I am new to balance transfers score 780 debt 14k

[chickwithdebt578]

Hello,

long time credit rebuilder. My situation: 8 cards, all below low balances with 4 at 40% utilization. I am paying them down this month to 29%. I havent applied for credit in years but my scores are 780 average. I would like to transfer balances onto a new card with lower or zero interest for a period and close the crummy cards. I know this will bump my score a bit, but i am only looking to hold better cards. Any advice on card choice or route? I dont really want to pull a loan or equity to pay the debt which totals 14k

[Konrad2012]

Don't close anything unless it has exorbitant fees until the debt is paid down. 

[chickwithdebt578]

I plan to close a capital one card and possibly target for annual fee and interest rate

[cv91915]

32 minutes ago, chickwithdebt578 said:

I plan to close a capital one card and possibly target for annual fee and interest rate

Call Capital One and ask to do a product change to a no-AF card.  

 

Don't carry a balance on the Target card and the APR doesn't matter (I have 25 cards and I couldn't tell you the APR on any of them).

 

Problems solved without closing accounts.

[Big Bear]

14k isn't insurmountable.  What BT cards are you looking at?  What kind of terms do you need?  Long term, most BT cards are worthless for rewards, but you can always target something that works now that can be PC'd to a rewards card once you have the balances down to a PIF strategy.

 

PC the cards with AF's but keep them open to continue to thicken your profile. 

[Konrad2012]

10 hours ago, cv91915 said:

Call Capital One and ask to do a product change to a no-AF card.  

 

Don't carry a balance on the Target card and the APR doesn't matter (I have 25 cards and I couldn't tell you the APR on any of them).

 

Problems solved without closing accounts.

Exactly.  Once the balances have been transferred to a lower rate, the APR is no longer relevant.  Until the debt is paid off, closing cards will raise your utilization percentage and depress your scores. 

 

CapOne has no AF cards to product change to.  Target CC doesn't even have an annual fee.