You can do it! I also have 16k in credit card debt but I already transferred them to cards that have 0% interest til April next year.
The 0% offers started to pour in once my credit score passed 700.
I hope your post will get others to transfer their balances too. In most cases it makes sense. It also requires belt tightening to make sure all is paid off by the time the offer expires.
16,000+480=16,480/18 months=$916.
You can do it!!! Come Sept 2016 and you didn't make it, please, transfer again or open a 0% credit card and put living expenses on it while throwing money you previously used towards living to the Visa. Seems like you have only 2 cards. It's ok to have 3 cards and done. More importantly, you are taking charge of your finances and keeping actively an eye on your money.

OP, are you a USAA member, by chance? Perhaps other banks also offer this, but I got a personal loan with USAA and transferred 9K from my 13.9% Chase credit card to the USAA loan instead. The loan APR is 9.9% and payments are automatically deducted $110 every two weeks, with payoff in four years (we'll be paying it off in two years, however). There was no transfer fee, which was a big selling point.

OP, I did this successfully during a period of high debt. I was always looking for new offers for balance transfers. It kept us afloat until we could pay our debt off and while the high debt level wasn't great for our credit score, the balance transfers didn't wreck it. (In fact, banks loved us because we had such a high balance but always paid on time.) You can do this if, as a pp said, you are disciplined and don't keep charging on your Amex and look out for the balance transfer charges! But going forward, your focus should be on paying this debt down!

Good luck!

When I did this, I just opened a new 0% card and they issued me transfer checks on that account.

I wrote the check out to my Amex, which paid the Amex and then I closed the account.

I didn't incur any transfer fees.

Anonymous wrote:PP here.

Where is the transfer fee coming from? I've never incurred a transfer fee?

Nearly all credit cards charge a balance transfer fee. Typically between 2% and 5%.

The ONLY one I've ever found that didn't do that was issued by the Pentagon Federal Credit Union.

PP here.

Where is the transfer fee coming from? I've never incurred a transfer fee?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you. I am spending the afternoon organizing my finances. I am looking at my checking account making sure I can have this paid off by the end of the 18 months. Trying to create a budget on the rest I have leftover.

I cannot thank you all enough for your input. I have never been budget savvy and have paid off high balances in the past, but I really need to turn over a new leaf.

I don't know if you paid the last one off with a balance transfer but I can speak from personal experience that you're going to get an interest only bill from AMEX. Interest is charged daily based on the balance. So if there are 30 days in the month and you pay $300/month interest, what you're really paying is $10/day. So if you pay off the balance at the end of a billing cycle, you'll get a bill for the full $300.

Yes I do understand that. For the current statement. I factored that into my decision. But thank you for explaining it so simply for me - it makes sense.

Another thing you could do is call Visa back up and have them change the balance transfer to add another couple hundred to it. You'll over-pay the card and when they charge the interest it will be paid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you. I am spending the afternoon organizing my finances. I am looking at my checking account making sure I can have this paid off by the end of the 18 months. Trying to create a budget on the rest I have leftover.

I cannot thank you all enough for your input. I have never been budget savvy and have paid off high balances in the past, but I really need to turn over a new leaf.

I don't know if you paid the last one off with a balance transfer but I can speak from personal experience that you're going to get an interest only bill from AMEX. Interest is charged daily based on the balance. So if there are 30 days in the month and you pay $300/month interest, what you're really paying is $10/day. So if you pay off the balance at the end of a billing cycle, you'll get a bill for the full $300.

Yes I do understand that. For the current statement. I factored that into my decision. But thank you for explaining it so simply for me - it makes sense.

Anonymous wrote:Thank you. I am spending the afternoon organizing my finances. I am looking at my checking account making sure I can have this paid off by the end of the 18 months. Trying to create a budget on the rest I have leftover.

I cannot thank you all enough for your input. I have never been budget savvy and have paid off high balances in the past, but I really need to turn over a new leaf.

I don't know if you paid the last one off with a balance transfer but I can speak from personal experience that you're going to get an interest only bill from AMEX. Interest is charged daily based on the balance. So if there are 30 days in the month and you pay $300/month interest, what you're really paying is $10/day. So if you pay off the balance at the end of a billing cycle, you'll get a bill for the full $300.

Thank you. I am spending the afternoon organizing my finances. I am looking at my checking account making sure I can have this paid off by the end of the 18 months. Trying to create a budget on the rest I have leftover.

I cannot thank you all enough for your input. I have never been budget savvy and have paid off high balances in the past, but I really need to turn over a new leaf.

Anonymous wrote:OP here - I got VISA down to 3%. I wish I had read before and asked for 2%.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. While 2% is better, 3% is fair (and normal), 4% is a bit of a rip-off.

Now you're only going to pay 480 bal transfer fee. So now your balance is $16,500 (rounding up for easy math).

Lets assume you make $600/month payments: 600*18 = $10,800
16500-10800=5700 left when it expires.

If you want to pay it off at expiration: $16,500/18=$917/month or roughly 50% more.

If you can swing 917/month, without question that is the way to go.

If you cannot afford 917 then you can do another balance transfer in 18 months.

Anonymous wrote:OP, do you already have this card open with a $17,000 credit limit?

If you do, great. If you don't and you have to apply, a couple of things could happen:

1) You get a card, but not with a high enough credit limit. Only half gets transferred and then you have debt on two cards. It would still save you money in the long run, but you have to manage payments on both cards.

2) You apply and they actually switch the terms on you.

Yes both cards have high limits (20 and 25K). And my VISA balance is at $0. I only use it when places don't accept AMEX.

OP here - I got VISA down to 3%. I wish I had read before and asked for 2%.

OP, do you already have this card open with a $17,000 credit limit?

If you do, great. If you don't and you have to apply, a couple of things could happen:

1) You get a card, but not with a high enough credit limit. Only half gets transferred and then you have debt on two cards. It would still save you money in the long run, but you have to manage payments on both cards.

2) You apply and they actually switch the terms on you.