Making The Most Of Credit Card Balance Transfer Facilities

By Author: Michael Strauss
Total Articles: 434
Comment this article

Smart credit card consumers can pit one card against the other and pay no interest ever on a credit card balance. It takes a little organizational skill, and a keen attention to detail, but it can be done. First, to get a 0% transfer offer, you have to have decent credit. I know, it seems like the banks would make the offers to people who need it the most, namely, those in trouble. But banks aren't charity, they're in it to win it just like the rest of us and they make money off fees. Why would they give up what has been a very lucrative income stream just to help out consumers?!

If you have decent credit, and a good job history, you're going to get a ton of offers in the mail. Take the first 0% balance transfer deal that comes along (you could go for 1% or 2%, but holding out for zero means you're just paying for what you spend, and not anymore!) Apply for the 0% transfer, and pay careful attention to when you receive the card and when they transfer your balance. The key is the fine print, and if you're one day late, they tack on accrued interest charges. Some banks have a 25 day grace period, though now it seems like ...
... most are stuck at 20 days. The 0% offer is usually for six months, which means you're going to have to make 6 payments to bring the balance down.

Make your payments as soon as you receive your statement, better yet, set it up for automatic online payments and be sure you set aside the money in your bank account. Automatic payments will help you in the near future.

Keep up with the direct mail pieces you are getting for any other 0% transfer offers. During the fourth month, apply for another. You choose the fourth month if you're mailing in your application but if you can get instant approval online, you can wait until the fifth month. Do not wait until the last minute to apply for a balance transfer to a new card because if they miss by one day, you get socked with interest. Maybe not the whole six months accrued, but banks can be tricky when it comes to collecting fees, so err on the side of caution.

In the fifth month, move the balance to a new card, and repeat the process five months later. You will now have three credit cards, with credit limits as high as your transfer amount or even higher. Two of those cards will have no balance on them, and you will have been making payments on the third credit card every month, which will reduce the balance that you are not paying interest on.

You can contact your original credit card to transfer the balance back at 0% for six months, or a new card that has sent you multiple offers. But the key is to pay down the balance, and keep the limits open on the credit cards.

This method can take a year or longer to pay off a balance, but that should be the ultimate goal. Four credit cards with decent limits (at least $2500) but with a zero balance on each card. This history and a pattern of steady payments should increase your FICO scores, which will qualify you for low interest rates on a home loan.

You can beat the banks at their own games if you carefully transfer balances among cards and pay the balance off! Plus, you can get 0% interest offers and pay nothing extra, if you're careful.

About the author: Michael writes for http://www.cardsense.co.uk/ and you can read more about balance transfers at http://www.cardsense.co.uk/basics-balance-transfers.html