel when faced with an annual fee that can’t be waived.) For example, Citibank allows three or four cards per person. If you want to open another one, they will make you close an existing account.

Your card has a credit line attached to it, which can hopefully be moved to another card. Let’s work from the examples I’ve already talked about in the previous steps. Let’s say you already have the Citi® Platinum Select® Visa Card®, you’ve made your money, paid it off, and the intro period is now over. Now it’s just a $10,000 line of credit just sitting there.

Now, you can close the Platinum card if they ask. It may hurt your score a bit, but the trade-off of getting a new card may be worth it.

You could also try for an automatic credit limit increase on your old line first before moving the lines over.

You could keep the card for it’s rewards perks. For example, the Discover More Card (another no fee 0% APR card) also has a rewards program where it offer 5% cash back on a specific category every quarter. Right now it has 5% back on hotels, airline tickets, and car rentals. Even though you might not have gotten this card for that reason alone, since you have it, why not use it?

Same thing with the Citi Professional Card with ThankYou Network, I got it for the bonus and 0% APR period, but I now use it for 3% back a restaurants. I even put a little sticker on it that says “Restaurants” so I remember.

You could be offered another 0% APR period later on. Sometimes if a card issuer notices inactivity on your card, they might try to lure you back with another low-rate offer.

When should you start applying for new cards? This depends on how your credit score is doing. The problem with credit scores is that they are a complex formula (hidden intentionally by FICO so you’ll buy their scores) and different people’s score react differently to the same event. But as very general rule of thumb, if you have more than your gross income level of credit card debt, it is going to be difficult to be approved for another card. For example, if you make $50k a year and have $50k of credit card debt, even if it is at 0% APR and you have it socked away safely in a savings account, it will be tough to get another card.

My suggestion? Wait until most or all of your current cards are paid off for a couple of months. Then, your low debt levels will be reflected in your credit report and your score will rebound. Then you can re-apply for more cards and start up again. If this is your first time around, you can use this period to confirm for yourself that all this stuff only hurts your credit score temporarily.

You may notice that I only have about $30,000 borrowed for profit. This is mainly on purpose, because at this level my credit score is still good enough to be approved for new cards (like this one). Others prefer to go all out, apply for a ton of cards, put off all new applications for a while, wait, and then go all out again. I have nothing against that, but I prefer my way because I am holding a steady but reasonable amount of debt with respect to income, and it doesn’t necessarily raise any big flags with card companies. To them, I’m just another consumer with some credit card debt. I like to keep this a low-stress activity. Once I start making more income, I’ll probably borrow more.

What if I run out of good cards to apply for?
You can have 3 or 4 Citi Cards and you can have 3 or 4 Discover Cards at at time. If you reach the max, just follow the example in the main post and move your limit to the new card, and close the old card. If the card is already at a low limit, just close it out and then apply. That’s 6-8 cards at a time, I’m pretty sure that’s enough for most people.

You can find several options with both no fees and 0% APR at my best no-fee balance transfer offers list, please refer back there for an updated rundown.

Finally, I know that at least Citibank let’s you have multiples of the same card. If you have a high enough limits, a 3% fee capped at $50 or $75 really isn’t that bad.

Armed with discipline and information, you should be able to consistently increase your credit limits and make money from credit card companies for many years to come. 😀

Skip To Another Part
I. Introduction and Warnings About 0% Balance Transfer Offers
II. Scouting For 0% Balance Transfer Offers
III. Application Tips and Getting Cash From 0% Balance Transfers
IV. Setup And Management of 0% APR Balance Transfers
V. Best Pre-Screened No Fee 0% APR Balance Transfer Offers

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Comments

  1. Jonathan, thank you for posting this! I just paid off the first card I did this with (the Citi Platinum Select or whatever that’s called) and opened the Discover one, and I have actually begun wondering lately where this is all going to go.

    Is it safe to say that no matter how much credit I have *available* to me, as long as only a small portion of it is *used*, it won’t harm my score?

  2. Oh, another question I had on my mind:
    If you do cancel one of your old cards, and it dents your credit score, how long do you think it would take your score, on average, to recover from that dent?

  3. How exactly do you tap the credit cards for cash? I have seen the balance transfer offers at 0%; do I have to run up a balance on another credit card and transfer it to the 0% one to get at the credit? I pay off my credit cards monthly and have ~$3k of expenses/month, but it would still take 4 months (and 4 balance transfers) to tap a full $12k credit line. Thanks!

