Credit card balance transfers affect your credit score, experts say; here's what borrowers should know

Credit card balance transfers can lower interest costs but may temporarily lower credit scores due to hard inquiries and new accounts.

Anand Agrawal, Co-founder of FixMyScore & Credgenics, says a balance transfer generates a hard inquiry and new account, briefly lowering score and average credit age, while resetting utilisation ratio.

Repeated balance transfers may signal repayment stress to lenders, as noted by Rohit Mahajan, Founder & CEO of plutos ONE.

Experts advise repayment discipline and avoiding running up the original card again to maintain a healthy credit profile.