Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Is it better credit wise to switch to zero interest cards and transfer debt or pay down ones you alr

Moving balances from one card to another can be damaging in several ways. You get charged every time you transfer a balance, and having too much available credit (from opening several new accounts to transfer to) in proportion to your income can also limit your ability to get a loan, such as a mortgage, down the road. It is also true that closing these credit cards every time you move a balance can damage your credit score. No real win-win situation with these cards unless you can transfer your balance once, and pay it off within the promotional period for the 0% rate.



The best scenario in my opinion is to compare different credit card options and offers out there. There are many different cards that, if you qualify, you can get a low promotional rate (around 4-5%) for the life of the balance transfer (you don%26#039;t have a high interest rate waiting for you at the end of 12 months). This way, you save a bundle on interest, and don%26#039;t have to continue moving your debt around to different cards. Lowering your rate this far will help considerably as a much larger portion of your payment will be applied to principal every month, but pay more than the minumum payment if possible. If you don%26#039;t qualify for an offer like this, using a 0% card can help, but avoid transferring from card to card multiple times.



Is it better credit wise to switch to zero interest cards and transfer debt or pay down ones you already have?

It is always better to switch to no interest cards to pay off your debt. Just make sure there is not a huge fee to do that, also find out how long the zero percent lasts and what the interest rate is after that.



It is also vitally important that you make all payments on time, or you default the no interest rate and it could be as high as 20%.



Is it better credit wise to switch to zero interest cards and transfer debt or pay down ones you already have?

First you should never close a credit card account, doing so hurts your credit score. You should pay down credit cards rather than constantly switching between cards. That being said, you want the best deal possible, so if you can transfer the balance between a high interest card to a low interest card, do it, but leave it there until you pay it off.

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