The Discover More card is one of the few credit cards that rotates its reward categories. Normally, a rewards credit card is set in its ways when it comes to reward categories. The Discover More card, through it’s Get More program, rotates the bonus category every quarter to something that seems seasonally appropriate. For January through March, you get a bonus on travel and restaurants since lots of people travel (probable to get out of the cold!).

Well, fortunately for us, Discover is also pretty friendly about broadcasting the schedule. Here is the Get More 5% Cashback bonus calendar:
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The offers on this page are out dated, you can find the latest news when the April update is released.

If you thought the offers from last month were juicy, this month is going to surprise you as some issuers are really pulling out all the stops. I’ve been watching balance transfer offers for years and it’s been quite some time since someone offered a $100 in cashback as part of a new account promotion and tied it to a card with a 0% balance transfer or 0% purchases offer. I think the issuers are starting to really get aggressive in competing with one another and you, the consumer, benefit from it.

The story last month was longer promotional periods, this month we get to see a little bit of bonus action on the front end coupled with more standard balance transfer promotional rate periods.

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The offers on this page are out dated, you can find the latest news on the best zero balance transfers here.

Once a month, every month, I’ll be providing an update on the “state of the balance transfer” on the first Thursday of the month. With the credit crisis abated and the economy recovering, a lot of credit card companies are resuming their credit card offers, including the once prominent 0% balance transfer. In these monthly posts, I’ll keep you apprised on how the landscape has changed in the last month along with a look at some of the more prominent cards in each category.

In the last month, we’ve seen the introduction of a lot of cards with longer 0% APR periods. We’ve even seen Discover bring in a card with no balance transfer fee, a staple during the housing boom but something that has fallen out of favor as of late.

Your typical trade-offs are still there – longer 0% period or lower balance transfer fee? Discover has a 5% fee but a 24 month 0% APR period but Citi has a lower fee but only an 18 month 0% APR period. The right card for you depends on your balance and how quickly you think you can pay it off.

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The whole 0% balance transfer business has been heating up with the recovering of the economy. The latest entry into the fray is Discover Card with a limited time offer of a two year 0% balance transfer if you apply before the end of February. Two years is a lot of time and certainly beats twelve months. If you’re looking at a credit card balance with double digit interest rates, I think a 0% balance transfer is something that will help you get caught up if used in conjunction with a debt repayment plan.

In addition to the balance transfer, you also have access to their Get More program. It’s a rewards program that cycles what will pay you 5% cashback (from January 1 – March 31, you get 5% cash back on travel and restaurants). For everything else, you get 0.25% cashback on the first $3,000 you spend followed by a full 1%.

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When the economy is prospering, debt isn’t an issue. You can pay your obligations of today because you know that you’ll be earning more tomorrow and lenders aren’t worried you’ll miss a payment. But as the economy sank last year, you saw a lot of credit card and loan companies scramble to assess the risk of their borrowers. If you had a credit card balance, you might have seen your interest rate go up. If you wanted to buy a house, you may have had to document your income a lot more stringently than you expected. It’s not surprising because the average household credit card debt, based on the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances in 2007, was $3,039.70.

At first glance that may seem a little low, but remember that a lot of people don’t even have access to credit cards. If you only include families with credit card debt, that value goes up to over $7,000. Ultimately, any amount over $0 is too much because credit card companies charge interest rates in the double digits. High yield savings accounts pay out less than 2% these days, so a double digit interest rate on credit cards is far too much. It’s time to pay them down, here’s how.

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A couple years ago, you could play the balance transfer arbitrage game over and over again. Apply for a credit card, get a 0% balance transfer, and then transfer that right into your 5% APY online savings account. Man, those were the days!

Now, balance transfer periods are shorter, transfer fees are higher, and, most insidious of all, the interest rates after the 0% promotion ends are higher. With the recent credit card laws, I’m betting those offers will become even less inviting. While this will take all those balance transfer arbitragers out of the game, they can still be effective tools for people looking to catch up on their credit card debt. A 0% interest rate, even for only a few months, can give you a little bit of breathing room so here’s how you should compare balance transfer offers.

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Gone are the days when you couldn’t walk to your mail box without a credit card offering 0% on balance transfers or 0% on purchases hitting you in the face (or one touting they had the best cash back credit card). With the recent credit crisis and all the bank failures, credit card issuers are holding onto their cards tighter and tighter. Despite the climate, there are still many 0% APR credit cards out there with attractive offers as long as you can find them and as long as you qualify. The credit requirements are higher than they once were but they are still reasonable as long as you have good credit. If you’re unsure about your credit, you can use one of the free credit score estimate tools to get a better idea of where you stand.

So, what makes a great 0% APR credit card and what justifies its inclusion on my lists?

• Brand name: I prefer working with brand name banks and issuers that I’ve heard of before. All of the cards I list are issued by banks that are publicly traded and well known in the banking community, if not the general population. For publicly traded companies, their reputation is crucial and that’s important to me. I need to know the company I work with will care about what I say about it. In addition to reputation, a larger brand name issuer often means I can get someone on the phone at anytime during the day. I don’t want to be calling some community bank and getting a voicemail box because it’s 5:01 PM. I have nothing against community banks, but I need to know I can get someone, even if they’re at a call center, when I have a problem at night.
• No annual fee: I never list a card that has an annual fee unless there is a very good reason for it. There is absolutely no reason why anyone should pay an annual fee to use a credit card, unless it offers a frequent flyer miles program, because the companies make so much money on the transaction fees it collects when you use the card.l
• 0% balance transfer for 12 months: Twelve month balance transfers are getting rarer and rarer but I think you have to get at least a year on your 0% APR transfer for it to be worth your while. Every time you apply for a new card, your credit score takes a hit. If you use 6 month offers, you double the number of applications you have to fill out just to get the same amount of credit.
• 0% on purchases for 12 months: Again, similar logic to the 0% balance transfer, though my love for 0% on purchases is fleeting. The only exception is the card that I profile as the best 0% on purchases card, it’s not for 12 months but it has a unique offer I’ve never seen before.

