A simple question of Credit

Unknown

The Deets

- I have excellent Credit Rating (over 730)
- I have had my current (it is also my first and only*) Credit Card since 2003
- I have a balance that is < $900
- I have just been approved for a new card which I specifically applied for. It has better APR and rewards. It also has no balance transfer fee and a low balance APR (but this doesn't really matter, see below).
- Thanks to my wonderful Tax Refund, I can easily pay off my current balance.
- I plan on letting my old card fall by the wayside (but not outright cancel) once it is paid off.

The Question

Should I:

a. Pay off the current card. Use the new card.

or

b. Transfer the balance to the new card, immediately pay off the balance (transferring the balance will trigger reward points).


My main question outside of this is, does transferring a balance effect your credit score at all? If it does, A is really the only option, but otherwise I can't think of any real downsides of B considering I have the money on hand to pay off the balance before having to worry about the APR or other fees.

Liquid Hellz

Why bother with transferring it if your just going to pay it off right away? The card you are transferring on to isn't going to thank you for transferring and paying it off right away. Also, you should read the fine print. They almost always charge you a few bucks(4-5$) to transfer a balance, then some companies will also charge an extra % per 100$.

Just go option A.

tsmvengy

If there are no fees involved in teh balance transfer, do that to get the points and then immediately pay it off. Interest on balance transfers starts immediately unlike purchases.

Don't worry about how a balance transfer will affect your score, it will be minimal if at all.

Dog

I'll double check the fine print to see if there is any transfer fees (I didn't see any), but I'm getting awarded points for transfering the balance so I don't see a reason not to. Was just worried about the credit score :P