All:

I had a bad history back in 2003, when I was in college and had to charge a full year of tuition and other stuff on my credit card... I was able to get a 2% transfer for the life... I want to try and cut that in half and go with like a 0% for 18 months to pay it off... ~13k

A few questions I have... If I do say 12 months 0% apr with a BT and pay it off and then cancel the card does that effect my credit score ?

Whats the best way to handle this ?

My credit score is about 760 and I dont want to effect it.

Thanks guys

You will lose a few points (5-10) for the hard pull on a new account. After a year, you'll get them back; after two years, it'll fall off your CR.

Generically, if you BT with no new spend, your total debt is the same. The number of accounts with balances should stay the same, but for the first month or so until the BT happens there may be some overlap.

If the old and new accounts are both open, your total credit available will go up. This may reduce your utilization and may add a few points. If your current is 13K/13K and the new is 13k/26k You've cut your utilization from over 90% to 50%. 50% is not great, but far better than 90%. As you pay down, you'll hit 30%, then 9%, then 1%, all of which may bump your score.

The account closed after 12 months will stay on your report presumed with no negatives.

Not in your score: showing a $13K max balance paid off via the BT, may in the long run, make it appear to a credit analyst program that you can handle high balances. This is usually a plus and may effect future credit lines. A human looking at your CR might see the BT, but eventually the details may fall off so it looks like you handled a couple of high balances - the 1st account with the 13K and the account you BT'd to and paid off later.

Putting the old card in the sock drawer, if you can, may be a better option than cutting up the card or closing the account.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/ gets more into this than FT. Since you are posting on FT, the questions are are usually:
and so forth.

reft:

Appreciate the detailed response.... You are right... I could put it in my sock drawer... I am honestly just trying to pay this off and not get hit with the apr fees if that makes sense....

I bought a new car recently and the only reason was it was 0% APR and the used one I looked at the best I could get was 2.9% the difference in payment was 26 bucks a month, and I can easily justify to myself why I should get a 2013 instead of a 2012.

I am just trying to erase bad debt so in a few year I can rent my townhouse and buy a house and have that money as a downpayment..

Hopefully that makes sense... if I do do a BT of say half of the 13k, what are good options to go with ?

If you financed the car, this is an installment loan, which contributes to mix of credit types in a good way.

"bad debt" is you missed a payment, worse: didn't pay. If you are carrying balances, it's simple debt.

Understand you may pay a BT fee, which could be 3-5%. Sometimes the opening bonus on a BT card is they waive the BT fee.

If you just want to reach debt $0, then you want a CC that offers a BT on opening, minimal BT fees, or a BT fee that is offset by the card opening bonus, has no annual fee, and a 0% APR intro rate for the time you need to pay off the BT. It needs to be from a different bank than the card you have now.

Maybe a Chase Slate? See http://www.balancetransfers.com/ and http://moneyning.com/review/zero-bal...-credit-cards/ The latter has more information on evaluating a BT offer.

760 is a decent score. 720 will get you least interest for a auto loan and 760 for a mortgage. A higher score allows you to handle fluctuations better, but does not get you a better interest rate.

2% for life is small enough (~ $260 a year if debt is 13k). Getting 0% is great but then it is restricted and usually involves transfer fees that may not make this that attractive.

Personally I would keep the 2% and pay it off as fast as possible knowing that if anything would happen, and life happens, I would not be restricted by an expiring APR. In addition, the interest amount, not the percentage, diminishes as you pay it off fast. If you know for sure that you can make it, then go for the 0% and save those $260ish

Lately I have seen offers of 2.99% but they involve a 3% transfer fee or as low as 1.99% w/o. But those rest in 12 months to a whopping 11.9%.

If you decide to keep the 2% card and pay fast then get a couple of the credit cards (Chase CSP and say AA platinum select). Your available credit will be bigger and debt to income much smaller. And then as you pay off the 13k you will see that your debt ratio gets even lower. This can send your Fico to 790+.