As of June 30th, the no fee balance transfer deal offered by American Express for its series of IN credit cards will no longer be available.  The offer, available with the IN:LA, IN:NYC, and IN:Chicago cards, provided a 0% APR on purchases and balance transfers for 6 months and charged no balance transfer fee.

The removal of these three offers from the market is not surprising.  Just about every credit card company has stopped offering no fee balance transfers since the beginning of this year and most have raised balance transfer fees substantially.

Currently, the ESPN Visa, a Washington Mutual credit card, continues to offer a 0% APR for 6 months on no fee balance transfers.  However, most people will save more money by opting for a low fee balance transfer offer.  Additionally, many credit card companies have increased their requirements to qualify for 0% offers, and with the economy’s future uncertain, it may be very difficult to get approved for a new 0% credit card when the 6 month intro period expires.

Thus, we recommend applying for a credit card that charges low fees and offers a 0% APR on balance transfers and purchases for a full year.  You can learn more, compare current offers, and apply online at our main site, www.smartbalancetransfers.com.

Updated April 25th 2009:  This offer is no longer valid.  Information regarding this deal has been left up to document changes in the credit card industry.

Small business owners looking to eek out an extra 3 months on a 0% APR balance transfer have extremely limited options.  To be precise, they have one.  At present, the only credit card on the market offering a 0% APR for 15 months on balance transfers is the Advanta Platinum.

Just how much you can save with a 0% APR for 15 months obviously depends on the amount of the balance you transfer.  For example, a person with a $3000 balance transferred from a credit card charging a 14% interest rate can save over $100. 

An additional benefit of the Advanta Platinum Card is that after the 15 month 0% APR introductory period ends, the ongoing APR is a fixed 7.99%, significantly lower than most current offers.

You can learn more about the Advanta Platinum card and apply online to take advantage of a 0 APR for 15 months here.

Updated:  Washington Mutual was aquired by Chase.  As far as we are aware, mail offers from the get my Visa domain are no longer active.

If you’ve recieved a mailing or email from Bank of America encouraging you transfer high interest balances on the website www.bankofamerica.com/easybt, you may want to think twice before completing a balance transfer.  Not only can you get a 0% APR on balance transfers from most other credit card issuers, you’ll end up paying much more money in interest and fees with the offer from www.bankofamerica.com/easybt.

First, we’ll examine the reasons this is not a great deal.  To begin, this offer charges a 3% balance transfer fee with no maximum.  A good 0% balance transfer credit card caps the maximum fee at $75.  Thus, if you accept the Bank of America offer and make a $4000 balance transfer, you would pay $120 in fees instead of $75.  But that’s just the beginning. 

Buried in the fine print of your credit card is a statement such as this, “all payments will be credited to the balance with the lowest interest rate first.”  Thus, if you have a $2000 balance on your card being charged 10% and you transfer $2000, your first $2000 in payments will reduce the lower interest transferred balance, leaving you with $2000 being charged at the 10% or higher rate.

Clearly, the easy balance transfer offer at www.bankofamerica.com/easybt  is not a great deal.  And, compared to a credit card that charges a 0% APR on balance transfers for 1 year and charges low fees, it is not even a good deal.