You probably never thought that transferring credit card balances from one credit card to another credit card would affect your credit score. It may sound like a good idea to transfer high credit card balances to lower interest rate credit cards banks. In some cases this is a good idea, but it really depends on some circumstances. When your credit score is determined, one of the factors in the credit scoring process is the amount of debt owed. This accounts for 30% of your credit score. I am going to discuss two scenarios, one that will not affect your credit score and one scenario that will.
Scenario One
Let’s assume you have a credit card with a balance of $6,000 on it. The interest rate on this card is killing you and you have found a better deal to pay off the card quicker. The new card has approved you for $7500 credit limit and 0% interest on balance transfers for 18 months. This sounds like a good idea. So you transfer the balance to the new card for the low interest rate.
Here is the problem:
When you owe more than 30% of the allowed credit limit on a credit card, this will drop your credit score. With this scenario you have almost used up all the credit they gave you. This is not wise at all. The balance you owe compared to the approved credit limit it way too high. You have 80% of the card limit already used up. This will affect your credit core
Scenario Two
Let’s assume you have a credit card with a balance of $6000 on it. Plus you just got approved for a credit card with a credit limit of $25,000. They are offering the same deal on transfers as above, but they gave you a higher credit limit. This is the ideal situation and will not affect your credit score. The reason is the balance owed compared to credit limit is around 24%. This is considered low risk to most credit scoring risk models.
This principal can be applied to all credit card balances. You should not have your credit card balances charged up more than 30% of the allowed credit limit.
CreditScoreQuick.com
