I received an email today that sickened me.  A visitor interested in purchasing a timeshare was being told to use a 9 month 2.9% introductory rate credit card to pay for the $17,000 bill and then utilize 0% balance transfers for five years to pay off the bill and escape interest.  I was very please to have an opportunity to help this visitor avoid what could easily have turned into a financial nightmare.

During the past five years, it was entirely possible to use 0% balance transfers year after year to defer interest (and hopefully pay down debt).  However, this is not the case today.  Not only is it getting tougher to get approved for a 0% balance transfer credit card, it is also getting increasingly difficult to get a 0% APR for more than 6 months.  To make matters worse, just about every company has raised the maximum balance transfer fee and many have increase the fee to 4 or 5% of the transaction. Continue Reading »

Many of us have grown so accustomed to getting 0% credit card offers in the mail that we’ve grown to take them for granted.  Now that these offers have all but disappeared, the Internet has taken up the slack.  At present, it is still possible to find 0% credit card offers, albeit for shorter durations and, for balance transfers, with higher fees.

Unfortunately, the new credit card law designed to protect consumers may lead to a number of unintended negative consequences that are likely to hurt consumers with good credit.  Chief among these is an end to 0% credit card deals, especially those lasting more than three to six months. Continue Reading »

Unfortunately, a number of my dire predictions have been coming true recently.  Eight months ago, I wrote that no fee balance transfers would become a thing of the past.  Today, getting a 0% APR for 1 year on a credit card that charges no fees on balance transfers is a distant memory.

About the same time, I warned that balance transfer fees would rise.  At that time, most companies were charging a 3% fee with a $75 maximum.  A few weeks later, companies began lifting the $75 maximum, raising the cost on balance transfers in excess of $2500 dramatically.  Continue Reading »

Unfortunately, starting on March 1st, Discover is no longer offering a 0% APR on purchases for an entire year.  The new 0% term is now 6 months.  While most Discover cards, and most offers from Discover, only offered a 6 month APR on purchases, we were one of the few lucky sites able to get our visitors a 0% APR for an entire year on purchases and balance transfers.

While this change in duration is unfortunate, consumers looking for 0% balance transfers can breathe a sigh of relief, as Discover will continue to offer a 0% APR for a full year on balance transfers to approved applicants.

For more information on Discover credit cards, please see the Discover balance transfer page on our website.

Should you read an older blog entry stating there is a 0% for a full year on purchases, please ignore this.  As always, check and double check the terms and conditions of any credit card you apply for.  While we strive to maintain the most accurate information, discrepancies do occasionally occur.

Okay.  Its time to pull out your credit card statement and take a look at your monthly interest expense.  What you find might not be pleasant.  We plugged some numbers into our balance transfer calculator to estimate the monthly cost of carrying a balance on a credit card with a standard interest rate.  The results weren’t pretty.  Check out these monthly and annualized expenses for people with $3000, $5000, and $10,000 in credit card debt.

We’ll start with $3000 in debt on a credit card with a 14% interest rate.  Every month, this card racks up $35 in interest.  While this may not seem outrageous, over the course of a year, the total interest expense nears $450.  And that assumes the debt doesn’t go up.

Things start getting uglier when we increase the debt level to $5000.  On a monthly basis, the interest expense crosses the $50 threshold, coming in at $58.  While this isn’t ideal, the yearly cost is really striking:  $746!.  And $5000 is only about half of the average household credit card debtload.

Now, let’s look at the costs of $10,000 in debt.  On a monthly basis, interest expenses cross into triple digits, coming in at just over $100.  What’s frightening, however, is the yearly cost.  It totals over $1,400.  No matter who you ask, that’s a lot of money.  And, its money that doesn’t have to be spent.

Although the credit crunch has made it more difficult for some consumers to get accepted for 0% balance transfers, it is still possible to get approved for one of these money saving deals.  Unfortunately, however, the credit crunch may worsen, and the availability of these offers may dry up quickly.  For those reasons, not to mention the fact you can save a few hundred or thousand dollars, the time to transfer balances to a 0% credit card is now.

