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.
July 15th, 2009 at 9:05 am
There is no way to get around these sneaky transactions with their hidden fees. The government seems to go along with all the trickery and that is why it continues.