Suze and Dave Will Be Sooo Mad at Me!

While shredding my mail last night, I noticed a 2.99% fixed offer from my good friends at Chase. While none of my current cards were crazy-high, this was a beautiful offer in combination with the consolidation factor. Plus, I don't see rates going any lower. I don't think the US dollar could take it.

So you are going to do the balance transfer?

Guess it couldn't hurt. But why not try for a 0% deal instead - might as well save more? :)

I pulled the trigger.

I haven't seen a 0% fixed offer in years. They offered 0% until the end of the year, but 2.99% fixed for the lifetime of the loan works out to be a lot better in the long run.

Yeah, I'm seeing those "0% for now, but X fixed for the life of the loan" offers. They're pretty good! I just did a balance transfer on one, too.

You may already know this but just in case… and for others reading.

Do not use the cards that you transfer to for anything. The way it generally works is your payments are applied to the transfer balance first. So say for example you transfer 5k to a card. One night you’re having dinner and you decide to charge a $100 on that card. Your thinking is well I am going to send in a $300 payment anyway. $100 will pay that charge off and the other $200 will go against the balance. What actually happens is all $300 goes against the 2.99% balance and the $100 that you just charged starts costing you interest at the full 18% (or whatever rate). You won’t be able to pay off that $100 until the balance of the transfer is paid off first.

Good tip.

Also, if your balance transfer fee caps out at a certain amount (mine was a maximum of $199), transfer a lump sum into your checking account instead of paying off each of your accounts to be paid off piecemeal. Then pay all of your other accounts directly from your checking account. By doing this, my balance transfer percentage wound up being closer to 1.5% versus 3%.

Just a few years ago, Chase maxed out their fee at a mere $75. :(

Al good tips, thank you, this is really helping me!

Jim :)

I had a healthly credit card bill from finishing my basement BUT never paid a time of interest (did pay the balance transfer fee) because I transfered it to a 16 months 0% interest card while sticking money into my savings, I did this to earn interest on what I needed to pay the card off. I think the minimum payment was 1% of the outstanding balance or something. anyway, I transfered it to another card for another 16 months because I got another 0% deal. I carried the debt for nearly 3 years and only paid $300 (transfer fees) while earning money on what I was saving to pay it off. I will admit though that I am much more relaxed now that I don't have that on the card. Even though it made sense to carry it interest free I couldn't get over the fact it was on a big bad credit card.............

My point for adding to this post is that you can still find a few 0% offers out there for a fixed time period and it makes sense if you don't use the card for anything else, use it as a loan and not a credit card.

Another good point that was made is NOT to charge purchases to the card after the transfer because those do get charged interest at the 12-18% normal rate and can't be paid down until 100% of the transfer balance is paid off. The hard thing is some of those 2.99% for life offers require you to make two purchases on the card each month of billing cycle which stinks but check to see what the minimum dollar amount can be with those purchases. I found a discover card would allow a min. of $1 which isn't a big deal.

these tips rock! ..i will use them

The Fed cut rates by another 50 basis points! Now we can borrow more, save less, and keep this economy weak for years to come! Go team! Maybe we can get another $300 each next year! It won't make up for the $50k I've lost in the market, but my CC APRs will be fabulous! :o

Point well taken Dingo.

I've always wondered how much of a shock it would be to our economy if consumers were to suddenly start conducting their financial affairs in a rational manner -- paying only in cash for day-to-day expenses, saving up to make major purchases such as appliances, furniture, tvs, etc., and only taking out loans for appropriate purposes -- such as buying a home or starting a business. And most important of all, setting aside a substantial percentage of income into long-term savings.

Now that we're almost at rock bottom, I don't think the shock wave would be that great. I would love to see it come about, but I'm sure the credit card and advertising industries will work hard against it.

Gaken;
absolutely! debt free is the best!!!