  4. Jonathan, I was wondering how many credit pulls show on your record? I have about 12 over the past three years, but a good portion of them have nothing to do with “credit” (I’ve moved twice, and each time I get about four taps – electricity, cable, apartment, etc). Also, my bank tapped me as well for my checking account and so on.

    As it stands, my credit rating is just above 750, but those 12 taps seem like a big red flag to me. Is 12 excessive? Is it simply the score that they look at, or will they take specific details like that into consideration? If you don’t mind me asking, how many taps do you have?

  5. My one year run with the 0% balance transfer game will end in about two months. That will be around a year since I started reading this blog. I know that my credit score has lowered below the threshold for 0% cards. Because I am not getting them in the mail these days. What kind of credit scores do I need to rebound to to qualify for the 0% offers? Are there free credit scores services? I know that you talked about free credit reports before. Thanks.

  6. Jonathan,
    Thanks for the post – I’ve been wondering about these questions for a while. I recently applied for a card but they gave me a really low credit line, even though 99% of the time I pay all my credit cards off every month and is not anywhere close to the ceiling of my credit line. The last time I checked the score (June 06) I had something around 720 and things haven’t changed from that time to now. I have a mortgage that is of course way over my yearly gross income, will that have anything to do with credit score (paid on time every month)?

  7. Jonathan
    Reading your blog for many months and it worked like a champ on Chase.

    Can I move ALL my limits from 3 Chases which due in Sept into the last Chase which dues in MArch 2008? Do you think your tactics works well with Chase too? 😉

  8. I think that if the card is opened for the sole purpose of BT, it makes sense to cancel the newest card and move the credit line to the old cards once the promotion period ends. In this way, the total credit line is increased and credit history is not shortened. I also prefer not to get a bunch of cards at the same time. Instead, I usually get a couple of cards (the maximum) every year. The latest one I got was a Citi PremierPass last month. Got to use the free money :D.

  9. Keep in mind all of the following is based on my own reading and experience, but credit stuff is not an exact science…

    “Is it safe to say that no matter how much credit I have *available* to me, as long as only a small portion of it is *used*, it won?t harm my score?”

    Yes, I think that is basically true. FICO says that the ratio of actual debt to credit limit is a factor in their score.

    I have “heard” that if you have an enormous amount of unused but available credit, some issuers may become nervous. However, I have also “heard” of people with $1M+ of unused credit and no problems.

    “If you do cancel one of your old cards, and it dents your credit score, how long do you think it would take your score, on average, to recover from that dent?”

    The dent is ~5 (again, it varies) points, and it lasts about 6 months. So I only apply to a certain amount of cards every rolling 6 months.

    “How exactly do you tap the credit cards for cash? ”

    It’s all in here, step-by-step directions with pictures and everything 🙂. Specifically, please see Step III.

    “As it stands, my credit rating is just above 750, but those 12 taps [over 3 years] seem like a big red flag to me. Is 12 excessive? Is it simply the score that they look at, or will they take specific details like that into consideration? If you don?t mind me asking, how many taps do you have?”

    From what I’ve read, it’s really only what has happened within the last 6 months that matters. I know your pain, I’ve moved recently as well.

    As you can see, if you have a good record of paying your bills, 12 inquires (doesn’t matter what for) over 3 years is actually not a big deal at all. I think most people would say 750 is a great score.

    Different creditors often only hit one of the 3 credit bureaus, but I definitely have more than 12 inquiries within the past 3 years. I usually apply for about 3-4 cards every rolling 6 months.


    “I know that my credit score has lowered below the threshold for 0% cards. Because I am not getting them in the mail these days. What kind of credit scores do I need to rebound to to qualify for the 0% offers?”

    I’ve had that happen too. Believe me, once you take a break, they will come back with a vengeance! 🙂 For rough numbers, I’d say about 700 score? Again, I am very reticent to throw out numbers as they are really just guesses. I do know that if you pay it back it’s definitely temporary.

  10. “I recently applied for a card but they gave me a really low credit line, even though 99% of the time I pay all my credit cards off every month and is not anywhere close to the ceiling of my credit line.”

