Credit Tips: Transferring to Lower APR Credit Card

Posted On: August 3, 2006

Author: bsperk
Posted: Thu Aug 03, 2006 4:29 pm
Post subject: Transferring one credtit card balance to new lower APR card

I have an MBNA Visa with a 30.49% APR. I am looking for a new card with a lower APR to transfer this balance to. (5500.00) I called MBNA and asked them to lower it, they declined my request. I have pretty crappy credit (score=650) and am working now to try to correct it. Any advice? I don’t want to have several applications out there not getting approved, that won’t help my credit score.

Author: maddybeagle
Posted: Thu Aug 03, 2006 5:00 pm
Post subject:

30.49% APR !!!

probably wont get any new cards approved…looks like you are in the default rate land….best to just pay the balance off…..work some overtime…sell some stuff on fleabay…

Author: usmsci
Posted: Thu Aug 03, 2006 7:22 pm
Post subject: Re: Transferring one credtit card balance to new lower APR c

bsperk wrote:
I have an MBNA Visa with a 30.49% APR. I am looking for a new card with a lower APR to transfer this balance to. (5500.00) I called MBNA and asked them to lower it, they declined my request. I have pretty crappy credit (score=650) and am working now to try to correct it. Any advice? I don’t want to have several applications out there not getting approved, that won’t help my credit score.

your credit score is not that bad actually. do you have any derogs? if you dont then i would apply for a chase card. most of them offer a 0% or low APR. if you have derogs and they are old then you will be ok too., i had 2 derogs ( 5 and 7 years old) on my credit report they pulled(EQ.) and i got approved for $4,000 for one card and $3,000 for the other.

Author: bsperk
Posted: Thu Aug 03, 2006 7:56 pm
Post subject: Transferring to Lower APR Credit Card

ummmm….what is a derog

Author: usmsci
Posted: Thu Aug 03, 2006 8:40 pm
Post subject: Transferring to Lower APR Credit Card

bsperk wrote:
ummmm….what is a derog

derogatory remark.. collections, judgements, bankruptcies, late payments(30 days +) etc etc

Author: hdporter
Posted: Thu Aug 03, 2006 11:35 pm
Post subject: Transferring to Lower APR Credit Card

650 is NOT a “crappy” credit score. It’s a little subpar at worst. If you can bump it up to about 680, you’ll be eligible for cards from the like of Citi with very good terms (that was my and my wife’s experience as we came up from <600 turf).

Keep your payments timely and push to pay down your debt and you should have no problem advancing the 30pt difference within a year’s timeframe. (We’ve generally advanced 40+ in any given year.)

In the meantime, watch you mail for a relatively decent offers (ideally “pre approved”/”pre qualified”) and test the waters with an application once every 3 months.