If you planned on spending $100k on something, and you had the funds to cover it, what downside would there be, if any, to applying for 1-2 0% interest for 12-18 month credit cards to cover some or all of it and letting the money sit somewhere and collect interest?

If you have a credit score of 800, what are the odds that you'll get approved for more than one of these cards in a short time period?

What if the market goes south and your 100K turns into 90? Probably not but what if

I have a high credit score but I hate debt. I couldn't do it despite the temptation.

I do need to shop around a better credit card but I don't even like the ones with big limits. I think I was at 2,500 limit for a long time and increased it to 10K for a family vacation

CC09LawAg said:

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I was thinking more of a high yield savings account or something, rather than the market.

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I've never looked into one of those. How long do they generally garuntee the rate? With interest rates projected come down at some point, I assume it's fairly short term

If you have the scores and the wherewithal to repay quickly without accumulating interst payments I'd go for a big rewards card. I have a $25K BoA card I pay off monthly and after a few years of accumulating rewards we took a trip to Europe by cashing in the card. You can rotate which expenditures get the 3%, gas, food, airlines.

jamey said:

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CC09LawAg said:

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I was thinking more of a high yield savings account or something, rather than the market.

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I've never looked into one of those. How long do they generally garuntee the rate? With interest rates projected come down at some point, I assume it's fairly short term

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Apple has been at or above 4.25% for a year. Citi has been offering me similar every month since seemingly the beginning of time. They aren't giving the rate for a short period of time though meaning they don't have a defined expiration. They're giving the rate, that's it. At some point they could change their philosophy or meet their capital goals and come back down but I'll worry about that when it happens.

I think the likelihood of getting approved for that much in new cards quickly is pretty low (unless you are going to tell them you have 1M annual income) I'd instead call whatever your current favorite rewards card(s) are and request a limit increase.

I bleed maroon said:

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Charismatic Megafauna said:

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I think the likelihood of getting approved for that much in new cards quickly is pretty low (unless you are going to tell them you have 1M annual income) I'd instead call whatever your current favorite rewards card(s) are and request a limit increase.

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I don't think you read his question. He doesn't need the money - he wants to arbitrage a 0% balance transfer with a high yield savings or CD at 5%ish.

No current rewards card I know of is going to give you 0% interest on balance transfers on a credit line increase. Correct me if I'm wrong.

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And my thoughts are that applying for multiple personal credit card limits are not going to allow you to get to your $100k goal. My highest limit personal cards are around $15-20k, and business cards at $50k or so are typically not giving 0% balance transfers. Seems like a lot of work for $2000-3000, but I've done similar things for "free money", including recently moving part of an IRA for a $3000 bonus.

Yeah I think that's going to be your issue -- getting $100k worth of new lines of credit in a short period of time.

Process was much easier in the "free balance transfer" heyday.

Do you have an amex platinum already? If you go to their site from a couple different computers or what not you can play their bonus roulette to get 150k points.

I've never had to make a purchase the size you are but any time I need to make a major purchase of around 7+ grand I get a new CC and reap the benefits. Doesn't take much effort besides looking at nerdewallet to see who has the best deal.

I recently got approved for a Capital One card with $30k limit with 0% through September of next year.

I was wondering if it was worth it to "shoot my shot" and try for a second, even if it's only $20-30k, I am looking at it like free money.

I haven't applied for new cards in years and my credit score is above 800. This is something I am not familiar with at all and have done no research on, so I was curious if there was any hidden downside to me applying again. It does not sound like there is.

Thanks for the input. I have Chase Sapphire Reserve & Unlimited as my rewards cards, so I may put some charges on that, depending on if there's credit card fees for different vendors and what not. That is a good idea.

No i don't think you read the question. He's not looking for a balance transfer, he's trying to spend 100k on a new credit card then make minimum payments (at 0%) for 12-18 months.

To echo what others have said, I think getting those limits that quickly could be an issue. But not sure of the real downside other than that.

Another suggestion is to reach out to your current credit card providers. When we did some stuff around the house a few years ago I got a 6 month 0% loan type deal added to my AMEX credit card. Now it wasn't $100k, granted I didn't ask for that much as I didn't need it but still earned the points, etc.

Charismatic Megafauna said:

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No i don't think you read the question. He's not looking for a balance transfer, he's trying to spend 100k on a new credit card then make minimum payments (at 0%) for 12-18 months.

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I guess the OP should clarify, then. I read the "leave the money sitting there earning interest" as an arbitrage play, as opposed to a 360-days-same-as-cash financing alternative. Perhaps they will enlighten us, as I can also see how you came to your interpretation.

After all my credit cards spiked to 30%+ in interest, once they're paid, I'm getting rid of them all

Is this purchase something you can put on a credit card?

Yes, it's different vendors that would all be paid varying amounts of the $100k. So it can be split up.

I don't intend to do balance transfers or anything like that - I would solely run up the charges on the 0% as high as I could, and then make the minimum payment to keep as much of my money in whatever type of account I see fit.

So, if I have a $30k limit card, I'm stowing away $30k. If I can find a second card with that limit, I can stow away $60k, and so on.

Sounds like a plan!

Charismatic Megafauna said:

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Aggie Dad 26 said:

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After all my credit cards spiked to 30%+ in interest, once they're paid, I'm getting rid of them all

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Whoa whoa whoa...if you are paying 30% interest on anything and aren't within a paycheck or two of paying it off you need to start a thread so you can get a plan for fixing it. That's no good man!

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My credit cards had a reasonable interest rate. Then the letters started coming with the new rates.

