<prompt> Human: So a small home improvement project has as often happens run into problems. Essentially, its going to cost another 5-10K over what we had planned. We have the money, but its presently in the form of some stock that we would prefer not to have to sell. I currently have two open credit cards, and I have never in my life carried a balance on one ever. We are totally debt free other than the mortgage and have excellent credit, but we just bought a car cash which wiped out all of our liquid assets.Im considering opening a Chase Slate card which is offering 0 on balance transfers for 15 months, and doesnt appear to have any fees that I can see. If I opened one and used it to pay off this months balance on my main credit card which is about 5K, mostly in construction supplies, I would have enough cash to finish the project without liquidating stock. I would of course pay off the new card ASAP probably three months, six max, but keep it open since I dont presently have a Visa and figure it might be convenient.Are there any downsides to this that I am not considering? Right now it seems like free bridge financing at no cost other than a little bit of time and inconvenience...  <response>: The downside is the hidden risk of unexpected bad things happening in the future.By using credit instead of cash selling stock you are implicitly bargaining that your present cash flow will remain uninterrupted, and that the value of your stock will not decline.You are in effect using your credit card as leverage to purchase more stock shares than you are currently able to afford.So, if you believe in the stock enough that you would open a margin account and buy those shares by using margin at 0 interest then this is a wise decision. Otherwise you are attempting to fool yourself into taking an unwise risk.edit: buy more shares - buy _those_ shares 