While the majority of credit cards only offer a 0% APR for 12 months, there are a few major credit cards that offer a 0% APR for 15 months.  Unfortunately, no credit card currently offers a 0% APR for 15 months on purchases and balance transfers.  However, there is one credit card on the market for each 0% category.

The first of these credit cards is Blue from American Express.  This credit card offers a 0% APR for 15 months on purchases.  Aside from offering a 0% rate, this card also offers no fee rewards and charges no annual fee.  Once the zero interest period expires, this card offers a variable 11.24% interest rate on remaining balances.

The second offer comes from Advanta.  They offer a 0% APR for 15 months on balance transfers with their Platinum Rewards card.When the zero interest rate expires, this card offers a low 7.99% variable APR on remaining balances.  This Advanta credit card offer is aimed at businesses.

As noted above, no credit card is currently offering a 0% interest rate on purchases and balance transfers.  There are, however, many credit cards that offer a 0% APR on purchases and balance transfers for 12 months.  You can review these offers and apply online by visiting the 0% APR credit card section of Smart Balance Transfers.

Note:  The information in this posting is accurate as of 5/29/08.  Before applying online for a credit card that offers a 0% APR for 15 months, be sure to examine the application to verify that the offers described above are still current. 

Time to say goodbye to David Spade and say hello to the crazy credit card guy.  Capital One has recently begun an advertising campaign for its Capital One Card Lab, an online tool that lets consumers build their own credit card…kind of.  Consumers with excellent credit card will be able to get a credit card as designed.  However, people who are unsure of their credit or have lessor credit than they percieved may get something slightly different than what they created in the card lab.

For this review of the Capital One Credit Card Lab, we’ll assume we have excellent credit, which gets us through the first step of this 4 stop process.  Step two is where things get a little complicated.  On this page, you are able to choose your interest rate, your introductory interest rate and your rewards.

In an attempt to build the best rewards credit card available, I selected to get 1% cashback on purchases with a special 2% intro rate for 12 months.  After selecting this, a number of options were removed, including every possible APR below 15.9% and a 0% on balance transfers.  I then chose to get a 0% APR on purchases for 1 year.  The result:  the only available interest rate was 19.9%. 

Ultimately, the card I created was not nearly as good as a number of cashback credit cards already on the market.

Disappointed, I tried the Capital One Card Lab again.  This time, I designed a card for someone with good credit.  The results were equally unsatisfying.  I opted to get a 0% APR for 9 months on purchases (the longest available duration), a standard 1% cashback reward option and was ultimately offered a card with a 18.9% APR.  Compared with other offers on the market for individuals with good credit, this lab creation was a complete dud.  There are probably 30 other credit cards available with better terms.

The Capital One Card Lab is graphically impressive and fun to play with.  But choosing a credit card is not about having fun.  While some people with excellent credit may be able to create a card that offers good rewards, individuals who don’t meet Capital One’s harsh criteria for excellent credit will find much better deals elsewhere.

Updated April 25th 2009:  I’ve been doing some spring cleaning and have stumbled upon a number of articles from last year that had some very good deals.  Unfortunately, just about all of these deals are now gone, including the ones described in this article.  However, rather than pull this article down, I’ve opted to leave it up so consumers can get a sense of how dramatically the balance transfer market has changed in the past year.

Getting a 0% APR balance transfer for life is a thing of the past.  While this type of deal was once offered by Discover, no bank has offered such a deal for over two years.  However, it is still possible to get a low fixed APR balance transfer for life.

The Advanta Life of Balance card is the clear leader in this category.  They offer a 2.99% fixed APR for life on balance transfers.  Click here to apply for this fixed apr for life balance transfer credit card. 

However, there are a few addtional offers.  American Express offers three credit cards that offer a fixed APR for life on balance transfers.  Among the deals they offer, the American Express Clear card offers no fee balance transfers and a 5.99% fixed APR for life.  The remaining offers from American Express do charge a balance transfer fee, but offer a 4.99% fixed APR for life.  If you expect to repay your balance in more than 3 years, this may be the best deal.

Overall, the Advanta offer provides the best deal of all fixed APR for life balance transfer deals on the market.  However, individuals who intend to pay their balances off in around a year may save most with a 0% APR balance transfer credit card.