Credit Card Balance Transfer Fun
Signed up for my Citibank Simplicity card about a month ago because they were running a 0% BT offer with no fees. Finally got it today. Called the number to activate it and was able to merge my Citibank Platinum Select which I've had for about 10 years with the new card. The CS rep told me that the new Simplicity card would have the full credit history of my Platinum Select, and a combined limit of $20,300.
I then decided to try the trick of getting a 0% BT and putting the money in ING or something similar to get the interest. I didn't want to have a card with 100% utilization, so I went for a $15k BT which puts me at just under 75% utilization for that card, and 30% utilization of my total credit card limits. My minimum payment should be 1.5% of the outstanding balance, or about $225 a month. I'm hoping for interest in the neighborhood of $50/month.
I'm still a little nervous doing this because all the posts I've read on it are by people who use automatic billpay to make sure they don't miss payments. Well, I've never used billpay because I'm a little too anal to let a payment come out of my account without personally clicking the send button. I think this is a little childish on my part. I hope to get more comfortable with billpay and the different ways to use it in the near future.
I then decided to try the trick of getting a 0% BT and putting the money in ING or something similar to get the interest. I didn't want to have a card with 100% utilization, so I went for a $15k BT which puts me at just under 75% utilization for that card, and 30% utilization of my total credit card limits. My minimum payment should be 1.5% of the outstanding balance, or about $225 a month. I'm hoping for interest in the neighborhood of $50/month.
I'm still a little nervous doing this because all the posts I've read on it are by people who use automatic billpay to make sure they don't miss payments. Well, I've never used billpay because I'm a little too anal to let a payment come out of my account without personally clicking the send button. I think this is a little childish on my part. I hope to get more comfortable with billpay and the different ways to use it in the near future.
posted by NinjaPigeon at
11:51 PM
1 Comments:
In this case, if you miss a payment, it's not that big of a deal. Yes, the interest rate will skyrocket, but since you have the money saved, you'll be able to pay off the entire balance at once and then wait for the next 0% deal to come along. If you're worried about missing a payment, put a reminder in Outlook or some other calendar program.
By
Shaun, at 4/19/2006 11:21 AM
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