# Do Balance Transfers Hurt One's Credit Rating? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 18, 2014, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-balance-transfers-hurt-ones-credit-rating/684025 "2014-03-18T21:30:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2014, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-balance-transfers-hurt-ones-credit-rating/684025/1 "2014-03-18T21:30:43Z")
Per [myfico.com](http://myfico.com), a FICO score is based on the following 35% Payment History 30% Account Balances/Available Credit 15% Length of Credit History 10% New Credit/Credit Inquiries 10% Types of Credit You Have As such, I cannot see where balance transfers directly affect a FICO score. Sure, if you have to open a new account to do it, you’re going to take a hit under “New Credit/Credit Inquiries” as well as “Length of Credit History,” and the transaction fee with hurt your Balance/Limit ratio a little bit, but if one transfers a balance between two extant credit cards, I can’t see how that could affect the score, especially if one makes a payment to offset the transfer fee. Is that the Straight Dope, or is there something I am not seeing? ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-balance-transfers-hurt-ones-credit-rating/684025/2 "2014-03-19T01:45:21Z")
It will take a temporary hit from the new account opening, but your line of thinking is generally right As long as the account with the original balance is kept open, then the overall credit utilization should decrease, being a positive factor. There may be credit consequences other than score, at least on manual review and accounts that highly value the age of accounts and ding for things like “new accounts with high balances.” ---
**Author:** ![busterpickle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@busterpickle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/busterpickle)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-balance-transfers-hurt-ones-credit-rating/684025/3 "2014-03-19T17:30:42Z")
So, to make sure I understand you, you are paying off Credit Card A via a transfer of the accrued charges to Credit Card B. Like, those offers where a company offers to transfer over for a lower APR. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-balance-transfers-hurt-ones-credit-rating/684025/4 "2014-03-20T19:11:27Z")
> [@electronbee](#): > > So, to make sure I understand you, you are paying off Credit Card A via a transfer of the accrued charges to Credit Card B. Like, those offers where a company offers to transfer over for a lower APR. More or less. I have several cards right now, only one with a balance, and that balance is interest-free for the rest of the year. My plan is to transfer the balance to another of my cards when that period is close to expiring, thus avoiding any interest for 18 months and only paying a 2% transfer fee. I don’t see any negative ramifications to this, aside from still having debt (payoff is the first option, of course). I’m just wondering if I’d missed anything. ---
**Author:** ![jacobsta811](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jacobsta811/32/2893_2.png) [@jacobsta811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacobsta811)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-balance-transfers-hurt-ones-credit-rating/684025/5 "2014-03-20T20:07:20Z")
In the medium-long term, it should have almost no effect outside of the small penalty for the inquiry/reduction in overall account age. In the short term, if the balance is large vs your total overall credit limits, it could temporarily drop your credit score a great deal as it could report under both the new account and the old one and hit “30% Account Balances/Available Credit” hard - for a period of no more than a few weeks. Which is to say, Account balances are reported mostly once a month, often at statement close, not on demand/daily, and thus often report balances already paid off. So if the old credit reports right before balance transfer and new credit reports right after, you could have as long as a month with both reporting. ---
**Author:** ![Carryon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc29f/32.png) [@Carryon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carryon)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-balance-transfers-hurt-ones-credit-rating/684025/6 "2014-03-21T12:50:30Z")
Make sure your credit is sound though. I’ve known a few people after they transfer the balance, the card you transferred it from will close your account. In two cases it was Bank of America that closed the transferred from accounts, one case was Chase and one Citibank. It might not hurt you but it’s something to think about. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-balance-transfers-hurt-ones-credit-rating/684025/7 "2014-03-21T13:43:43Z")
> [@jacobsta811](#): > > In the medium-long term, it should have almost no effect outside of the small penalty for the inquiry/reduction in overall account age. In the short term, if the balance is large vs your total overall credit limits, it could temporarily drop your credit score a great deal as it could report under both the new account and the old one and hit “30% Account Balances/Available Credit” hard - for a period of no more than a few weeks. Which is to say, Account balances are reported mostly once a month, often at statement close, not on demand/daily, and thus often report balances already paid off. So if the old credit reports right before balance transfer and new credit reports right after, you could have as long as a month with both reporting. That’s a REAL good point. I’ll make sure to time it so I won’t have any necessary credit inquiries for at least three months to give everyone a chance to report. Thanks! And since I’ll be using extant accounts, I won’t get the account age and credit inquiry penalties.