I'm paying well over the minimum in an attempt to pay them off sooner than later. One got paid off and closed last week

Glad you're getting those cleaned up. I spent probably 2 years playing the 0% balance transfer game on cc debt running away from those rates when i first graduated. Not fun but it taught me to never carry rolling debt

Don't do it. CC Debt free is the way.

I'll happily work outside all day in the yard, but these CC gymnastics are usually far too much work for me.

I bleed maroon said:

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I bleed maroon said:

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Charismatic Megafauna said:

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I think the likelihood of getting approved for that much in new cards quickly is pretty low (unless you are going to tell them you have 1M annual income) I'd instead call whatever your current favorite rewards card(s) are and request a limit increase.

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I don't think you read his question. He doesn't need the money - he wants to arbitrage a 0% balance transfer with a high yield savings or CD at 5%ish.

No current rewards card I know of is going to give you 0% interest on balance transfers on a credit line increase. Correct me if I'm wrong.

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And my thoughts are that applying for multiple personal credit card limits are not going to allow you to get to your $100k goal. My highest limit personal cards are around $15-20k, and business cards at $50k or so are typically not giving 0% balance transfers. Seems like a lot of work for $2000-3000, but I've done similar things for "free money", including recently moving part of an IRA for a $3000 bonus.

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Seems like you need to start requesting more credit limit increases. My main credit card has over a $75k limit, 2 others I have are $10k and $15.5k each. I obviously don't spend near that much, and pay the balance(s) off in full every month, but it's always good to continue to stretch those credit limits to increase your available credit.

Charismatic Megafauna said:

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I think the likelihood of getting approved for that much in new cards quickly is pretty low (unless you are going to tell them you have 1M annual income) I'd instead call whatever your current favorite rewards card(s) are and request a limit increase.

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I just applied for two 0% cards to fund a $30k purchase.

Only did two because the first card (Wells fargo) was only $12,500, and they wouldn't increase limit based on account history (I have nothing at wells fargo)

So I applied to another one, BoA, and it was $18k. Got my $30k.


My current cards at chase are $30k-$50k limits, with excellent credit. So I don't think many people are getting $100k with a new card, based on my experience.

Your advice of raising a limit is useless for OPs scenario; he wants to buy something that costs $100k at 0% and invest his on hand $100k to get a return and pay off card at end of 0% term. Your current favorite rewards card is not 0%.

If you can find a credit card that will let you not pay on a $100,000 balance for 12-18 months and accrue zero interest, then I suppose there is no downside.

62strat said:

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Your advice of raising a limit is useless for OPs scenario; he wants to buy something that costs $100k at 0% and invest his on hand $100k to get a return and pay off card at end of 0% term. Your current favorite rewards card is not 0%.

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Borrowing $100k at 0% is most likely not actually an option, thus the suggestion to just try and max out benefits using current cards

Charismatic Megafauna said:

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62strat said:

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Your advice of raising a limit is useless for OPs scenario; he wants to buy something that costs $100k at 0% and invest his on hand $100k to get a return and pay off card at end of 0% term. Your current favorite rewards card is not 0%.

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Borrowing $100k at 0% is most likely not actually an option, thus the suggestion to just try and max out benefits using current cards

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i just borrowed $30k… who knows how much more I could have gotten.
And they are 18-21 months no interest.

I've never done this for a purchase near $100K but we've certainly purchased items in the past when 0% was offered because WTF not. Get the points and then just pay it off when you want to.

We put all spend on a card anyway and cover vacations with points.

CC09LawAg said:

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I recently got approved for a Capital One card with $30k limit with 0% through September of next year.

I was wondering if it was worth it to "shoot my shot" and try for a second, even if it's only $20-30k, I am looking at it like free money.

I haven't applied for new cards in years and my credit score is above 800. This is something I am not familiar with at all and have done no research on, so I was curious if there was any hidden downside to me applying again. It does not sound like there is.

Thanks for the input. I have Chase Sapphire Reserve & Unlimited as my rewards cards, so I may put some charges on that, depending on if there's credit card fees for different vendors and what not. That is a good idea.

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If Chase Freedom Flex still has zero 0% intro ….

It's very easy to move Credit Limits around on Chase. So apply for Chase Freedom Flex and then move the majority of your Chase Sapphire Reserve and Chase Freedom Unlimited credit limits to the new card. Be sure to leave enough for your normal spending though.

To move credit limits literally all you need to do is send a secured message on the Chase site.

Which cards did you get? I've got to do some work soon and this sounds great.

Sea Speed said:

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Which cards did you get? I've got to do some work soon and this sounds great.

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boa and a Wells Fargo.

I screwed up though the wf also had 2% cash back ($250 or so) but I ended up getting the master card version which didn't have that promo; it was the visa that had it.
Oh well.

I just googled 0% intro and there were a handful, this was back in April.

62strat said:

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Sea Speed said:

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Which cards did you get? I've got to do some work soon and this sounds great.

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boa and a Wells Fargo.

I screwed up though the wf also had 2% cash back ($250 or so) but I ended up getting the master card version which didn't have that promo; it was the visa that had it.
Oh well.

I just googled 0% intro and there were a handful, this was back in April.

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They must have cancelled my BoA card to give you yours.

Discovered yesterday that my account has been closed. Granted, I haven't used that card in probably 20 years but it's an end of an era. I got that card in college back in the early to mid 90s when banks were blindly issuing CCs to anyone with a pulse. My very first card.

I got that card as an undergrad with my only income from a part-time job waiting tables. Didn't even ask for it; they issued me a card with $30K limit....as an undergrad...with a part-time job. Wild.