OzB Community Survey: What Is The Largest Balance Transfer You Have Been Approved for?

Lkanister1987 on 15/08/2018 - 22:06
Last edited 15/08/2018 - 22:17

Hi!

I've been thinking about applying for a large balance transfer. I want to put the money in my mortgage offset for the duration. Obviously i don't want to ask for too much and get rejected. if a sufficiently large BT can be achieved, this could be more profitable than applying for 3-4 cards to get FF points.

Questions:

  • largest BT you have been approved for and when?
  • Which bank?
  • What is your approx salary per year (BT approval influenced by salary).
  • balance of any other debts (will influence BT amount approved).

I think a large number of responses here would be a useful guide for Ozbargainers trying to decide which bank is best for BTs.

My response to the survey:

  • $12k in March 2017
  • Westpac
  • ~$100k
  • ~$550k mortgage
Financial Credit Card

Comments

  • onetwothreefour on 15/08/2018 - 22:10
    +4

    $0

    I've never spent more on my credit card than I was immediately able to pay back.

    • kanister1987 on 15/08/2018 - 22:13
      +2

      Neither have I. Ozbargainers don't use Balance transfers for that purpose.

      • onetwothreefour on 15/08/2018 - 22:26

        So you are saying you spent 12k on your cc, transferred the balance then paid it straight back just to get some ff points?

        • tomclancy on 15/08/2018 - 23:14
          +2

          BT on credit card #2 incurs 0% interest (well at least that's the goal), puts credit card #1 into negative by the amount of the BT, withdraw cash from the credit card #1 and put said cash into home loan offset account. Thus saving ~4% interest on whatever the BT amount is and for the duration of the BT.

          OP, all BT's I've done have been 90% of the available credit on the card in question. Never depended on my income/other debts etc. Except of course to receive the credit card in the first place, but I think that is for another post. The highest BT I've done is $45k with ANZ for 18 months 0% interest and no fees.

        • coco1458 on 16/08/2018 - 03:28

          @tomclancy: In this case, withdrawing any cash would incur cash advance fee wouldn't it?
          Last time I did a balance transfer, they checked the exact outstanding balance and balance transferred the amount leaving Credit card #1 at a $0 balance.
          So in that case, there was no surplus from the BT
          + I think whether there's a surplus or not, cash advance fee is charged

        • kanister1987 on 16/08/2018 - 07:58
          +1

          @coco1458:

          Where there is a surplus balance on the CC, some cards will charge a % cash advance fee, while others charge a flat fee like $2.50.

          Also Citibank does a 'Cheque to self' where they just send you a cheque for the Balance transfer amount you were approved for!

  • mskeggs on 15/08/2018 - 22:15

    What are your answers first?

  • Blue Cat on 15/08/2018 - 22:17

    Is that you, ATO?

    • kanister1987 on 15/08/2018 - 22:18
      +1

      yes it's me! good job on submitting your tax return early this year!

  • altomic on 15/08/2018 - 23:12

    ok

  • Diji1 on 16/08/2018 - 00:29

    ONE BILLION DOLLARS!

  • Godric on 16/08/2018 - 06:22
    +1

    What a pointless 'survey'

  • [Deactivated] on 16/08/2018 - 08:42

    $2.75

  • jsheroes on 16/08/2018 - 19:49

    27k this year. Nab. 130k. 520k mortgage plus 35k pre-existing CC limits.

    • kanister1987 on 17/08/2018 - 00:05

      wow! That is good to know. Thank you!

      My salary has gone up a bit since I applied for a BT the first time, so my situation now is fairly similar to yours.

      Did you apply for more than $27k and they offered a reduced amount? When i applied for my Westpac BT I asked for $18k and they gave me $12k.

      • jsheroes on 17/08/2018 - 00:37

        I think I applied for a slightly higher limit and BT and that's what they approved. I have decent home equity and credit score also.

      • aaruu on 23/10/2018 - 06:32
        +1

        When one applies for a new credit card, credit limit is given as per the institution's credit rules & applicant's net borrowing capacity. BT amount requested has no correlation to the limit given to the applicant, that's only a consequence.

        BT usually ranges from 80% to 95% of the credit limit granted based on the financial institution, be it new or for existing credit card.

        On a side note - Since start of this month (Oct 2018) the total of existing credit limits are now on everyone's credit files (for most institutions), it will become increasingly difficult to give false info on existing credit limits when one applies for new credit of any type.

  • Turd on 17/08/2018 - 10:28

    I have a number of BT's most being 37k (westpac) and 31k (nab).

    I need more credit!!

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join