Does anyone know how long it typically takes for a balance transfer to process? Because I am getting extremely angry with Soveriegn Bank World Points Card.
I had two big financial goals this year.
Goal #1
Save up $6K in cash. Done.
By May (when my tax refund comes in) I will be slightly over this so far for 2010. So raising goal to $10K cash by end of year. Ebay has been extremely good to me.
Goal#2
Reduce all unsecured debt by 50%. Well on my way.
One of the big things I did was take a BAD BoA line of credit (not a card, but a line of credit) with 22.99% interest and transfer it to a Discover personal loan with 10.99% interest. This balance transfer took 3 days to process. I've found Discover to be a great company to deal with. The other thing I wanted to do was pay off my last remaining credit card (old Target Bank with a bad interest rate). I didn't combine it into the Discover personal loan.
So I got an offer from Sovereign Bank for a World Points card with 0% interest for 6 months. I could do one of two things: 1. Withdraw part of the $6K I've saved and pay off the Target card in full now OR 2. transfer it to this card, and pay it off in full at 0% over the next 4 months or so while not touching the $6K AND still continuing to sock money away.
I chose option 2. I was told 37 days ago by a woman over the phone that I was approved for a limit that would easily accommodate my balance transfer AND the balance transfer would only take up 5% of the limit. I gave her the Target Bank info and she told me it would be done within 30 days. (The Discover people also told me 30 days but did theirs in 3 days )
12 days ago I got a call from a man telling me he was reviewing my application. Um? I was approved. My credit score is like 790. What is the issue? He tells me the issue is they see I have an unused line of credit with BoA just sitting there not being used and therefore can not approve me. WHAT? Why was I lied to by the first rep? He then tells me they can "fix it" by closing the BoA line (which they apparently also maintain which I did not know when I applied). I say no to this and find myself explaining the effects of closing old, good standing accounts and utilization to this credit person from Sovereign.
Finally, after over an hour of arguing, I agree to have him simply LOWER the BoA line (which I don't even have access to! it's not a credit card!) by the amount of the new card. He tells me he will RUSH the balance transfer info along.
Now it is 12 days later (37 days from when this started) and still no balance transfer. I called the bank. The rep I spoke with has "no way to check on the status". WHAT!? I called Target. They have no record of a transfer request from Sovereign. No paperwork. Nothing.
At this point would you just withdraw a portion of your savings and pay off the high interest rate card in full or just pay the minimum and give Sovereign another few weeks to get their act together? I've never paid "just the minimum" before and I feel weird doing that
Keep in mind, this was something I was doing because paying something off at 0% over a few months vs. withdrawing interest earning savings seemed to make more financial sense. I am not hurting for money and my total debt (including car payments) is less than 20% of my income. I just hate to take out savings to pay off a stupid old cc balance rather than transfer it to a 0%.
Is it just "normal" for balance transfers to take this long? Was I just spoiled by how quickly Discover worked?
I had two big financial goals this year.
Goal #1
Save up $6K in cash. Done.
By May (when my tax refund comes in) I will be slightly over this so far for 2010. So raising goal to $10K cash by end of year. Ebay has been extremely good to me.
Goal#2
Reduce all unsecured debt by 50%. Well on my way.
One of the big things I did was take a BAD BoA line of credit (not a card, but a line of credit) with 22.99% interest and transfer it to a Discover personal loan with 10.99% interest. This balance transfer took 3 days to process. I've found Discover to be a great company to deal with. The other thing I wanted to do was pay off my last remaining credit card (old Target Bank with a bad interest rate). I didn't combine it into the Discover personal loan.
So I got an offer from Sovereign Bank for a World Points card with 0% interest for 6 months. I could do one of two things: 1. Withdraw part of the $6K I've saved and pay off the Target card in full now OR 2. transfer it to this card, and pay it off in full at 0% over the next 4 months or so while not touching the $6K AND still continuing to sock money away.
I chose option 2. I was told 37 days ago by a woman over the phone that I was approved for a limit that would easily accommodate my balance transfer AND the balance transfer would only take up 5% of the limit. I gave her the Target Bank info and she told me it would be done within 30 days. (The Discover people also told me 30 days but did theirs in 3 days )
12 days ago I got a call from a man telling me he was reviewing my application. Um? I was approved. My credit score is like 790. What is the issue? He tells me the issue is they see I have an unused line of credit with BoA just sitting there not being used and therefore can not approve me. WHAT? Why was I lied to by the first rep? He then tells me they can "fix it" by closing the BoA line (which they apparently also maintain which I did not know when I applied). I say no to this and find myself explaining the effects of closing old, good standing accounts and utilization to this credit person from Sovereign.
Finally, after over an hour of arguing, I agree to have him simply LOWER the BoA line (which I don't even have access to! it's not a credit card!) by the amount of the new card. He tells me he will RUSH the balance transfer info along.
Now it is 12 days later (37 days from when this started) and still no balance transfer. I called the bank. The rep I spoke with has "no way to check on the status". WHAT!? I called Target. They have no record of a transfer request from Sovereign. No paperwork. Nothing.
At this point would you just withdraw a portion of your savings and pay off the high interest rate card in full or just pay the minimum and give Sovereign another few weeks to get their act together? I've never paid "just the minimum" before and I feel weird doing that
Keep in mind, this was something I was doing because paying something off at 0% over a few months vs. withdrawing interest earning savings seemed to make more financial sense. I am not hurting for money and my total debt (including car payments) is less than 20% of my income. I just hate to take out savings to pay off a stupid old cc balance rather than transfer it to a 0%.
Is it just "normal" for balance transfers to take this long? Was I just spoiled by how quickly Discover worked?