    It could be a lot of different things… Like my scenario above suggests, sometimes a single issuer says “Hmm, their other cards are at $12k and $7k, but they want another one? I’ll just give them $2,500 this time.” That’s when you can shuffle credit limits.

    I think the mortgage actually helps your score, not hurts it.

    “Can I move ALL my limits from 3 Chases which due in Sept into the last Chase which dues in March 2008? Do you think your tactics works well with Chase too? ;-)”

    I have reallocated lines with Chase before, yes. Sometimes they change policies, but a simple phone call can confirm so.

    One question that I have still not been able to get a firm answer from a reliable FICO source is whether the age of credit lines as used in the FICO score calculation is defined as

    (a) the length of all open and active credit lines, or
    (b) the length of all credit lines ever opened, including canceled ones.

    The fact that FICO says that closing accounts does not help your credit score, makes me lean towards (b). Otherwise, you would be able to just keep your oldest lines open and closing all your new cards would help your score.

    In the end, I have a lot of old cards now so I’m comfortable that my overall average age will grow longer and longer as I go.

  11. i have $70k of borrowed money, and my free credit check told me my score is 750. offers have diminished and i’m not sure why. i even face my first pay-back in april.

    my rule about applications hinges on rejection: go sequentially until you’re rejected, then take a breather, paying attention to the specific reasons for rejection. my last one said i had too many accounts so i killed the worst one. maybe $70k is my limit but i think the decision-making is more random than this. remember, i began getting larger grants as i went along, not smaller ones. the damage from an inquiry is apparently tiny. and if i were gonna loan you a lot of money, i want you to need it, so you can’t pay it all back… i might favor an imperfect credit score!

    i do think we’re on the industry’s radar, and actually i think they’re hoping we hang ourselves with this rope, but they’re also making this a lot less attractive through load fees like 3% or even 4% i saw today. limit $90 but it’s just not as fun when there’s a cost basis.

    a lot of the tinkering and speculating around how this works doesn’t pass my smell test. why would Cap1 grant me $27k, then $30k, and then WaMu grant just $4k? Because they’re all driven by different metrics, different models, and different objectives. I’ve got 12 lines with 8 lenders and it’s best to think of each line as established by a patchwork of economic factors and details within the consumer credit investment strategies by 8 different entities competing with each other for my value. except there’s no value in me for them. i’m like “empty calories”.

  12. I agree, in the end you get what you get. Try them out, don’t go too nuts, see what happens, make some money. Rejections happen once in a while, it’s not the end of the world. Once you stop playing this “game”, the effects disappear after 6 months. In the end, as long as you pay your bills your credit score will come out fine.

    I will repeat, however, that this activity is not for everyone.

  13. I wrote this in an older post, but it never got answered.

    I know you spoke of shifting credit limits for cards in the same family, but what happens if I close a BofA card in order to up my limit with WaMu? Is there any ideas with how long it would take for WaMu to see that so that you could ask them for a higher limit? I know it wouldn’t be instantaneous, but it’s the same principle, even though it’s with different banks.

  14. Joel – The connection between one action from one issuing bank and the reaction from another issuer is something that I don’t think anyone can predict. I doubt that there is much correlation at all.

  15. Hey, Joel. I suggest not closing any card. I rarely do so. The more credit you have, the more credit they will issue. If you want to up your limit with WaMu, get another BofA card. Personally I have no brand loyalty. If a bank thinks I’m a risk, perhaps another won’t.

  16. jonathan,

    i sent an email to the email address u have listed in ur contact info. i believe i have stumbled upon a way to earn cash back only limited to ur monthly credit limit and the limits placed on the card. ie, no limit, no cash back limit or if its liek citi and 400 a year, u can max it out.

    moreover, like all the balance transfer stuff, there are is hurt to you…its all free money. check ur email…..like ur opinion on it.

  17. Not closing ANY card? Cards with annual fees that are waived for the first year or two still make sense to be cancelled when they try to start charging you to use it.

  18. Great to see an update . I applied and recieved a bunch of cards and cash bonuses a year ago. My thought next was to do the same with my spouse since she was not attached to the original applications. Does this make sense and if so should I use just her income or add mine in as well?
    Also if I do a balance transfer would credit card company allow me to transfer my debt to her on a new card?

