Smart Balance Transfers » Credit Card Mail Offers

Consumer Advisory on Credit Card Checks

Balance Transfers Helper — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 17:40:27 +0000

A few days ago, a visitor of Smart Balance Transfers contacted me about an issue she had with a credit card check her fiance received in the mail. I have long cautioned against the use of balance transfer and cash advance checks, mainly because there is always a chance that these checks may bounce.

Below is Irina’s experience with a bouncing credit card check from Citibank. Fortunately, she did not incur great expense. However, anyone considering use of these credit card checks should think twice before using them.

From Irina:

1. My fiance has a credit card with Citibank. He is paying it off and has never incurred in default. His APR is about 7%.

2. At the beginning of June, he received an offer via mail. It was a set of 4 balance transfer checks with 0% APR til December, 2011 and 19.99% APR afterwards, with a 4% fee. In order to use them, he was supposed to call the bank and authenticate them.

3. My fiance saw an opportunity to get some credit card relief and make some payments and decided to take 3,000. He called and validated them. The executive that made sure of that told him that he could write the check to himself, go to a Citibank branch and get cash.

4. We did so on Wednesday, June 23rd, but the cashier refused to do it. She said they were to be deposited in a checking account or pay the credit card with it, which we decided not to do at that time.

5. We went across the street to a Bank of America and deposited a new check into my account. The money would be available on Friday, June 25th according to the cashier. We were a little upset that the executive had lied to us about the cash, but the 2 day delay was not a problem.

6. Next day, on June 24th, I checked my account online and the deposit appeared as “pending” and available on June 24th, but it did not appear on his Citibank acct. Therefore, he called another representative, told him what had happened and he assured him that there was not a problem and that it would appear within the next couple of days.

6. On June 25th, the money appeared on my account as Counter Credit, but we decided not to take it since it was still not appearing on my fiance’s acct.

7. On Monday, June 28th, situation was the same. He called to find out why it hadn’t appeared on his balance, and up to that point, he was told that the offer was no longer available and that he didn’t qualify. At that moment, the balance was still on my account. I called Bank of America to ask what the procedure was and while we were on the phone call, the funds were retired without incurring in any charges, there would have been a sea of them had I used the money according to the BA Customer Services agent .

8. My fiance kept calling and got ahold of a manager, who told him that the reason he had been denied was that the bank had called off the offer and decided that they could not afford it since June 8th, that he had thousands of complaints regarding the same offer and that there was a clause in the credit card terms saying that they can retract any balance transfer offer.

9. Today, he received a letter from the bank apologizing and saying simply that we was no longer eligible.

As you can see from Irina’s story, credit card checks can create numerous problems no matter how diligent one is in verifying these deals. The best thing to do with balance transfer checks is to throw them in the trash. Irina was fortunate to have not incurred fees. However, I fear others have been much less fortunate.

Chase Sends Credit Card Offer in the Mail & World Doesn’t End

Balance Transfers Helper — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:34:36 +0000

Just yesterday, I was lamenting the decline of the credit card mail offers, as it had been some time since I had pulled one from the mailbox. Apparently, I spoke too soon. Today, not one, but two offers from Chase were in my mailbox. However, the offers I received only reinforced my concerns about 0% offers. A year ago, mail offers from Chase often offered a fixed apr for life on balance transfers or a 0% APR for up to 15 months.

Today’s offer: a 0% APR for 6 months on purchases and balance transfers. While this is quite nice of them, it is further evidence that credit card companies are slicing consumer friendly 0% APR deals. Soon, I fear, they may disappear.

Given all the horror stories consumers have been sharing about Chase, I put these offers straight into the shredder. And, while I lament the fact that the length of the 0% rate was a lowly 6 months, the very fact that credit card companies are sending mail is the first positive I’ve seen in a while.

Where are the Credit Card Offers?

Balance Transfers Helper — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 23:28:07 +0000

I realized today that there’s been a sound missing from my life. At first I couldn’t figure it out, but when I was getting the mail today, it clicked. I was missing the sound of my shredder. This time last year, my shredder was running full steam, shedding two or three credit card offers a day. During the fall, the credit card offers were coming in slowly, but my shredder was at least getting exercise a few times a week.

Lately, however, there haven’t been any credit card offers to shred. No 0% introductory offers. No fixed for life balance transfers. Not even an airline credit card with an $85 annual fee.

As someone who spends much of his life researching and writing about credit cards (its as depressing as it sounds), I’ve grown to miss the afternoon ritual of reading and shredding credit card offers. I’m really starting to think I wasted money when I bought the shredder with the special credit card hole.