Below, I’ll list the card that I believe offers the best credit cards in their class for 0% APR balance transfers or 0% APR on purchases along with some “runners up,” with comparable offers.

Best 0% Balance Transfers Credit Card

When it comes to 0% balance transfers, the king nowadays has to be the Discover More card. All cards now require a balance transfer fee of 3% and the minimum fee on the Discover Card is $0, unlike other cards which have a minimum that’s much higher.

One word of warning about balance transfers, you must request a balance transfer and not a cash advance. Don’t fill out one of the checks they send you, that’s a cash advance. Cash advances do not have a 0% APR rate, they have the standard purchase rate plus the 3% cash advance fee (minimum of $5). Do not go to an ATM and withdraw money, that is also a cash advance. Call the credit card company and specifically request a balance transfer.

Runner-Up 0% APR on Balance Transfers Cards

• Citi Platinum Select Card – 0% APR for purchases for 21 months and balance transfers for 21 months*. One nice thing about Citi cards is that they will send you a check directly, though the interest rates after the transfer expires aren’t as good; so it depends on your financial plan.
• Discover Open Road Card – 0% balance transfer offer for 12 months and 0% on purchases for 6 months, 5% cash back on gas and auto maintenance purchases, no annual fee.
• Discover Monogram Card – 0% balance transfer offer for 12 months and 0% on purchases for 6 months, no annual fee.

Best 0% Purchases Credit Card

The best 0% on purchases credit card right now is the Citi Platinum Select Card because it offers both a 0% on purchases for 21 months and a 0% on balance transfers for 21 months, based on your credit history. There is no annual fee and it has all the features you’ve come to expect from a Citi card including online account access, 0% liability on unauthorized charges, travel accident insurance, and car rental insurance.

Runner-Up 0% APR on Purchases Cards

• Citi Platinum Select Card – 0% APR for purchases and balance transfers.
• Blue from American Express – 0% balance on purchases for 12 months, Express Approval. Get a decision in less than 60 seconds., no annual fee.
• Blue Cash from American Express – 0% APR on Purchases for Up to 12 Months, No Annual Fee, plus 1% cash back on purchases
• Capital One® No Hassle CashSM Rewards – 0% intro APR on purchases for a limited time, check the terms & conditions for the duration.

Not sure if you want a 0% balance transfer or a 0% on purchases offer? Get the Citi Platinum Select Card because it offers both!

When I used to play the balance transfer arbitrage game a few years ago, no fee 0% balance transfers were plentiful. I had my pick of the litter and it usually was a Citi card because they would send the check directly to you. Nowadays, 0% balance transfers are still available but they have 3% balance transfer fees (sometimes capped, oftentimes not) making them good options for people with credit card debt but effectively killing the balance transfer arbitrage games (well, sagging interest rates on high yield savings accounts probably did that more than anything).

However, one place you might look to for a no fee 0% balance transfers is at your community bank. Reader Robert shared an experience he had with a local bank in Connecticut that was still offering 0% balance transfers on their credit cards.

Just thought I would let you know that I received and took advantage of a fifteen month, 0% balance transfer offer with NO fees. This was through a local bank here in Connecticut (Liberty Bank), underwritten by Elan Financial Services. I have not these types of offers for a long time and thought they were dead, but apparently not.

Oftentimes we always think to look for the best offers from national companies like Citi, Discover, Chase, and Bank of America; but the best offers may be in your own neighborhood.

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0% credit cards are all the rage these days and this list will help you identify the best deals out there. Consumer spending is down, fears of a recession are up, and retailers are scrambling to entice regular people like you and me to enter their stores and buy more stuff. One group of companies you’ll also find lining up to offer you special offers is the credit card industry.

Credit card companies don’t necessarily want you to go into debt to them, though that doesn’t hurt their bottom line. They want you to keep on spending because they earn money on processing transactions. If you review the annual statements of any credit card issuer, most of the income they derive from credit cards comes in the form of data processing and service fees. So, in order to keep spending up as long as possible, more and more are offering great offers such as 0% APY for 12 months on purchases and balance transfers.

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The reports of the death of 0% APY balance transfers are greatly exaggerated.

Many years ago, no fee 0% balance transfers were a dime a dozen. It would be difficult to find a credit card that didn’t offer a no fee 0% balance transfer as the cheap and easy credit flowed like wine at a Great Dionysia Festival. You couldn’t open your mailbox because it was stuffed full with special promotional offers from all your good friends at the major credit card companies.

The fee-free frenzy gave way to new terms like app-o-rama and balance transfer arbitrage. People would go on credit card application binges so that they could get as many cards as possible (an App-o-rama) just to take advantage of the balance transfer offer. It was not unheard of for someone to get $30,000 (and that’s just a conservative figure) in balance transfers just to put it in a high yield savings account earning 4-5% APY (that’s the arbitrage).

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