  19. On the subject of 0% balance transfers, has anyone heard of a 0% balance transfer offer from Discover? Most offers I’ve seen have a 6 or 12 month timeframe, but the one from Discover is 0% for life. The catch is that you have to used the card 2 times a month after the 1st year to maintain the low 0% balance transfer rate. This offer almost seems too good to be true.

  20. you should maintain your oldest credit cards, b/c they have your longest credit history. cancelling cards that are a year old won’t affect very much. You should wait at least 3 months, because credit reports are normally updated by creditors no a quarterly basis. I personally would wait 1 yr.

    you will max out eventually, b/c your debt to income levels will be too high and your credit score will suffer. unused credit still gets factored in.

    as soon as our round of 0% BT are through, I’m going to do some cleaning house on credit cards. I have too many that are authorized user accounts, which also affect your ability to get higher credit lines.

  21. Yes, I would definitely close credit cards that start charging an annual fee that you don’t deem worth it.

    If you have a few older cards, I agree that closing new ones won’t hurt very much. It just won’t help either, so I like keeping them around just in case for the reasons above. One day, those new cards will be old cards.

  22. Hi Dan,

    I recieved one of those offers from Discover in the mail two days ago. The fine print makes the offer less appealing. . .

    The original 0% BT offer is either 6-12 months. The 0% on the BT can be extending by making two purchases on the card each billing cycle past the cycle in which the original offer expired. However, Discover applies any payments made to the card towards balances with lower interest rates first, and this offer does not include a 0% APR for purchases during this extension period.

    All in all, I didn’t find this offer to be too useful past the 6-12 month period.

    -Tim

  23. I’m just wondering, would the balance transfer work if I transfer the amount to my MC check card from Citibank or does that get treated as a cash advance????

  24. As to which annual-fee cards to close first, I remember seeing something on Suze once where she said to close the ones with the lowest credit limits first. If I’m remembering rightly, doing so would minimize the impact on the debt-to-credit-limit ratio, which is apparently more of a factor on the score than the credit history would be. Also, it should be done gradually, perhaps one such card closed per year or something.

  25. I’ve written about the Discover 0% for life before, I can’t find it right now. It is usually only sent by targeted mailing. It can be a good deal, but it requires a lot more work. You need to make 2 purchases per billing period, and Discover is hoping to make money off of those purchases as you will be charged interest and minimum finance charges on them. Thus, ideally you would make two tiny 50 cent charges each month to keep the offer going (Offers vary, there may also be a min purchase amount). Two main things to watch:

    (1) Discover has the ability to “forgive” small charges. This may seem like a nice thing to do, but then suddenly you don’t have the minimum 2 purchases and you lose the 0% rate. So then you end up charging more just to be sure.

    (2) You must make sure the charges actually post in the right timeframe. Sometimes you make a purchase (like gum at the grocery store or fast food), and it doesn’t actually show up on your card for weeks. That could bump you into the next billing period. Again, this makes you lose the 0% rate.


    Transferring to debit card – Tricky. Best case ? It works (unlikely). Worst case (likely), it gets sent but rejected, and your money is tied up in limbo for an extra few weeks. I don’t recommend it.

  26. I have been able to successfully perform a balance transfer to a line of credit account at my bank. Might be similar for a debit card although haven’t tried it.

  27. Hi Jonathan,

    Thanks for the excellent information on your blog! It’s very educational and opens my eyes.

    I remember you mentioned that business credit card information usually is not shown in one’s persoanl credit reports and also does not affect one’s credit scores.

    My question is: if that is the case, can one make use of this advantage and apply a lot of business credit cards and play the 0% balance transfer game with business cards, right? This way, you don’t need to worry about you credit reports & scores, even with much higher balance in business cards. Is this possible? Or essentially too high balance (say $100K) will still hurt your credit scores/reports, even though all these debts are on business cards, which are supposed NOT to be shown in your personal reports/scores?

    And further more, since your business cards debts will not be shown in your personal credit reports/scores, why bother to pay off these debts before you apply house mortgage?

    Thanks in advance!

    Alex

  28. Hi Jonathan,

    I wanted your input on opening multiple credit cards when you are young and let your credit score increase over the course of time? Does this process boost your credit score in the long run if you sparingly make purchases on them or not make any purchases at all.

    Should I be careful?? Will this damage my credit score???

    Thank you.

