Over the past 15 years, I have received numerous offers to sign up for this credit card or that credit card. Interest rates offered have varied from 0% to 5.99%, some offer FREE miles or cash-back awards and most come with transfer balance offers. Some are 0% for transfer balances only. Some are 0% for all purchases.
Perhaps you receive just as many of these every week and have been tempted to take advantage of them. Let me just say that I feel like the 0% Interest Queen. Since 1991 I have borrowed about $100,000 from various credit cards and paid 0% interest. In most instances, I was able to transfer balances from one card to the other with no fee but at times, there would be a $35 – $50 charge for the transfer.
Here are a few pointers to be aware of:
- some card companies now charge a minimum of $10 or 3% of the transfer balance
- some require a purchase every month until the transfer balance is paid off
- you will have to pay a minimum of 2% of your balance every month.
Using a 0% credit card has made it possible for me to purchase many things that I would not have been able to buy otherwise. I don’t abuse my credit cards but I love having the freedom to buy something I really want knowing that I won’t incur any interest. I always pay well over the required monthly payment so that I can clear the balance that much sooner. Because of this my credit rating is Excellent which means I get more 0%offers.
The only problem I have experienced is keeping track of when the 0% offer expires. To solve this problem, I created a folder with information on each card showing the 16 digit account number, the date I transferred the balance, the date the payment is due and the date this offer expires. Since I make all payments online, I indicate when I have scheduled the payment. Most cards allow you to schedule your payments ahead of time so I normally schedule all the payments for the upcoming month. At the moment I have four cards with 0% interest that I am paying on. Hopefully, I will be able to consolidate these four down to 2 or 3 once the balances are low enough.
My last big transfer was a student loan of $25,000 to a 0% card. I had paid on this loan for over 4 years — every month, the interest was over $180. I received an offer with a credit limit of $26,000 so I did the math and realized that I would be required to pay 2% of the balance if I decided to transfer this loan. In the past 6 months, I have paid off $3,000 of this balance but it’s all principal. By the time the 0% expires, hopefully, there will be another 0% offer to transfer this balance.
Maybe this would work for you … maybe not. It does require record keeping but for me, it’s worth it!
Louise