While the lack of paper and plastic running through my shredder has its upsides (more trees, less wasted plastic), the complete absence of credit card offers highlights a growing problem for consumers: nobody wants to issue credit cards. Last year, I could count on at least three American Express, two Bank of America, a Chase, and a Capital One offering per week. Plus, a Discover or HSBC now and then. Now, like many Americans, I’m being completely ignored.

The number of credit card offers sent through the mail has been in decline for some time. However, most people greeted this trend with a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, this is not a good thing at all. First of all, when there were offers, there was competition. People could choose from multiple deals (you can still do this online, but again, there are fewer offers to choose from). More importantly, people were being reminded of the fact that better deals existed. I’m probably one of the few people who wakes up thinking about 0% balance transfers. Most people need a reminder, like a advertisement. I’m sure many millions of people saved quite a bit of money because a 0% credit card offer piqued their interest.

Ultimately, the sad truth is that credit card companies don’t want our business anymore. And they definitely don’t want us taking advantage of money saving 0% APR deals. Fortunately, for the time being, you can still get a 0% credit card online at-gratuitous plug warning-websites like Smart Balance Transfers. Unfortunately, the people who aren’t actively seeking to save money on credit card interest are missing out on rare opportunities to reduce expenses.

So I remain sad about my silent shredder and my empty mailbox. Sure, I love trees as much as Al Gore. But I’d rather see a few more credit card offers sent out so more Americans can use 0% deals to help them deal with these tough times.

Does www.getmyvisa.com Offer Good Deals?

Balance Transfers Helper — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:10:40 +0000

Updated: Washington Mutual was aquired by Chase. As far as we are aware, mail offers from the get my Visa domain are no longer active.

Is www.bankofamerica.com/easybt a good deal?

Balance Transfers Helper — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:42:12 +0000

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.

A Bad Balance Transfer Experience

Balance Transfers Helper — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 15:33:00 +0000

I received an email from a visitor detailing a bad balance transfer situation that she wanted me to share with other visitors. The visitor received a mail offer from her current credit card company offering her a 0% APR on balance transfers for 1 year. When she received the offer, she had a $5000 balance with the company extending the 0% offer and a $3000 balance with another company. Hoping she could save some money and consolidate her payments, the visitor initiated the balance transfer. That’s where the problems began.

First, she was charged a $75 balance transfer fee. If you’ve been here before, you know I strongly recommend no fee balance transfer credit cards. However, the $75 in balance transfer fees was only the tip of the iceberg. When the visitor made payments to her consolidated credit card bill, she was surprised to find out that every dollar she paid reduced the portion of her debt being charged 0% interest, not the balance being charged 14%. Fortunately, she realized this nasty credit card trick after only a few statements.

After finding my site on Google, she applied for a no fee balance transfer card and sent me an email asking that I share her story with my visitors. I was more than happy to oblige as this highlights one of the nastiest little tricks in the credit card industry. Buried in the fine print of just about every credit card’s terms and conditions will be a statement such as this: every payment will be applied to the balance with the lowest interest rate. In a nutshell, this means that if you have a balance on your credit card and you are offered a 0% balance transfer deal, you’re best off putting it in the shredder and consolidating your credit balances on a new 0% APR credit card that charges no balance transfer fees.

The Biggest Balance Transfer Rip-Off

Balance Transfers Helper — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 16:24:00 +0000

For my first post, I figured I’d exposed one of the more atrocious tricks credit card companies play: offering a fixed APR or 0% APR balance transfer to a customer who has a balance on their card.

Here’s how the trick works. We’ll assume we’ve got a $2000 balance on credit card one getting charged 15% interest and another $2000 on credit card two at the same rate. A mail offer from credit card company one offers you a fixed 4.99% APR for life on balance transfers. On the surface, it looks like a good deal: we can reduce our interest rate by 2/3. However, there’s some nasty trickery just below the surface.

First, we’ll start with the fees. 99% of credit cards charge a 3% balance transfer fee. So, to transfer $2000 from card two, it’ll cost $60 upfront. Now, that’s not a terrible deal, since the higher interest rate would have cost us $200 more in interest over the course of the year ($140 when you factor in the fee). However, once the balance is transferred, the real trickery begins.

If you look at the fine print of the 30 page disclosures pamphlet credit card companies are required to send you every time they make a change to their terms and conditions, you’ll discover that any time you make a payment, the payment will be credited towards the balance on your credit card with the LOWEST INTEREST RATE. When we transferred our balance to the low fixed rate, we agreed that all our payments will reduce the balance being charged 4.99% interest.

What does this mean? Well, let’s say we decide to pay off $2000 of our debt. We’ve just eliminated the entire low APR balance and now have $2000 of debt being charged 15% interest. Not only are we right back where we started, we’ve wasted $60 in balance transfer fees.

Is this practice atrocious? Yes. Detestable? Clearly. Legal? 100%. Avoidable? Now it is.