You can review these offers in the balance transfers section of this website and apply online.  You can also continue reading for some real nightmare balance transfer scenarios.

Nightmare #1:  $10,000 in credit card debt with a 17% interest rate

• Monthly Interest Expense:  $142
• Yearly Interest Expense:  $1839

Nightmare #2:  $15,000 in credit card debt with a 15% interest rate

• Monthly Interest Expense:  $188
• Yearly Interest Expense:  $2411

Nightmare #3:  $20,000 in credit card debt with a 15% interest rate

• Monthly Interest Expense:  $250
• Yearly Interest Expense:  $3215

These scenarios are not uncommon across America, and with high interest rate credit cards, debt can quickly spiral out of control.  With an interest rate of 14%, debt can double in as little as 3 years.  And, as we all know, its much easier to get into credit card debt than it is to get out.

Our advice is simple:  don’t let your credit card debt get out of control.  Consolidate high interest credit card debt onto a 0% APR balance transfer credit card and pay down your debt before its too late.

Although credit card companies have been making it more difficult for consumers to gain access to new credit cards and reducing the quality of 0% offers all year long, the credit card market has help up surprising well.  Until now.  David Reilly of the Wall Street Journal eloquently described the present situation for credit card card issuers as the, “worst of time and the worst of times.”

Why?  Credit card issuers are being hit with a Perfect Storm.  Both Bank of America (BAC) and Citi (C) announced rising credit card delinquencies in the past few days.  This, of course, cuts into their profits.  However, this shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone.  What makes this situation particularly dire is the freeze up in commercial lending.  The credit card companies are being forced to pay significantly more to borrow the money they lend to consumers, cutting deeply into their profits. 

Without a sharp and immediate decrease in the cost of borrowing money for banks, consumers can expect to see higher interest rates and the quick elimination of 0% APR offers.  If the credit crunch continues to worsen, the concept of a 0% APR may soon be little more than a memory.

Smart Balance Transfers has been sounding the alarm for quite a while now.  Consumers paying double digit interest rates on their credit card debt may want to start listening.  If you don’t lock in a 0% APR now, you may not be able to find one soon.

To learn more about available 0% APR credit cards, please see the credit card offer section of this website.

The proposed Credit CardHolders’ Bill of Rights (see http://maloney.house.gov/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=1569&Itemid=61) is supposed to help consumers.  And in many ways, it would.  Unfortunately, like most legislation, it couldn’t come at a worse time.  As the credit crunch intensifies, this consumer friendly bill may backfire, drying up available credit to those who need it most.

According to the bill, the Credit CardHolders’ Bill of Rights would do the following:

• Protect cardholders against arbitrary interest rate increases
• Prevent cardholders who pay on time from being unfairly penalized 
• Protect cardholders from due date gimmicks
• Shield cardholders from misleading terms 
• Empower cardholders to set limits on their credit
• Require card companies to fairly credit and allocate payments 
• Prohibit card companies from imposing excessive fees on cardholders
• Prevent card companies from giving subprime credit cards to people who can’t afford them
• Require Congress to provide better oversight of the credit card industry
• Contain NO rate caps, fee setting, or price controls

Now, its hard to argue with the benefits many of these goals would provide to consumers.  Unfortunately, many of these proposed changes, if enacted into law, would fundamentally change the way credit card companies do business.

For example, interfering with the fees credit card companies impose on consumers who pay late or go over their credit limits would alter credit card risk management.  The people who are getting charged these fees are failing to use their credit wisely.  Unfortunately, responsible credit users will pay the price for the irresponsible credit management of others.  This price may be a reduction in 0% offers, higher interest rates, and a return to annual fees.

Another major sticking point is protecting cardholders against arbitrary interest rate increases.  Here, the definition of arbitrary is the point of interest.  Many credit card companies utilize a wide range of data on consumers, such as their credit scores and recent credit history, to determine the interest rates they charge.  When a consumer’s credit score drops or credit report changes, credit card companies “reprice” the consumer’s interest rate to control risk.  Without the ability to reprice debt from consumers that become risky, credit card companies will again rob Peter to pay Paul.  And, in this case, Peter is the consumer that pays his bills on time.

