Unsecured Line of Credit Comparison (Borrow Cash, some are Balance Transfer capable)

GE Money LOC has a 3% transaction fee? I've had one of these for about 9 months now and I've used it several times and never had to pay a transaction fee. Great for laundering BT money before I had a HELOC. They recently sent me some juicy 0% and 1.99% checks, which is a nice bonus.

Bankgeek, thanks for the green.


Auream, It's interesting that you mention different terms. I applied for a GE LOC, and received awful terms of 18.99% interest. This is probably due to my minimum automatic payments on a couple cards, request for the full $25k, request for the longest payment period, or something else, even though my FICO (not FAKO) was in the 760's when I applied.

A week later I received the Citi offer (I have credit cards with them) which gave me more than double the credit line GE offered, and that significantly lower rate without transaction fees.

I offered financial information to GE but they refused to review it saying there is no person who I can talk with or mail about rates.

If you could update the Quick Summary and post the terms of your offer(s) below mine arranged by date, it would be much appreciated.


ScootyPuffSr, I picked up the LOCs to smooth over the balance transfer game and run up balances. Not many banks want to send cash directly making it harder to run up a card just before a transfer - especially with 3% transaction fees in many cases.

About $25 in interest charges for borrowing $10,000 for a week is worth it for me. Uncapped 3% transaction fees equate to $300 if borrowing on a card temporarily, plus interest, plus transfer delays.

In many cases, you should be able to apply for a balance transfer to the LOC, find out how much you were approved for and the range in which it will most likely arrive, then withdraw money from the LOC just before the balance transfer pays the LOC.

This allows for a more flexible balance transfer game, since you can pay balances to pump up your credit score and easily generate higher balances with a LOC.

It helps fight a liquidity crunch making a LOC a good backup/insurance plan even if you never use it.

Also, making a credit line 100% available in cash in an unsecured fashion is riskier than HELOCs, so you should expect the higher rate. It is favorable to keep around even just for offers Auream mentioned.

Since this is the personal line of credit thread it should be safe to ask here.

All three companies listed so far also issue credit cards. Since this is not an equity line of credit, would taking out a LOC jeopardize your chances of getting credit line increases or large limits on new credit cards? Considering that Citi no longer allows reallocation on 0% cards this could be very costly if a large, unusued, LOC caused all your new card applications with that company to be $500 or $1000.

BoA has specifically told me at my level of income I cannot have more than $35,000 in credit card lines with them. Would applying for the LOC make them reduce my lines?

Other than the credit inquiry and the chance of lowering your credit card limits, is there any damage or risk to your credit by applying for one of the no annual fee, no application cost LOCs and then never using it?

Great topic! Unlike ScootyPuffSr, I have had trouble finding good targets for BT money, e.g. AMEX disallows payment to a mortgage so I'm reluctant to send that to a HELOC. (I wouldn't be surprised if others have gotten away with it, but I'm fairly cautious here. I push the envelope on total utilization so I don't want any additional issues.) I've reviewed the "creative" thread several times, but the more successful the AOR, the more tricks one needs.

Since the interest rate and fees on unsecured LOC may be high, it's also worth considering a LOC secured by a CD or savings account. Both are available at many banks and credit unions, usually personal and sometimes for business.

Given a checking account at the same bank or CU, there's usually an instant online transfer from the line to checking. I agree that it's generally better to borrow from the line a few days before the incoming BT; a negative balance may raise a red flag. Or not; I'm sure it depends on the bank (and/or luck!).

Some caveats:

1. you have to have money prior to the AOR (to deposit as security), so it's best for a tag-team AOR ... or for those who keep their "rainy day fund" liquid

2. using a CD as security ties up the money ... potentially lots of money for those of us who want a high CL

3. using savings (or money market, if allowed) as security limits the choice of banks (and/or yields a lower interest rate than the typical HYS)

4. maybe I'm way too cautious, but I still wonder how many times the line can be drawn and paid in a short period of time without causing unwelcome attention. e.g. for credit cards, it's generally unwise to use-then-pay more than the CL in a single month. If the first AOR money comes in one period, and the next in the second, that's still only 2x "leverage". e.g. tying up $25K only lets one BT $50K total in a typical AOR time frame.

Citi Flex Line of Credit I guess replaces Ready Credit Line of credit I already have. I see they lowered the interest rate on new LOC except they also lowered the max limit they will issue you. Currently I have Ready Credit limit of $50K and max limit for Citi Flex is $25K. I wonder if I can convert my Ready Credit account to this and new account and keep my credit limit and lower my rate by 275 basis points.

