I really hope the finance gurus here can help me. I very much want to do a balance transfer, but am positively terrified of getting "trapped". I've tried to educate myself as much as possible, but it's so hard to navigate each credit card offer's terms that I've become frustrated with the whole process. I have excellent credit in the 700's and the hubby and I are currently carrying $13K in credit card debt on one Chase card at prime+3%. Not a bad rate, but I desperately want to pay this off and be (relatively) debt free. I will be coming into $18K within the next year, although I don't know precisely when, and once I come into these funds will utilize them to pay off our credit card debt entirely. In the meantime, I'd like to not continue to accrue interest, even at a favorable rate. So, can someone help me find a balance transfer offer at 0% with a minimum fee? I received an AmEx offer that appeared attractive, but I would be hit with a $250 fee. Yikes! Also, can someone please explain to me how minimum required purchases work and how interest would apply to those new purchases? Any help (or direction to other online resources) would be greatly appreciated. Also, I've seen some 0% for life offers, but do those come with any additional "catches"? In particular, how about this deal? I guess my big fear is to get a great 0% offer with a low BT fee, but then get killed in interest on the required new purchases. I've never in my life paid a bill late, so I'm not worried about losing the intro rate due to default. I'm just confused about minimum purchase requirements and the subsequent APR accrual on them.
You are trying to reduce your carrying costs of around $700. If any other offer, including both fees and interest, will cost you over this, or isn't substantially less than this, it isn't worth the trouble. In particular, it isn't worth significant up front fees if there is some possibility you might pay this off earlier rather than later. If the rate is higher than what you already have (around 9%?), forget it. If it requires minimum purchses, you pay off the BT first, paying full interest on the accumulating purchase balance. Since there are plenty of lenders who don't require these games, why sign up with one that does? Do the math, including all fees over the period you will be carrying the charges. A 3% transfer fee up to $75, for example, is equivalent to an additional 1.2% effective APR when carrying $13k for 6 months. If there is an annual fee, forget it. Why even open an account with annual fees, when there are plenty with none? You might wait till a month or two after Christmas. The BT or "convenience check" offers I have seen most recently seem to assume I am some stupid consumer that bought too much for Christmas and will grab at any balance transfer terms, including 3% transfer fees and full cash advance rates (22% APR). Considering that they had previously offerred 3% APR till paid, with no fee, they could have saved themselves the mailing costs.