While the Credit CardHolders’ Bill of Rights is not expected to become law this year, many believe it will pass early next year.  In the interim, credit card companies may be bracing themselves by limiting the availability of credit to otherwise worthy consumers and making it harder to get 0% interest rates.

The next few months will be interesting in the credit card world.  And consumers should be prepared.  If you don’t have a 0% credit card in your pocket today, you may not be able to get one two or three months from now, regardless of how good your credit is. 

This website was designed to help consumers save money with 0% interest rates.  In the coming months, that may be a difficult mission.  However, until this bill passes, its a good time to take advantage of the 0% deals available. 

For more information, you can compare 0% APR credit cards and apply online at our main site.

Over the past few months, credit card companies have been sharply reducing the length and quality of 0% introductory offers, slashing credit limits, and raising the requirements on consumers applying for credit cards.  And things may be getting worse as the credit crunch wears on.

An article in today’s Wall Street Journal by Mark Gongloff aptly titled, “Credit Cards Next in Line For Tightening,” shines a light on the not so bright future of credit cards.  In the article, the author quotes Richard Moody, chief economist at Mission Residential.  His words should send a shiver down consumer spines.  He states, “Banks are…trying to raise rates and tighten terms on payment.”  In other words, if you haven’t locked in a fixed rate or taken advantage of a 0% APR offer, you may be in for some uncomfortable increases in your current interest rate.

Furthermore, credit card companies have raised the credit scores required for approval for many of the best deals, leaving consumers who are looking to refinance to a 0% rate out in the cold.  As I’ve written previously, those 0% rates may soon expire as well.

What options does this leave consumers?  If you don’t have a 0% credit card, get one now.  Not only can you save a substantial amount of interest on your current credit card balance, you can shield yourself against increases.  If you’re one of the lucky consumers who does not carry credit card debt, you may also want to consider a 0% APR credit card as an insurance policy in case you may need to use your credit card in the near future.

Whatever your current position, it is better to act now than wait for things to get better.  And with a 0% credit card, you can limit your interest expenses during the next year, which may be the roughest many of us have ever seen.

For more information on 0% credit card offers, please review the appropriate section of our website.

Recently, Chase changed the terms and conditions to many of their online credit card offers, particularly with regard to balance transfer fees.  Previously, Chase was one of the few remaining credit card issuers that still capped balance transfer fees at a set maximum.  For example, 3% per transaction with a maximum fee of $75 or $99 dollars.

However, as has been the case with Bank of America, Citi, and Capital One, Chase has lifted the maximum dollar amount on balance transfer fees to infinity.  For example, if you transfer a $5000 balance to the popular Chase Platinum Visa® Card, the cost will be $150.  Prior to this recent change, it would have been $99. 

As we’ve written recently, the credit crunch and resulting turmoil on Wall Street is having a very negative impact on the quality of credit card offers available, even to people with superb credit.  Unfortunately, things are likely to get worse.  Consequently, we continue to encourage anyone who is considering a balance transfer to do it now while decent, low fee 0% offers are still available.

April 28 2009 Update:  After a visitor posted on this site recently, I took a look at this posting from October of 2008 and really got a sense of how much the balance transfer landscape has changed, particularly in regards to fees.  Today, every major issuer is charging full 3% balance transfer fees on 0% deals and Bank of American has announced plans to raise balance transfer fees to 4% on June 1st.

While everyone enjoys being correct about a prediction, on this matter, I truly wish I was wrong.  Unfortunately, most of the dire predictions I began blogging about late last year are coming to fruition.  And, while my prediction that 0% balance transfers may soon disappear has yet to become completely true, these offers continue to be for shorter durations, regardless of the company.  So, lets all hope I’m wrong about 0% rates disappearing.

Because offers change frequently, please see www.capitalone.com for information on this subject.

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.