Update 3/10/2010: A credit card offering a 0% for 15 months has recently become available. Although the offer advertises a 0% for up to 15 months, applicants that do not meet certain credit requirements wil be given a 0% rate for 7 months. For more info, see the article 0% APR for 15 Months or Not.
Original Aritcle: A little over year ago, I researched the almost mythical 0% balance transfer for life. Despite the fact this incredible offer seemed to be an impossibility, I ultimately learned that Discover had been offering this deal to select customers via direct mail invitation. However, the trail of evidence dried up after 2006, and that offer disappeared. At this time last year, 0% balance transfers for 15 months existed. Sure, only one such offer remained (down from a half dozen), but getting a 0% APR for 15 months was a possibility. Such is not the case today.
Unfortunately, I’ve come across some deceptive ads promoting phantom 0% for 15 month balance transfer deals, however, the ads lead to pages with 0% offers lasting 6 months. On the average, 6 months is the new 12 months, and 0% for 15 months, is the new 0% balance transfer for life. Things have changed dramatically in the consumer credit world, and 0% offers were one of the first victims.
At present, the longest 0% balance transfer offers last 12 months, and these offers are few and far between. However, they still do exist (for more information, see the balance transfer section of this website). Although getting a 0% for 12 is still possible, you should expect, nay, welcome higher fees, as this has become the new norm as no fee balance transfers and fixed apr balance transfers have also gone the way of the dinosaur.
Whether or not more banks will extend balance transfer offers to 12 months in the near future is a question only time will answer. As millions of consumers faced massively increased interest rates this spring, summer, and fall, banks not only made it tougher to get approved for new credit cards, but raised long term interest rates and shortened the length of balance transfer promotions. Recently, introductory rates have gotten longer, but long term interest rates remain high, and are likely to move higher when the Prime Rate, currently at historically low levels, begins to rise, thus triggering the variable element of non-fixed interest rates to increase.
In the interim, the smartest thing consumers carrying credit card debt can do is to take advantage of the longest available 0% balance transfers and focus on paying down debt as quickly as possible. The days of jumping from one 0% offer to the next have come to an end, and more and more people are opening up their credit card statements to find that a once reasonable interest rate is twice what it once was.
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