Tranferring balances on CC's

[BurntOrangeOrder]

So, does this hurt your credit or not. Not that my score is stellar but I'd prefer not damaging it further. Is it worth it?

 

[mishatx]

does not hurt your credit, unless maybe you're doing it to xfer balances every month so you don't need to make payments.

 

[oak forest horn]

It does not hurt your credit score unless your transferring to a card that has a lower limit. Example you are transfering $1000 from a card with a $10000 limit to a card with only $2000 limit. It is better to transfer to higher limit cards and kill the low limit cards first. It does not make any good reason as total debt to credit stays the same, but this is what was explained to me when I was getting a mortgage.

 

[slevhtown]

As a loan officer I deal with credit every day. You want to keep the balance on all your cards under 50%. So if you have a 4 credit cards with $1000 dollar limits on each and a total balance of $2000, you would want to put 500 on each card. If you would like, I have a power point presentation I show to clients about credit with a part on CC balances I can send you. Or I can send you my notes I kept to make the presentation.

 

[Horn Chick]

Does it really matter how long you have a credit card? I cancelled one the other day and one way they tried to keep me was by telling me that I've been with them for a while so I should want to stay with them? I closed that card because I don't need it and my other card has a much better rate.

 

[slevhtown]

It definitely matters. Never closed an unused account. It will adversely affect your credit in 2 different ways. The first is that it will raise your overall balance ratio and it will also shorten your average length of time on accounts. If you have a long credit history that is a good thing. Just keep the card and don't use it if.

If you have good credit otherwise, this really wont hurt your score, but if you have some high balances on other cards that is when it would become a problem.