Ask the Expert: Should I Move My Car loan Debt to a Charge card? – Credit Sesame

Temperatures are rising, beach holidays are being planned, and also the urge to decrease the very best on your car has me overwhelmed. But wait-you don't own a convertible. That's the bad news. What's promising? We're about to go into the beginning of car buying season and a ragtop could allow it to be on your listing of options.

If you have great credit, you'll easily find a car loan within the sub-five percent range. Some captive auto lenders are going as little as 0% on select models and makes. If you can't get 0% from the captive auto lender, then you have another option for free auto loan money: your charge card.

That's right. Some credit card issuers permit you to transfer the balance due in your car loan to your credit card. And, if you have good enough credit, then you could take advantage of the best deal choosing credit cards right now: free money in the type of a 0% introductory rate of interest. Still, is transferring auto loan debt to some charge card advisable or not?

Installment to Revolving

If you've done your research regarding credit ratings, you already know installment debt is a smaller amount predictive of elevated credit risk than revolving debt. Translation? Installment debts are less problematic for the credit scores than credit card. When you move a balance from your auto loan to some charge card you have immediately converted almost benign installment debt to potentially damaging credit card.

Further, if you have added a large amount of auto loan debt to some credit card, then you may be left with a heavily leveraged credit card. Remember, one of the most key elements inside your credit scores is the relationship between your credit card balances and your credit card limits. Should you add $10,000 of car loan debt to some credit card with a $10,000 credit limit then you definitely now have a 100% “utilized” charge card in your credit history card as well as your scores are sure to have a hit consequently.

Unnecessary Risk

Zero percent interest credit cards are wonderful, however the no-interest period is restricted to usually a maximum of 1 . 5 years, and that's on the liberal end. Many no-interest periods expire after only a few months. There are paid off the card when the no-interest period expires then you will have to start paying interest around the debt. And, the average interest rate on the charge card is around 15%. Actually, you will probably be paying significantly more interest in your auto loan debt than if this was actually car loan debt instead of credit debt.

You can also be asked to pay a balance transfer fee. Balance transfer fees are normally around 3%, but could vary from card issuer to card issuer. If you are considering moving your car loan debt to a credit card you ought to be aware of the price to move your debt relative to your savings if the tradeoff is still in your favor. This is especially true in case your loan is close to being repaid and also the amount of interest still due is minimal.

Still, an argument can be made that by moving your car loan debt to some credit card you all but get rid of the possibility that your car is going to be repossessed if you fall on crisis. That seems like a potentially expensive quasi-insurance policy against repossession. Plus, in case your credit reports are already showing evidence of hard times, then it's unlikely you'll be eligible for a a no-interest credit card as the issuers of these cards demand pristine credit scores.

Got an issue for our credit and loan experts? Ask us on Facebook!