Combining Credit Cards Tips
Author: Starwaves
Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 3:58 pm
Post subject: COMBINE FLEET & BOA
Ok,
Need some strategy advice here.
I have both Fleet & BoA cards. They've been good to me, raised my credit limits, lowered my interest rates, offered good BT'S, never had a problem of any kind, relationship about 5 years.
So now we know they have merged.
Up till now I've had separate cards but will be able to combine them as one or keep separate.
Here's the options they have given me:
1. I can combine the cards into a single one which will adopt the interest rate of the lower one, that would be the Fleet card at 8.9%.
2. They then will combine the available credit for the new card.
3. or I can keep two separate cards. [they are actually 2 BOA cards at this point]
My question is should I combine the cards or is there a advantage to keep them separate, there will be no credit inquiry. Also, there is no balance on the Fleet card, but there is on the BOA which is over-utilized a pinch, should I necessarily do a BT to level the balances? or leave it alone, for now I'm leaving it alone to make Fleet hungry.
Another goal is to lower the APR on the Fleet before I combine; so far even with a 0 balance they haven't, but continually offer me BT'S like 0%, 1.99%/year or 4.9% for life, etc, but I can't get them to drop my purchase apr, [though I haven't tried recently]
So I'm holding out, on the hope that I can shave off 1% from the APR, so that if I combine the cards, the new BOA combined card will be 7.9% + the combined credit limit, about 13K.
I can do this at anytime, today, tomorrow, a year.
If I combine, the balance to available credit will be under 30% for the new card, so that's a plus.
Right now I have the original BOA card, and a new reissued Fleet card, which looks exactly the same as the BOA card, so I really have 2 BOA cards, where one is still commandeered financially by Fleet.
Does combining wipe out the Fleet credit history?
Does anyone see an advantage somewhere in this that I may be missing?
Thanks for replying,
Starwaves
CardRatings.com is the most comprehensive source for comparing credit card offers. Please visit CardRatings.com to view the best rated credit cards!
Author: mouse
Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 7:00 pm
Post subject: Re: COMBINE FLEET & BOA
Starwaves wrote:
Ok,
Need some strategy advice here.
I have both Fleet & BoA cards. They've been good to me, raised my credit limits, lowered my interest rates, offered good BT'S, never had a problem of any kind, relationship about 5 years.
So now we know they have merged.
Up till now I've had separate cards but will be able to combine them as one or keep separate.
Here's the options they have given me:
1. I can combine the cards into a single one which will adopt the interest rate of the lower one, that would be the Fleet card at 8.9%.
2. They then will combine the available credit for the new card.
3. or I can keep two separate cards. [they are actually 2 BOA cards at this point]
My question is should I combine the cards or is there a advantage to keep them separate, there will be no credit inquiry. Also, there is no balance on the Fleet card, but there is on the BOA which is over-utilized a pinch, should I necessarily do a BT to level the balances? or leave it alone, for now I'm leaving it alone to make Fleet hungry.
Another goal is to lower the APR on the Fleet before I combine; so far even with a 0 balance they haven't, but continually offer me BT'S like 0%, 1.99%/year or 4.9% for life, etc, but I can't get them to drop my purchase apr, [though I haven't tried recently]
So I'm holding out, on the hope that I can shave off 1% from the APR, so that if I combine the cards, the new BOA combined card will be 7.9% + the combined credit limit, about 13K.
I can do this at anytime, today, tomorrow, a year.
If I combine, the balance to available credit will be under 30% for the new card, so that's a plus.
Right now I have the original BOA card, and a new reissued Fleet card, which looks exactly the same as the BOA card, so I really have 2 BOA cards, where one is still commandeered financially by Fleet.
Does combining wipe out the Fleet credit history?
Does anyone see an advantage somewhere in this that I may be missing?
Thanks for replying,
Starwaves
You HAVE the history...(you won't lose it)...but you will need to close one or the other and it will just be PAID/NEVER LATE BALANCE $0 "ACCOUNT CLOSED BY CONSUMER"
Still a positive account.
If you want to keep BOTH you can...
I have 3...going to make that two as soon as I can (MARCH/APRIL 2005)
I'M DUMPING FLEET/BofA (I'm pretty sure)
Author: Polonius
Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 8:42 pm
Post subject: Combining Credit Cards Tips
Well, there are pluses and minuses for the various approaches. There's no need to combine the two cards. With two separate cards, you can get different special offers which might be to your advantage. With two separate cards, you could use one for balance transfers only and the other for purchases only, and thus would be able to apply payments the way you want instead of having the bank apply your single payment in the way it wants--to pay off the lower interest category of your debt instead of the higher interest category. Maintaining both cards also preserves the length of your credit history and the average history length of the cards; if you obtained them at about the same time in your life, though, that's unimportant.
On the plus side, combining the cards increases your average credit limit per card and reduces your utilization per card. Reducing the number of open accounts also is a plus for your credit score, although likely just a small plus.
I'd say, bottom line--do the math and forget about the credit score effects. Go with the method that reduces your overall interest rate on any balance you have to carry.
_________________
Polonius
"Neither a borrower, nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend"
CardRatings.com is the most comprehensive source for comparing credit card offers. Please visit CardRatings.com to view the best rated credit cards!
Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 3:58 pm
Post subject: COMBINE FLEET & BOA
Ok,
Need some strategy advice here.
I have both Fleet & BoA cards. They've been good to me, raised my credit limits, lowered my interest rates, offered good BT'S, never had a problem of any kind, relationship about 5 years.
So now we know they have merged.
Up till now I've had separate cards but will be able to combine them as one or keep separate.
Here's the options they have given me:
1. I can combine the cards into a single one which will adopt the interest rate of the lower one, that would be the Fleet card at 8.9%.
2. They then will combine the available credit for the new card.
3. or I can keep two separate cards. [they are actually 2 BOA cards at this point]
My question is should I combine the cards or is there a advantage to keep them separate, there will be no credit inquiry. Also, there is no balance on the Fleet card, but there is on the BOA which is over-utilized a pinch, should I necessarily do a BT to level the balances? or leave it alone, for now I'm leaving it alone to make Fleet hungry.
Another goal is to lower the APR on the Fleet before I combine; so far even with a 0 balance they haven't, but continually offer me BT'S like 0%, 1.99%/year or 4.9% for life, etc, but I can't get them to drop my purchase apr, [though I haven't tried recently]
So I'm holding out, on the hope that I can shave off 1% from the APR, so that if I combine the cards, the new BOA combined card will be 7.9% + the combined credit limit, about 13K.
I can do this at anytime, today, tomorrow, a year.
If I combine, the balance to available credit will be under 30% for the new card, so that's a plus.
Right now I have the original BOA card, and a new reissued Fleet card, which looks exactly the same as the BOA card, so I really have 2 BOA cards, where one is still commandeered financially by Fleet.
Does combining wipe out the Fleet credit history?
Does anyone see an advantage somewhere in this that I may be missing?
Thanks for replying,
Starwaves
CardRatings.com is the most comprehensive source for comparing credit card offers. Please visit CardRatings.com to view the best rated credit cards!
Author: mouse
Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 7:00 pm
Post subject: Re: COMBINE FLEET & BOA
Starwaves wrote:
Ok,
Need some strategy advice here.
I have both Fleet & BoA cards. They've been good to me, raised my credit limits, lowered my interest rates, offered good BT'S, never had a problem of any kind, relationship about 5 years.
So now we know they have merged.
Up till now I've had separate cards but will be able to combine them as one or keep separate.
Here's the options they have given me:
1. I can combine the cards into a single one which will adopt the interest rate of the lower one, that would be the Fleet card at 8.9%.
2. They then will combine the available credit for the new card.
3. or I can keep two separate cards. [they are actually 2 BOA cards at this point]
My question is should I combine the cards or is there a advantage to keep them separate, there will be no credit inquiry. Also, there is no balance on the Fleet card, but there is on the BOA which is over-utilized a pinch, should I necessarily do a BT to level the balances? or leave it alone, for now I'm leaving it alone to make Fleet hungry.
Another goal is to lower the APR on the Fleet before I combine; so far even with a 0 balance they haven't, but continually offer me BT'S like 0%, 1.99%/year or 4.9% for life, etc, but I can't get them to drop my purchase apr, [though I haven't tried recently]
So I'm holding out, on the hope that I can shave off 1% from the APR, so that if I combine the cards, the new BOA combined card will be 7.9% + the combined credit limit, about 13K.
I can do this at anytime, today, tomorrow, a year.
If I combine, the balance to available credit will be under 30% for the new card, so that's a plus.
Right now I have the original BOA card, and a new reissued Fleet card, which looks exactly the same as the BOA card, so I really have 2 BOA cards, where one is still commandeered financially by Fleet.
Does combining wipe out the Fleet credit history?
Does anyone see an advantage somewhere in this that I may be missing?
Thanks for replying,
Starwaves
You HAVE the history...(you won't lose it)...but you will need to close one or the other and it will just be PAID/NEVER LATE BALANCE $0 "ACCOUNT CLOSED BY CONSUMER"
Still a positive account.
If you want to keep BOTH you can...
I have 3...going to make that two as soon as I can (MARCH/APRIL 2005)
I'M DUMPING FLEET/BofA (I'm pretty sure)
Author: Polonius
Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2005 8:42 pm
Post subject: Combining Credit Cards Tips
Well, there are pluses and minuses for the various approaches. There's no need to combine the two cards. With two separate cards, you can get different special offers which might be to your advantage. With two separate cards, you could use one for balance transfers only and the other for purchases only, and thus would be able to apply payments the way you want instead of having the bank apply your single payment in the way it wants--to pay off the lower interest category of your debt instead of the higher interest category. Maintaining both cards also preserves the length of your credit history and the average history length of the cards; if you obtained them at about the same time in your life, though, that's unimportant.
On the plus side, combining the cards increases your average credit limit per card and reduces your utilization per card. Reducing the number of open accounts also is a plus for your credit score, although likely just a small plus.
I'd say, bottom line--do the math and forget about the credit score effects. Go with the method that reduces your overall interest rate on any balance you have to carry.
_________________
Polonius
"Neither a borrower, nor a lender be; For loan oft loses both itself and friend"
CardRatings.com is the most comprehensive source for comparing credit card offers. Please visit CardRatings.com to view the best rated credit cards!
posted by CardRatings.com at 4:03 PM
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