To transfer or not to transfer? Will a credit card balance transfer help or hurt my credit?

So.... My bank just offered me a sweet balance transfer deal for 1.99% until November of %26#039;08. My credit is pretty decent, I try and keep all of my cards under 30% of my limit.

If I decide to transfer my balances, I would leave a small balance on each card to continue building credit, maybe 5% of the credit limit on each card. The only drawback is that my card that I%26#039;m transfering these balances to would then be at 60% of it%26#039;s limit.

The question of the day, is eliminating debt on my other cards by sacraficing the balance on one going to help or hurt my credit? Keeping in mind I%26#039;ll leave a super small balance on each of my other cards to continue building credit?

Thanks in advance!!!!

To transfer or not to transfer? Will a credit card balance transfer help or hurt my credit?

First and most important; It a financial myth to keep a credit card balance . Keeping a credit card balance will NOT raise your credit score. See the yahoo link i have attached. Halfway through the Q %26amp; A will explain it in detail.

The best way to build credit is to pay your bills, and all of your bills, on time.

Also, to answer your question. It depends. A credit card balance transfer will not hurt your credit if these conditions are met.

1) The amount you owe is a small percentage of the total amount of credit available.

2) You will be able to make timely payments on both credit cards (the one you transfered from, and the one you transfered to)

3) You don%26#039;t plan to cancel the old credit card (the one that you made the transfer from)

Actually, you can learn a lot of about credit from the yahoo business link.

To transfer or not to transfer? Will a credit card balance transfer help or hurt my credit?

My own inclination would be to do the transfaer (to save interest) then cancel most of the other cards and keep only one other (one that gives some sort of cash back eg AmEx blue).

This reduces temptation (just WHY are you paying ANY Credit Card interest ???.= it%26#039;s money down the drain ... STOP SPENDING money you havn%26#039;t got) . Use the %26#039;cash-back%26#039; card most of the time and set up a Direct Debit to pay it off every month... whilst also paying down the Bank Card, ideally to zero by Nov. 08

NB. be aware that, should you get into difficulties, your Bank can take funds out of your current account to pay off your Bank Credit card - you authorise this when you sign the Banks Card terms %26amp; conditions ....

To transfer or not to transfer? Will a credit card balance transfer help or hurt my credit?

I read on Washington Mutual Credit site that I have my Visa with that transfering debt lowers your fico score. The credit card companies would rather have you pay down the debt, so your ratio of available credit is better rather than just moving debt around.

To transfer or not to transfer? Will a credit card balance transfer help or hurt my credit?

I would agree with irsx02 in that one factor is the average percentage of available credit used (debt to available credit ratio). Cancelling credit cards when you have debt can decrease your available credit (and your score). Carrying a small balance on your cards costs you more, and does no more good, than small new monthly charges that you pay off each month before interest applies.

Teaser rates can be deceiving. 3% up front balance transfer fee and 1.99% for 6 months costs more than paying down an existing balance at 10% APR in 6 months. But their hope is that you will delay paying off the teaser before it expires and end up paying more interest later.