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Updated April 25th 2009:  This offer is no longer valid.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.

While the majority of credit cards only offer a 0% APR for 12 months, there are a few major credit cards that offer a 0% APR for 15 months.  Unfortunately, no credit card currently offers a 0% APR for 15 months on purchases and balance transfers.  However, there is one credit card on the market for each 0% category.

The first of these credit cards is Blue from American Express.  This credit card offers a 0% APR for 15 months on purchases.  Aside from offering a 0% rate, this card also offers no fee rewards and charges no annual fee.  Once the zero interest period expires, this card offers a variable 11.24% interest rate on remaining balances.

The second offer comes from Advanta.  They offer a 0% APR for 15 months on balance transfers with their Platinum Rewards card.When the zero interest rate expires, this card offers a low 7.99% variable APR on remaining balances.  This Advanta credit card offer is aimed at businesses.

As noted above, no credit card is currently offering a 0% interest rate on purchases and balance transfers.  There are, however, many credit cards that offer a 0% APR on purchases and balance transfers for 12 months.  You can review these offers and apply online by visiting the 0% APR credit card section of Smart Balance Transfers.

Note:  The information in this posting is accurate as of 5/29/08.  Before applying online for a credit card that offers a 0% APR for 15 months, be sure to examine the application to verify that the offers described above are still current. 

Time to say goodbye to David Spade and say hello to the crazy credit card guy.  Capital One has recently begun an advertising campaign for its Capital One Card Lab, an online tool that lets consumers build their own credit card…kind of.  Consumers with excellent credit card will be able to get a credit card as designed.  However, people who are unsure of their credit or have lessor credit than they percieved may get something slightly different than what they created in the card lab.

For this review of the Capital One Credit Card Lab, we’ll assume we have excellent credit, which gets us through the first step of this 4 stop process.  Step two is where things get a little complicated.  On this page, you are able to choose your interest rate, your introductory interest rate and your rewards.

In an attempt to build the best rewards credit card available, I selected to get 1% cashback on purchases with a special 2% intro rate for 12 months.  After selecting this, a number of options were removed, including every possible APR below 15.9% and a 0% on balance transfers.  I then chose to get a 0% APR on purchases for 1 year.  The result:  the only available interest rate was 19.9%. 

Ultimately, the card I created was not nearly as good as a number of cashback credit cards already on the market.

Disappointed, I tried the Capital One Card Lab again.  This time, I designed a card for someone with good credit.  The results were equally unsatisfying.  I opted to get a 0% APR for 9 months on purchases (the longest available duration), a standard 1% cashback reward option and was ultimately offered a card with a 18.9% APR.  Compared with other offers on the market for individuals with good credit, this lab creation was a complete dud.  There are probably 30 other credit cards available with better terms.

The Capital One Card Lab is graphically impressive and fun to play with.  But choosing a credit card is not about having fun.  While some people with excellent credit may be able to create a card that offers good rewards, individuals who don’t meet Capital One’s harsh criteria for excellent credit will find much better deals elsewhere.

Once upon a time, when credit was easy and banks were giving money away, at least one credit card company offered a 0% APR on balance transfers for life. A recent email inquiry led me to investigate whether or not such offers still exist. What I found was, well, a lot of confused and persistent rumors.

Let me begin. Many web forums have discussions about these 0% for life credit cards. If what they say is true, Discover once offered a 0% APR for life on balance transfers. The one condition was that a person made monthly purchases which would be charged the standard interest rate. The most recent postings about these offers stem from early 2005, with most of them coming earlier.

Now, perhaps these offers did exists then. I couldn’t imagine anyone on the internet making something up. So I called Discover to find out if I could get a 0% for life. And then I called them again. And again. And again.

In total, I logged a lucky eleven calls to Discover, all of which garnered the same answer: NO.

Apparently, no one knows about the card and no one remembers it. And, as one customer service rep put it, “that’s the worst business idea I’ve ever heard.”

So it seems the 0% for life credit card is about as real as that UK lottery I win two or three times a week. No credit card, especially in the current environment, wants to be in the business of giving money away. We’re lucky we can still get 0% APRs on purchases and balance transfers for a year.

Unfortunately, I would suggest to those looking to get a 0% APR for life to give up the wild goose chase. If you want a 0% APR for life, keep your credit good and take advantage of introductory rates. That’s as close as any of us mere mortals can hope for.

For more information on all current 0% APR credit cards, you can compare offers in the credit card comparison section of Smart Balance Transfers.

While saving money with a 0 APR balance transfer credit card is one of the easiest ways to cut down on monthly bills, making a costly balance transfer mistake is also very easy. Here are a few quick tips to help you maximize the money you save when transferring balances online.

1.) If you are transferring balances from more than one credit card, take advantage of a no fee balance transfer offer. Most credit card companies charge a balance transfer fee of 3% up to $75 dollars for each balance transferred. (Some credit cards have even taken the consumer un-friendly approach of putting no maximum fee on balance transfers.) However, you can avoid these altogether by applying for a no fee balance transfer credit card.

