Credit Card Balance Transfers

[Writer21]

Here's a helpful piece of advice when it comes to balance transfers, epecially as they pertain to discover card.

Don't do it!

Yes, they often offer very low interest (as much as 12%) when you transfer a balance from another credit card to Discover; however, what they conveniently forget to point out is that the interest rate is usually promotional and good for about 6 months, or maybe 12, depending on the offer, and then the rate climbs to about 18%.

What they also never mention, and you don't see, is that there is a $15 balance transfer fee. I know I was surprised, as well as irritated to learn this when I got my first statement.

Lastly, and probably most importantly, if you do decide to transfer (even though you shouldn't) make sure you're never late on your monthly payments. Being as little as 1 hour overdue cancels out the promotional interest rate and raises it to 24%! Which is completely outrageous.

I'm not sure how it works for other credit cards, but with Discover, it seemed as if it would have been easier to leave the balance on my Visa alone rather than bother transfering the balance to a new card.

[Admin]

Thanks for pointing that out David.

Credit card companies are indeed money-hungry, and will do whatever they can to keep you paying more in fees and interest. These card issuers can legally bump up your interest rate at any time at their discretion, so introductory offers are not always set in stone. This has never happened to me personally, but I have heard from other people who have experienced this.

While this may be the case sometimes, I must admit that my own experiences with balance transfers have been nothing but good. A few years back, I used to have credit cards with high interest rates because I had bad credit. However, within the last couple of years, I've managed to improve my credit, and transferred all my high interest balances over to introductory 0% credit cards, namely CitiBank and Chase. This introductory period lasted for a year on both cards with no problem, and it did save me a lot of money in interest fees. In addition, my interest rate for my CitiBank only went up to 8.99% which is pretty good considering the prime index rate is currently at 8.25%.

[tony]

This actually happened to me with Bank of America. Strangely I was not over the limit but my payment was late which added fees and pushed the balance over the limit. The result was an interest rate that went from 9% up to %20 and I was STEAMING, Bank of America did not care to I made my payments and cancelled the card. I vowed never to deal with Bank of America again.

[justcallmebroke]

My husband has done a good deal of transferring balances on our credit cards. He's always on the look out for the 'better deal'. And, yeah, I think most companies charges a transfer fee. Sometimes it is worth it, though.

You are so right when it comes to being careful about transferring balances. Lol, the fine print can be so little sometimes.

[NYC]

Balance transfers can work out good, very good infact. If you are stuck on a card that has gone up to the 29.99% apr because of a missed payment transfering that balance to another card can save you in the long run.

There are some cards that have low apr for balances as long as the balance is paid off within a certain period of time, and even others that have a low apr for its life time. You just have to search for them.