• Tweet ^[1]
• Email ^[2]

• Tweet ^[1]
• Email ^[2]

If you’ve been in the market for cards that offer 0% on balance transfers ^[3], you’ll probably see that a lot of cards now have decided to instead only offer 0% on purchases instead (such as this 0% on purchases for 15 months offer by Blue from American Express ^[4]). Now, I don’t know what has led to this increase other than the cards wanting to end the whole 0% balance transfer arbitrage game ^[5] but here’s a little way to turn your offer of 0% APR on purchases into a 0% balance transfer offer ^[3].

• Sign up for Google Checkout as a vendor ^[6]. You will need a website with a privacy policy, you can just start a site with Blogspot.
• Send an invoice to yourself.
• Pay the invoice with your 0% on purchases card.
• Laugh at the card company’s feeble attempts to stop 0% balance transfer arbitrage gaming.

This will only work until February 2008 because Google Checkout has waived all the processing fees until then. If you’re concerned about reporting this an income, Google doesn’t track payments from the perspective of reconciling income (just like eBay doesn’t care how much you sell), and since in theory you’re paying yourself, it’s not really income. If you’re concerned about the tax and legal ramifications, I recommend you contacting a tax attorney on that.

Here are some good no annual fee, 12+ month 0% on purchases offers (if you’ve exhausted all the 0% balance transfers ^[3], which is pretty hard to imagine):

• Blue from American Express ^[4] – 15 months
• Discover Business Card ^[7]
• Citi CashReturns Card ^[8] – up to 12 months