 TITLE: How a Balance Transfer Affects Your Credit Score CONTENT: Would a Balance Transfer Improve My Credit?\n-------------------------------------------\nMoving multiple debts to a single balance transfer credit card could decrease your overall credit utilization rate, or percentage of available credit you're using. The lower your credit utilization, the better, because a low rate shows lenders you're not racking up debt that you can't repay. Experts recommend keeping your credit utilization below 30% at all times, which means using no more than 30% of your credit limit at any point.\nIf you have multiple credit accounts but move their balances to a single account through a balance transfer, your previous accounts' utilization rates will appear as 0% on your credit report. That could lower your average utilization, which accounts for 30% of your FICO® Score☉ , the score most commonly used by lenders.\nSome credit scoring models may calculate credit utilization based on individual credit cards. If that's the case, your new balance transfer card may have a high utilization rate, since it now incorporates all the balances you transferred from previous accounts. That could have a negative effect on your utilization rate.\nIn general, however, the goal of getting a balance transfer card is to make it possible to pay off debt. If you take advantage of your 0% APR period and use your interest savings to pay down the balance, your credit utilization will decrease over time. That will have the biggest impact on your credit score, along with making all your debt payments on time. END