On December 5th, Bank of America pulled the Pet Rewards Visa from internet marketing channels. This card, which had offered a 0% APR for 6 months on no fee balance transfers, was the last credit card from a major company to offer a no fee, 0% APR deal.
While this is yet another setback, the removal of this offer is not the worst news for most consumers. In fact, it may save consumers money in the long term. The issue with this card, like all credit cards that offered no fee balance transfers for 6 months, lay in the fact that after the 0% period expired, the interest rate jumped to 14.99%. Thus, unless you repaid your outstanding balance in 6 months, you may have ended up giving back all the balance transfer fee savings by paying interest.
A year ago, it was very possible to transfer balances from card to card and keep 0% rates going for years at a time. However, credit card companies have really cut back on the availability of 0% offers, and most consumers will find it difficult to do balance transfers every 6 months.
Thus, the best balance transfer offers for consumers remain credit cards that offer a 0% APR for a full year on purchases and balance transfers. While some will shrug at the idea of paying the 3% balance transfer fee, the money that can be saved on interest over the course of a year more than offsets this nuisance fee.
