AscorbylPalmitate

What are the terms for applying to Slate for a 2nd time? I read somewhere it was 2 years from the date of the 1st application and 6 months from the date of 1st cancellation, but I just want to verify this.

kevinwangjk

I have never done a balance transfer, and I have searched around but did not find all the answers I need so I'm asking for some help here.

Basically I'm thinking about getting the Chase Slate card and taking advantage of the 0% balance transfer APR and fee. The reason is that I recently needed to send my dad 25k cash, and I only had about 11k cash and the rest of my asset were all in the stock market, which is a lot more than enough but I don't want to sell yet. So I withdrew 14k from my Fidelity account on margin, which has about 8% APR, and plan on paying it back or selling some stocks within the next couple months.

I then found out that I can take advantage of what the Slate card can offer and pay nothing to borrow that money, so I'm trying to figure out how I should do it.

From what I've found online, apparently they don't give you checks to use, so I cannot just write a check for 15k to myself. I don't believe you can do a balance transfer from Fidelity account (correct me if I'm wrong). So looks like my only option is to do a balance transfer to one of my existing credit cards to result in a negative balance and request a check?

What I'm worried about is whether any credit card company would allow me to do this. I have Amex PRG and SPG card, and also Citi AA Plat and AA Executive. Does anyone know if I can do this with any of these cards? If so, does it matter that my CL is a little less than 15k on these cards? I have never carried a balance on any cards.

Any advice on what I should do and any other options for me are all greatly appreciated!

Edit: I understand that I will need to make minimum payment on the Slate card if I choose to do a 15k balance transfer. Does it hurt my credit if I only make the minimum payment? Any idea about how much the minimum payment would be for a 15k BT?

mia

Question transferred to Chase forum because it pertains to the Balance Transfer options available with a Chase Slate card.

kevinwangjk

Thanks for transferring. I thought this was more a general question about balance transfer, not unique to the Slate card.

VegasGambler

Making only the min payment doesn't directly hurt your credit score, but having $15k of utilization will obviously raise your utilization percentage, which will hurt your score a bit. I wouldn't worry too much about it -- it will quickly correct itself after you pay it off.

The min payments vary from card to card. I've never had the Slate, but for other Chase cards I've had, the min has been 1% of the balance due (rounded to the nearest dollar) or $25, whichever is greater. So if the Slate is the same you can expect an initial min payment of $150, with it dropping by a dollar or two every month.

kevinwangjk

Thanks! Yeah I didn't think about the utilization rate. Just checked Credit Karma that I have 107k credit limit with utilization 2-3%, so I guess carrying a 15k balance for a few months shouldn't hurt me that much?

What about transferring balance to my other cards to result in a negative balance and request a check? Do you know if this works? And which credit card issuer is easier to work with about this?

VegasGambler

I've never done this but this thread on fatwallet makes it sound like citi is a good choice.

kevinwangjk

Thanks for pointing me to that thread! I've applied to the Slate card and got approved. Now just arriving for it to arrives before making a balance transfer to my Citi AA card.

wickedtao

from that fallwallet link,

"transferred a balance from my Citi card which didn't have a balance creating a credit on the Citi card, then I used the online Request a Credit Refund feature on Citi's website to get the negative balance out"


So then Citi sent her the credit refund in cash (EFT payment or check)balance?

So essentially you could do a 10k balance transfer from a card that had no balance, get a negative 10k balance and then have them send you a check for 10k? And no interest for 15 months?

VegasGambler

That is what the OP is trying to do...

The problem is that with interest rates as low as they are now, this is basically worthless unless you have outstanding debt at a high interest rate. It's not like the good old days when you could put it into a savings account for a free 5% / year

If you get a card with a $15k limit, max it out and put it in a CD or savings accout at 1% APY, that's less than $200 over the 15 months. So what? You can get sign-up bonuses worth well over $500 with miles cards.

kevinwangjk

Yes, but if you read my post carefully, I currently have 15k margin debt on my Fidelity account with over 8% interest rate. I can sell my stocks but I'd rather not to right now. That's why I'm trying to do this.

VegasGambler

Oh, yes, I understand that it's a good idea for you. I was just pointing out that it's not really a great deal if you have no debt.

I used to take advantage of these all the time in the mid-2000's when you could open savings accounts at 5%. Back then there were lots of cards with no transfer fee, as well. Now the only one that I know of that doesn't charge the 3% fee is the Slate.

yOyOYoo

Ahh... the good ole days of BT!

OP, hope everything works out for your father. Your plan sounds like a reasonable way to get access to cash without paying any fees.

nanirina

I have done this on my citicard. They will wire you electronically if the negative balance is a certian number (i think 5k?). Amex will also do the same if it's over a certain balance. I forgot the exact amt. You can confirm via instant msg/emails with the issuer.

columbiazulu

i did this slate bt last year; if i wasn't mistaken, they had an option to send it to your checking account / check to yourself as well. it was an option online while doing the bt, where they say if you don't need to send it to a credit card then said a check to yourself.