  29. The biggest credit score issues that I’m aware of with this scheme are:
    Number of cards with balance over 50%
    Number of inquiries
    Total Number of cards / new cards
    Total Credit Available (sum of limits)
    Number of cards with a balance
    Total amount on revolving accounts (credit cards)

    Advice I’ve seen:
    Never close your first credit card, credit history length is based on open cards.

    Closing cards hurts your score because you increase your total debt to total limit ratio.
    Closing cards can help your score because you decrease your total available credit and number of cards.

    Close your low limit accounts first (and one’s with fees of course).

    The best credit card deals I’ve ever gotten were:
    Capital One gave me 1.9% until paid off (I’ve had it for over 3 years now, no purchase requirements).
    Citibank gave me 2.9% until paid off (same deal).
    Both of these were offered a few years back and I haven’t seen them since.

    I pay $30 a year to eloan for Credit Monitoring. They give you your score once a month, and tell whats negatively affecting your score, and 4 action items you can take to increase your score and how much it should increase by. They even tell you how much your score will increase by doing nothing. I highly recommend it if you are worried about your score, and identity theft.

  30. As regards moving credit limits from one card to another for the same issuer:

    My wife has a Citi Card which she applied for and I have a Citi Card for which I applied. We are both card holders on both credit card accounts. Both liable for the balance due. You cannot move credit limits from one card to the other since the originator is different. I understand why I guess but the limitation is unfortunately there.

  31. The credit card game works when you are in a jam and need helping getting yourself out of debt, but seriously as a profit engine–not so efficient. It seems like you could improve your income instead of spending so much time applying for various cards, setting up payments, and in then making sure everything is straight so you don’t get hit with tons of fees. Just my two cents…on the other hand, I admit I played the game as an undergrad to have play money…??

  32. alex,

    most small business cards require u enter your social security # so that they are guarunteed to be repaid. they pull your credit when u apply. IF you happen to find a business card that requests the business FEIN only, you will only be granted a small line of credit if your business is in its early stages since it has no credit history.

  33. I just asked for a BT check from Citi Prof. card. The email confirmation claimed the 0% was only until June so I called Citi. Lady claimed it was until Nov. Make sure you check up on things like that.

  34. Hey Jonathan,

    Great blog.

    With regards to making money from balance transfers after the first year, it seems like the no fee 0% APR balance transfer offers are limited. In other words, unless you have all of your debt on one or two cards, it seems like one can only capitalize on this for an extra year or two before the offers run out, especially since Discover and Citi appear to provide the only no fee 0% balance transfers right now.

    How do you manage to consistently borrow about $30,000 without running out of offers, and when (if at all) do you anticipate on paying off your entire 0% debt?

    Thanks,
    Andrew

  35. You can have 3 or 4 Citi Cards and you can have 3 or 4 Discover Cards at at time. If you reach the max, just follow the example in the main post and move your limit to the new card, and close the old card. If the card is already at a low limit, just close it out and then apply. That’s 6-8 cards at a time, I’m pretty sure that’s enough for most people.

    Here are several options with both no fees and 0% APR for at least 12 months, taken from my best no-fee balance transfer offers list, please refer back there for the details on each of these cards.

    Citibank
    Citi Platinum Select Mastercard
    Citi Diamond Preferred Card
    AT&T Universal Rewards Card
    Citi Driver?s Edge Mastercard

    Discover
    Discover Platinum Card
    Discover Platinum Sea Life Collection Card
    Discover Miles Card

    Finally, I know that at least Citibank let’s you have multiples of the same card. If you have a high enough limits, a 3% fee capped at $50 or $75 really isn’t that bad.

  36. How much did this actually hurt your credit score? Are we talking hundreds of points or less than that? Once all the balances are paid off, do scores come back immediately to pre-balance levels (assuming no adverse credit events during the promotional period)?

  37. Hi, Jonathan, sorry to bother you but did you find a chance to answer my questions to you (posted couple 2 days before)? Thanks.

  38. The credit score decrease varies from person to person, and depends on how much you borrow, how much credit you already have, and more. My “hit” based on borrowing $30,000 was about 50 points. Yes, the credit score bounces back. Not instantly, but once the new zero balances are reflected on your credit reports, then your score rises again.

    Yes, many (but not all) business credit cards do not show up as a revolving credit line on your personal credit reports. If they don’t show up, then they won’t affect your score. As for mortgages, perhaps the lender may investigate your business debts if you list the business as one of your assets or primary source of income, but I’m not sure.

