Yea i went on to check the verisign seal and it came up legit. Looks good I guess…
Transaction fee for balance transfers: 3 % of the amount of each balance transfer, $5 minimum, $75 maximum.
Jeeves is right, but if you can pay it off by May 1st or soon after that it’s a great deal. I don’t see a minimum amount on the two transactions per month so you could make them really small.
very good point there…does anyone know what the “minimum amount” each transaction has to be per month? might be worth it for some people, not for others.
The last part means that you have to keep the card active to keep 0% on your transferred balance…ie use it twice per month…you can pay it off it doesn’t matter, just buy 2 coffees on it/month
You are exactly 24 hours too late. Balance finally paid off in entirety. 
Using it to pay off high interest credit cards is a good idea, especially if you plan to pay it off before the 5/07 date.
More than likely anything you charge to keep the card active will get paid off last, meaning you’ll be paying the full interest on those charges, which is prime + 5.99 (14.24% currently).
Using it as a low interest loan is probably a bad idea if you care about your credit rating. When you take out a huge amount of credit card debt it’s UNSECURED debt. AKA, debt that they can’t come repo anything to reclaim. So lets say you buy a pizza place with it, it would hurt your credit much more than having a 20k small business loan using the pizza place to secure the loan.
End Eco and Lending 101.
IN, Nice joe.
Jeeves is correct about the tiered applied payments.
Depending on the balance xfer amount, You can make out like a bandit by making small monthly transactions…
Or You could end up paying the same or more on the blended rate. This will really only apply if You are xfering small balances, or make larger monthly transactions, or both.
IOW: Don’t xfer $500 to the 0%/life rate and then make $100 monthly transactions that will accrue @ P+5 if You don’t plan on paying it off in the near future.
edit - if You take up an offer like this, please… DONT close the cards that You are xferring the balances from. For most people on this site (<25 yrs old), You NEED the average age of account to continue for Your score’s benefit.
it’ll actually help your score b/c youre opening a new account and transferring an existing balance so your overal utilization will be lower
ex: you now have 1 3,000 card maxed out, you’re at 100% utilization…you transfer that and now have 2 cards with a total credit line of 6k using 3k or 50%
If you make the 2 transactions/month small you’re talking about like $60-$100/yr in interest which on soemthing like a $3K balance transfer is pretty fucking good.
I’ve never balanced transferred before so I don’t really know how it works, but aren’t the balances on the account kept seperate (ie, you’re approved for a $2,500 limit and transfer 2,500 does that effect the new limit?)
If you’re approved for $2500 and transfer 2500 you now have 0 available credit. I’ve done it several times, making use of 0% offers. If I do one more balance transfer I automatically go on Enron’s payroll.
Speaking from experience, this is a good gig. As mentioned, keep your monthly purchases SMALL because they will accrue interest and will get paid last. Also, if you guys do this, do NOT be late with a payment. If your payment is due at midnight and your payment clears at 12:01AM you lose the 0%. Keep the balance transfer fee in mind. If you have a small balance that you’ll pay off within a few months then the transfer fee will negate any savings. Also, inquiries into your credit score are bad for your credit score. If you’re going for a big car or house loan anytime soon it might make more sense to pay interest on the CC, keep your score high, and get a lower interest rate loan. Keep the big picture in mind.
Pay online to make sure you aren’t late… Apparently if the mail for some reason takes three weeks to get there, it is YOUR fault. Ask me how I know, and guess who tried to pull that crap with me? Citibank.
yes, your card would be maxed out then. I have a citi platinum card and they have this perk where they will send you balance transfer checks that you can use for balance tranfers, purchases, or just to cash and get money (write a check to yourself). Its at a fixed low interest rate for the life of the balance. That is the only way i use the card and each balance transfer has counted against my limit.
Yeah, I was talking more about using the card as a large (15k+) low interest loan. For example, pay off your car payment with it. That wouldn’t be good for your credit because you’re closing out a secured loan and replacing it with a whole lot of unsecured debt.
And as mentioned, miss one payment or make one payment late, and BAM… 15+%, and possible addition of accrued interest. Yeah, don’t forget that little part of the fine print. Just because you’re getting 0% doesn’t mean they aren’t keeping track of just how much interest you could be paying. And if they have that line of small print in there, they can whack you with all that back interest because you broke the conditions of the original 0% offer.
With a traditional loan there is probably a late fee, and maybe a grace period, so it’s much more forgiving.
I’m paying something like 28% lol. Fuckin A. I didint pay for like 2 months after my surgery and my APR went whoosh from like 12% to 28%.
