You are paying 9% on your student loan RIGHT NOW. If you take out a free 0% APR credit card loan, it should be used towards the student loan. Putting it in a 3.5% ING Savings Account effectively means you are REDUCING your student loans financing charge by 5.5%.

Because you are paying 9% APR while receiving 3.5% APY. So you are at a loss. It is not wise. Only do so if you are getting more out of it. Say if you had 3%APR loan. You would effectively be making 0.5% APR. As opposed to LOSING 5.5% APR from the scheme above.

Be careful also of a) opening too many accounts in a short period of time or b) carrying high balances relative to your credit limit as both have negative impacts on your credit score which can cost you in the long run.

I decided to keep at it and now that I am loan free, I use the 0% BT (convenient checks) and put them in Country wide 3.75% interest on savings (used to be 5.25%). I’m make about $150 monthly interest in my saving bank using $50,000 of the banks zero% BT loans (too cool)
Even better, I can use the banks money to pay off the min payments if nec. gotta love it.

Matt

Oh yeah, the car loan was through, get this, Chase! So even though they would not transfer between their 2 accounts, by cashing a BT check it works.

The other good thing is that the minimum monthly payment gets smaller over time, so if something comes up, we aren’t completely obligated to make the same payment every month as we would if we kept the car loan.

Yes discipline is a key element. But, so is understanding when Credit Card companies tend to offer better deals and when they don’t. It’s been my experience that when consumer spending is way down and people panic about Global economy, the Fed cuts key rates on lending, and we benefit from these better deals…As I stated before, it’s always great to have a HELOC and good discipline NEVER to borrow from these CC deals more than you have available in your HELOC. So, yes, use your HELOC, or other cash reserves to help pay off in case the rate deals go dry for a while, or your credit score is getting too low.

I’m looking for a card that has 0% APR on balance transfers, with no fee on balance transfers. Can you suggest anything?

I have a $13,000 loan on a car at 6.9%. My Citibank card is offering a 4.99% balance transfer for life with a transfer fee of 3% (no cap on the fee, so I’d pay $390). I owe zero on the card and obviously don’t plan to use it once I make the balance transfer. Is this worth it? Is this the best offer out there?

Thanks

To use the solution I am laying out in the next paragraph, it is important to note that to make this work you will either need a Heloc or some cash in reserve.

Simply put, when a 12 month period is about to expire, zero out your balance with either your Heloc or cash reserve, and within a month or two you will begin getting balance transfer offers again on that card. In that way, each of your cards can typically carry you for 12 months on, two months off, then 12 months on again.

For those new to this, some points you need to know that have not yet been posted on this thread:

1) You will never be allowed to transfer balances from a card or loan from one company, to a 0% card from the same company. They will refuse, as they don’t want to compete against themselves. For example, I have a Heloc with Citi and two cards w/Citi. I would have to use a check provided by the 0% card to deposit cash in my non-Citi checking account, then use that cash to pay my Citi Heloc. I could not simply write the transfer check directly to Citi for the Heloc.

2) Only do balance transfers on cards that have no other balance whatsoever, and never use that card for purchases (unless the purchases are also offered at 0%). The problem is that your purchases will sit on the card at the higher rate, and any payments you make will go only to the 0% transferred amount, leaving you unable to reduce your higher-rate balance until your 0% is fully paid off. Defeats the purpose.

3) As was pointed out in this thread, look carefully at balance transfer fees. A 3% fee is the same as paying 3% interest in your first year, so right off the bat you’re 0% offer is less enticing. If you are paying down a 7% or 8% auto loan or heloc, the 4% or 5% may not be worth the exposure you face on the back end when the 12 months are up.

4) Another interesting point: If you are paying off a Heloc, you will lose the tax deduction you were getting on the Heloc. For example, of you have a $10k balance on a Heloc at 7%, and if you are in a typical tax bracket of 25%, your effect rate on the Heloc would only be about 75% of the 7%, or 5.25%. Now, if you choose to transfer that 10k to a 0% card with a 3% transfer fee, you are saving only 2.25%, or $18.75 per month. Whether that is worth it or not is something you will need to evaluate for yourself.

Happy Money-Shifting!