Balance Transfer Advice

[camelfam]

Hello everyone,
I need some credit card advice. For the past year we have been struggling to pay off our credit car. Before this year we always paid each month in full. Now we are carrying a balance of over 5,000 that we are really struggling to get down. We pay the minimum each month but still get hit with about a $70 charge. I looked into getting a card that would be good for a balance transfer and came across the Chase Slate card with no balance transfer fee (within the first 60 days) and 0% APR for the first 15 billing cycles. I did not realize until I was approved and mailed the cards and info that you couldn't transfer from another Chase card (we have a Chase freedom).

I'm not sure what to do now. Should I apply for on of the other cards good for a balance transfer? I haven't actually activated these cards yet. Can I still cancel without it affecting my credit score?

[creditcardfree]

If you have excellent credit, you should have no problem applying and getting approved for another card, regardless of what you do with the Slate Card. If you decide not to keep, I would call and cancel, even though you have not activated the card.

[url=http://www.creditcards.com/balance-transfer.php]Here's a link to plenty of 0% interest cards for balance transfers[/url}. Most of these do have a balance transfer fee of 3%, which likely will save you money. You need to try to get the balance paid off before the 0% interest ends. So make a plan!

[camelfam]

I don't know what our credit score is, but I can't imagine it would be bad. Does anyone have recommendations for cards that are good for balance transfers besides Chase?

[cardtrick]

I used that offer from Slate too and I didn't have any balances on my credit cards. I was just trying to get an interest free loan for other stuff.

Do you have any other credit cards that have 0 balances? I have a Citi card with a 0 balance, so I balance transferred from my Slate to the Citi card and Citi gave me a prompt refund of the negative balance.

[cardtrick]

Remember that if you open a Citi card right now and try to do this, you might flag in their fraud detection system. You might have to spend a bit of time on the phone with them.

I've had their credit card for a couple of years, so I didn't have any issues. I don't recall exactly but I may have gotten a call from them asking me to verify that I indeed requested a refund of the negative balance because I did a $15,000 refund request. : )

You can request the refund online, BTW. No need to call them up.


I believe other credit card issuers do this too. Just google "______ credit card negative balance refund".

[cardtrick]

Or, eat the 2.9% fee and use paypal to send your partner the money? Every other credit card offer out there either charges a BT fee of at least 3%.

[disneysteve]

Before this year we always paid each month in full. Now we are carrying a balance of over 5,000 that we are really struggling to get down. We pay the minimum each month

1. What changed that caused you to rack up over 5K in CC debt?
2. Why are you only paying the minimum?

Before you worry about balance transfers, you need to answer these two questions. Otherwise you are just shuffling your debt around and not doing anything to address the underlying issue.

[Jerry91]

In my opinion, it will be a better option if you can call Chase and cancel the card and then take out a new card which will help you in balance transfer of all your previous cards. This time, you should make sure that you check all the terms and conditions and then apply for it.