Applying for a no fee balance transfer card provide a great deal of savings if you are transferring balances from multiple cards. For example, if you transfer $3000 from one credit card, $2000 from another card, and $1500 from a third card, you’ll end up paying $180 in balance transfer fees. With a no fee balance transfer offer, all that money stays in your hands.

2.) Don’t run up new bills on your old credit cards. If you know you will be spending more money on your credit cards, you may want to apply for a credit card that offers a 0 APR on purchases as well as balance transfers. This will allow you to avoid paying interest on all of your credit card balances for a full year.

3.) Don’t rush to pay off your 0% balance. Take advantage of the 1 year interest free grace period by putting some extra cash in a high yielding savings account. At the end of the 0% period, use that money, plus the interest it has earned, to repay your credit card bill.

For more information on 0% APR no fee balance transfer credit cards, you can review current offers on Smart Balance Transfers and apply online for approval.

Although losing weight and quiting smoking are among the top New Year’s resolutions, the easiest, and perhaps best resolution should be to save money. What makes this resolution so easy? The fact that there are hundreds of ways we waste money every day.

As our specialty is credit cards, we’re dedicating our first post of the new year to simple ways to save hundreds of dollars with balance transfer credit cards. Firstly, if you carry a balance on your credit card, you probably waste about $140 for every $1000 you carry on your credit card. With a 0% balance transfer, then, you can save $520 by transferring a balance of $3000. Not too bad for something you can accomplish online in five minutes. You can compare current 0% APR balance transfer credit cards in the card comparison section of Smart Balance Transfers.

Want another way to save money? Get a new credit card that offers a 0% interest rate on both purchases and balance transfers. With one of these credit cards, you not only save money on the interest you would be paying (wasting) on your old credit card balances, but also on any new purchases you make. You can compare these offers and apply online at Smart Balance Transfers to start saving money in minutes.

Lastly, you can add an extra fifty to seventy five dollars to your savings by apply online for a no fee balance transfer credit card. While there are only a few of these offers available, they offer yet another way to start the new year by putting extra cash in your pocket.

We wish you all a prosperous and happy new year and hope we’ve helped you kick start a plan to save money in 2008.

As I’ve been documenting, the number of no fee balance transfer credit card offers are dwindling fast. And as of Novemeber 30th, the number of credit cards offering no fee balance transfers and a 0% APR for 1 year will now reach 0. That’s right. Zero. Zilch. None. Presently, the Citi Driver’s Edge Options card is the only credit card on the market that charges no fees and a 0% APR for 1 year on balance transfers. On November 30th, this card will no longer be available.

Once this card disappears, there will be two no fee balance transfer cards available. One, the Bank of America Platinum Plus, offers no fees and a 0% APR on purchases and balance transfers for 6 months. The other, the Citi Professional Card, offers no fees and a 0% APR on balance transfers for 9 months.

At this time last year, there were close to ten cards that offered no fee deals. Soon, I expect, there may not be any. However, paying a balance transfer fee is not the end of the world. And, with many offers, its better to pay the nominal fee and take advantage of longer 0% rates that apply to both purchases and balance transfers. However, if you want to save the 3% or $75 maximum fee and wring the most savings out of a balance transfer, get yourself the Citi Driver’s Edge Options card before it is pulled from the market.

Here’s a nasty little credit card trick that gently treads the line between vulgarity and criminality: some credit cards that offer 0% APR balance transfers for 1 year also offer 0% rates for 3 months. That’s right: THREE MONTHS. In the past, this nasty trick was deeply buried in the fine print. Fortunately, the lawyers must have decided this was too dirty for even credit card companies, and is now clearly disclosed by the perpetrators.

This is the basic deal. The credit card advertises a 0% APR on purchases and balance transfers for 1 year. Individuals that have very good and excellent credit are granted the promoted 0% rate. That’s great for them. But what about those with average credit. They get the second tier offer, which is 0% for 3 months on just balance transfers.

As unfair as this practice is, the dirtiest trick in this process is the enticement to transfer balances. Let’s say you don’t have the greatest credit and you’re looking to transfer a balance from a credit card with a 15% interest rate. You apply for one these cards and, while completing the application, opt to transfer $2000. First, you get charged a 3% balance transfer fee. That will cost you $60. Then, after a lovely 3 months, you find yourself getting charged the same exact interest rate you had on your old credit card. In the end, you might end up saving $20. But in worst case scenarios, you could get slapped with a higher interest rate on your new card than you had with your previous card. If that happens, your money saving balance transfer will actually cost you money.

Fortunately, avoiding this balance transfer trick is fairly simple. Just review the terms on the online application and make sure there is only one introductory rate offer.

You can review offers and apply online for a 0% APR balance transfer on this site. Just remember: READ THE FINE PRINT.