Quote:
|
Originally Posted by flash
There are two different approaches to this.
If you consolidate/transfer existing debts to one card, but don't generate additional debt, it does not impact your credit. Most banks who offer this incentive provide a "no fee for transfer" to get your money into their system, and they pay off your other cards, so it's okay. They WILL NOT allow you to transfer the debt a second time, and interest DOES still usually accrue, it is just not applied if you pay off the balance before the 0% interest period. Most banks will NOT allow you to open more than one or two accounts in a six month period, also, so you are not able to keep card hopping.
It is a LARGE RISK to borrow against ANYTHING to achieve a higher rate of return. I've journaled about my brother doing this, refinancing against his home equity to put the money into high risk high yield accounts and HE LOST EVERYTHING.
For cc's, the credit bureaus will look at how many lines of credit you have open, and how much of your open credit is used. There is a trade off, lines of credit are GOOD things, but old unused accounts, juggling balances between accounts, etc. are BAD things for your ratings. Anything that flags a RISK to your credit lowers your credit scores.
|
What are you talking about? We're not discussing transfering existing debt around here(and btw, transfering existing debt can affect your credit score temporarily if you don't time the transfer properly. You can appear to have twice your actual transfered debt if you aren't mindful of the reporting dates for both your cards involved in the transaction). Plus there's nothing keeping your balance hostage once it's been transfered to a new issuer. You can transfer it to a new offer at a different issuer at any time. Also the nonsense about interest accuring and due at the expiration of the intro period applies to certain consumer credit card deals on purchases, not balance transfers from prime credit card issuers.
No matter how many times you use ALLCAPS, borrowing from 0% and low interest credit card offers to invest in FDIC insured accounts is one of the lowest risk things you can do with credit, as long as you are disciplined and well versed in credit matters. If for some reason your credit card issuer decides to ratejack you, you simply cash out your deposit accounts and pay off your credit accounts. No harm, no foul.