    Here is some more information:
    Best Business Credit Cards With 0% APR Offers

  39. I’m curious about the practice of asking for balance transfers to another credit card that you have little no balance on and then ask for a check for the overage. I can see some real upsides to this . Does this really work and is it in any way illegal? Can they reject your transfer of money to an account that is greater than the amount owed?

  40. It definitely works, I’ve done it several times. You have to be careful though with who card issuer you send the transfer to, though.

    More details on getting your cash here.

  41. I have not seen Chase Cards listed as a favorite. Wondering why this is. I have an offer for 0 per cent blaance transfer and 0 per cent on charges for 15 months. No balance transfer fees. Looks good. Any reason that does not fit the list of good balance transfer options you have endorsed?

  42. Can you please send me the links to such offers? I have not found any without balance transfer fees. You may have received a specific targeted mailing, but there don’t appear to be ones available to everyone.

  43. Mine evidently was a targeted offer. 0 per cent on purchazes and balance transfers until June 1.2008. No balance transfer fees with this offer. Visa Platinum.

  44. The following is extracted from an article at Kiplinger.com

    Can closing old accounts help my score?

    That’s the most common misconception about credit scores. Closing old accounts can actually hurt your score because it raises your utilization ratio. Owing $5,000 looks a lot better when you have a $20,000 maximum on all of your credit cards — a utilization ratio of 25% — than it does when you have a limit of $7,000 — a ratio of more than 70%.

  45. Hi,

    I’m wondering if you can do a Balance Transfer from a Credit Card to a Checking account.

    or

    Will that be considered as cash advance.

    Thanks.

  46. Anybody recceived notice from Citibank that said new balance transfer will be subjected to 3% fee and no maximum (starting from May 2007)?

  47. Roche Fahlaneigh says

    All you folks need to read “Total Money Makeover” before you consider doing this 0% APR Game.

  48. xerographist says

    I just opened a new Discover card for the 0% BT. They only gave me a credit limit of $5000. When I asked them to move my old limit over ($9600) they wouldn’t do it; they only offered to make a standard BT on the other card. Is the Citi card you mentioned above the only card that will do that?

  49. In addition to what xerographist said, here is what happened to me.

    I recently got an AT&T Universal Rewards card to use for a BT, and I already had a Citi Diamond Preferred Rewards card. I called Citi to transfer a portion of my credit limit from the Diamond Pref. Rewards card to the AT&T card. At first they said they could do it, but the change didn’t show up after a week. When I called a second time, they said that they could not transfer between the two cards because the two cards have different balance transfer conditions.

    As others have noted, Citi and other credit card issuers are making it more difficult to make money from 0% balance transfer offers. This is the latest example.

  50. HI Jon, I enjoy reading your moneyblog for quite some time now. Thank you for taking the time to respond to our comments and questions. I was wondering if you might have an answer to my question.
    I did a 40,000 balance transfer from 2 credit cards-15,000 and 35000 in August of last year to finance a startup business. This literally dropped my credit score by 100 points, but recently it starte to go back up after 3 months. Seeing that my business is going down the drain, I won’t be able to pay the 30,000 off by April. My question is, is there another strategy to do another balance transfer to pay off my 30,000 debt without lowering my credit score again? Is there another alternatives besides balance transfers and borrowing money from family and friends?

  51. Eph Unell says

    I had the same experience as Ryan (the information from Citibank, not the failed gamble ona new business).

    they said that one can’t move credit ines to a card with a promotional BT offer.

  52. I just moved credit limits to my Citi Home Rebate card, but it took a couple of phone calls. You have to be persistent, and even threaten to cancel your old card since “you don’t use it anymore” and want only use the new one. They will want to keep your business.

  53. Phil,

    But will they let you do a balance transfer with the new, larger balance at the promotional rate?

  54. I hear zero balance cards are to be phased out. Any other ideas for when that happens? I just found out about this whole process and it’s over!

  55. Hi John,
    I see the new list of 0% BT cards don’t have caps on their transfer fees. Is there a reason why you didn’t make a note of that? It used to be a major requirement when applying for 0% APR cards.

    thanks!

  56. Can you tell me how to get another Discover Card? My O% rate is expiring and going up to 12.99% and because both my husband and I have Discover cards they say they cannot issue another.

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