I really dont care too much about the rate I guess. As I never drawn against either of my 2 LOC from Citibank or my Heloc.

Btw just so you know Ready Credit account number looks the same as a checking account number. So not sure how you would BT to it with a credit card company who refuses to BT to your checking account.

cardjuggler said: Great topic! Unlike ScootyPuffSr, I have had trouble finding good targets for BT moneySend the BT funds to a Citi credit card. Very easy to request credit balance refund online. Problem solved.

none of those affect me. The size of credit balance refund you get has NO relation to your Citi credit line. You can BT $10k to a citi card with $1k CL and still get your refund. #2 i dont understand - you are BTing from other cards to a Citi CREDIT card, so they will all do that BT with no problems. #3 you can request another cb refund as soon as the prior one goes through. #4 Use one of your older citi cards that no longer has any decent promos on it. Unless you have just started getting cards, most of us have an extra citi card (or 10)

Like I said , this is not a problem.

This is a great topic. It can be very useful after Citi will stop issuing cards with great BT features.
MoreMonies, do you know some cards that will do a BT to LOC?

SUCKISSTAPLES: Thanks a lot, this is just great news for me: Citi can give you a refund that is much larger than your CL, and it does it as soon as the previous one goes thorugh.
Wonderful!
Do you know if there is a limit to the number of BT for Citi cards?
In the promotional BT offer on my Citi professionl it says "Pay up to 4 creditor", it doesn't mean we can do only four BTs per card per promotional offer?

SUCKISSTAPLES said: none of those affect me. The size of credit balance refund you get has NO relation to your Citi credit line. You can BT $10k to a citi card with $1k CL and still get your refund. #2 i dont understand - you are BTing from other cards to a Citi CREDIT card, so they will all do that BT with no problems. #3 you can request another cb refund as soon as the prior one goes through. #4 Use one of your older citi cards that no longer has any decent promos on it. Unless you have just started getting cards, most of us have an extra citi card (or 10)

Like I said , this is not a problem.

my Quicken card kept giving me 1.9% For life (bout a year ago) i have 7 promo transfers, since i maxxed it out and they kept giving me more. The rate was superior to heloc/car loan/etc. There was no BT fee too. the minimum payment of course is 1% plus the interest on the 1.9% per month which is actually quite low cash flow wise

Good job maintaining this thread, OP. Citi Flex Line of Credit does NOT report my Credit Limit to Equifax.How long have you had the flex line? Are you sure it doesn't report at all to any of the three CRAs? That would be unusual...

DaveHanson said: Good job maintaining this thread, OP. Citi Flex Line of Credit does NOT report my Credit Limit to Equifax.How long have you had the flex line? Are you sure it doesn't report at all to any of the three CRAs? That would be unusual...

Thanks Dave, I've only had the line since early June. The Flex Line is a fairly new product offered through the CitiCards division of Citibank - not the banking end. They're probably just playing the same old games to lower credit scores by not reporting limits like with their PremierPass cards.

LaJollaInvestor, those are great lines, would enjoy more details on how you got those.

Thanks for the clarification OP. Looks like they really don't report, which is interesting.

a question about BT's.?

If I want to do Bt's from a few cards to my Bank account, or to a citi card for a balance transfer refund in order to get cash to drop into my Bank account, will lets say the amount on my chase 18K be treated as a cash advance or BT with just the 3% fee etc? and the BT apr.

Cash advances could be 13.4 % - more. as BT might be 0%

Help me to understand how this works so I know what I will be charged.

By steps: I have a 0 balance on my chase card, I go to my Citi PP and ask for a BT for 18K
which citi offers for 0% for 12 months. I do the BT balance refund,

citi gives Chase 18K - I have 12 months at 0% from citi, what does chase charge me?

some advise please?

RE: US Bank

My US Bank Line is over 10 years old and I believe it's a superior product. My line is now up to 40K and I've never had to request a CLI.

Contrast that with my husband who got his in 05 or 06 and his limit started at 8K. While mine was opened online they made him actually come into the local branch to sign papers. It seemed odd. And they have only raised his line $1500 since then.

His line is also more complicated than mine (with tiered rates) But the type he has is the only PLOC I see offered on their website.

It's strange bc my husband and I have (virtually) identical credit profiles. I have no idea why they've been so stingy with him.

I just added a new BLOC yesterday-- Swift. It was a targeted offer. The rates aren't as favorable as US Bank but they gave me the same initial starting line (40K) (coincidence?)