Credit Card Balance Transfers

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Credit card balance transfers are one of the financial world's great empowering features, but they can only be done successfully if you follow the rules and don't fall foul of them. Firstly you must consider the benefits, then the pitfalls. These two aspects are more or less permanent features of the credit card balance transfer system.

The benefits of credit card balance transfers can be summarized as the product of a twofold strategy:

You can transfer credit card balances once the initial interest free period is up to another card, and so continue your interest free credit. You can more or less plan to make these credit card balance transfers in advance as long as you have a way of finding new cards to transfer to, and you stay in control of your finances and spending.

Taking these two together - the credit card balance transfers and the planning - you can aim to give yourself interest free credit for a long time, even for years.

The pitfalls are as follows, and must be considered carefully. These are:

Overshooting the Interest Free period

This is a crucial and fundamental issue. There is no point taking out a card with a known zero interest period or low interest period if you just go and breach that time period. Check the date that the interest free allotment ends, and then backtrack by about ten days before then. Ten days is about the right time to apply for a new card. Remember that the application itself will take time, and that this time will vary from card to card. Take into account seasonal changes in the speed and effectiveness of the mail delivery. In the run up to Christmas, for example, it would be wise to allow two weeks.

Minimum Repayment Obligations

Remember to check on what your agreed monthly repayment arrangements are. You may have to pay back a certain percentage (three percent or more, depending on the card) or risk incurring minimum payment fees. This is true even if it occurs within the interest free period, as the credit card provider will want to know that you can at least maintain a minimum repayment to justify the confidence in you when you originally signed up for the credit card balance transfers. On some cards, however, such an arrangement may not apply.

For more information see the Credit Card balance transfers US site, or the Credit Card Balance Transfers UK site if you live in the U.K.

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