Zero Percent, no fee, 11 month balance transfer!

[Tiny]

Woo Hoo! I just received a Balance Transfer offer from Chase that's 0% till April 2012 with no fee! It does have a transfer limit of $3750.00, though.
The potential problem (for me) is that it's one of the the reward Cards I use every month. I just requested my agreement so I can find the best way to take advantage of this... without getting hit with interest while still reaping rewards. I think the new Credit Card rules will let me pay in full the new monthly charges before paying off the balance transfer but I want to be sure.

I've got about 9K on my HELOC at 5% which I'll be paying down/off over the next 24 months or so. I'm thinking I'll move $3750 of that to the 0% offer for 11 months while paying down the HELOC as planned. I'll just transfer the credit card balance back to the HELOC or maybe to another 0% offer! after that.

Anyone else seeing better 0%, no fee offers?

[RoadToRiches]

Damn I wish I could get approved for something like that!

[Plain Old Petunia]

No, I haven't seen any, but that is a heck of a deal! Score.

[Gardening Grandma]

I've had some 0% offers, but they all had fees......

[mithrin]

I got one from Commerce Bank last year with no fee 0% for 12 months with opening of a new card. Put a little over 5K on it. My wife has been getting the same offer from them once or twice a month lately.

[Tiny]

I'm hoping this signals the return of Credit Cards allowing the use of their money for free for fixed periods of time. The balance transfer limit (of $3750) on the offer I received seems to be something new. I'm guesstimating I'd painlessly (and mindlessly) save about $100 in interest with the transfer... not a huge amount but still worth it for so little effort and no ding to my credit score - I've got a scary high credit limit on that card.

ADDED: I could make good use of someone else's free money at this time.

[Opti]

Its a great deal. I wonder if the bank is getting enough defaults on these offers to keep them going or they are funding them from other profits.

[telephus44]

Wow, that's good. I've been looking for one since we're doing a basement remodel I don't have the cash on hand for (well, don't want to wipe out EF for). Best I've gotten is 0% for 12 months but a 3% fee. I was considering calling them to see if they'd reduce or waive the fee, but I'm not sure how sucessful that would be. I know people call and ask for reduction in interest rates all the time. Anyone ever try getting a BT fee reduced or waived?

[keepinthefaith]

How do you people get these offers??? I have excellent credit and pay off my cc every month (only use it b/c of the rewards) and I never get offers like that. I guess they don't think I need them, but I would love to take advantage of something like that. I did get one in the mail yesterday...2 years and no fee...but 4.99% interest!!! Are you kidding me?

[schildi]

Nope, haven't seen any no fee offers in a long time. 0% - yes, but so far all with a fee. With the current interest rates, the CC game is not all that tempting anyway. In your case, you are looking at saving $170 or so, so it's probably worth it.
I kind of doubt you can do that while still using the card, make sure you read everything. In the past, payments have been applied to the balance with the lowest interest first, which would kill the deal if you want to keep on using this card.

[Tiny]

How do you people get these offers??

Because I've got alot of credit cards (I barely use)? And they keep sending me offers?
I've got a scary high FICO score too...
Seriously, years ago back in the heyday of 0% offers I only got so so offers from the two cards I had. Then after reading about good offers and ways to use them over and over on YM/WIR and looking at my 'debt load' and interest I was paying and running some numbers (on how much interest I could save if I could "store" some of the debt at 0% while I paid down what was left at a higher interest rate) I decided to take the plunge.
I went over to bankrate.com and looked thru their list of credit cards and offers and terms. I found one and applied for a new card which would afford me my first opportunity to transfer money... I was TERRIFIED as I had the idea that having lots of credit cards with balances was the road to HELL! drilled into my head. I had to get over the idea that I was a bad person. HEy, I had a pay off plan already in place what did it matter where I sent the money every month? As long as I didn't add to the pile of debt....

Over the course of several years I opened a handful of Balance Transfer Cards. I never charged anything on these cards... I continued to use my primary card for everyday stuff. I mostly transferred balances from my HELOC to the 0% offers. (Yes, HELOC interest is deductable - but it was piddly amounts of short term debt and I didn't really want to spend $1.00 to save .25... or however that works when I could save $1.00 right off the bat)

If you have good credit maybe it's time to shop around for a Balance Transfer Card. Opening a new account may do the trick for you. My two original credit cards (the oldest I have) are some of the worst cards - no rewards, ludicris interest rates, insane late fees and such. I've never paid interest or fess so I never really cared. I never get good offers from those two cards.

[Havoc]

I just received an offer from Chase for a cashback card - Chase Freedom card, I think it was called (1% on everything, 5% on special categories) that has no fee, 0% rate until May 2012, and gives $150 after the first purchase, which I was a little surprised at - didn't think anyone did that anymore.

[Plain Old Petunia]

I love my Chase Freedom card.

[Tiny]

It's the Chase Freedom card that's offering me the 0% no fee transfer. I've also got a Chase Slate (original balance transfer card - no rewards, carpy interest rate).

[Mrs. Dinero]

"It's the Chase Freedom card that's offering me the 0% no fee transfer. I've also got a Chase Slate (original balance transfer card - no rewards, carpy interest rate)." We received the same offer and have the Slate card as well.

[Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ]

I have not seen a 0% balance transfer that is worth my time since the democrats in Congress meddled with the financial/credit industry. It's been at least two plus years. I still get them in the mail, usually at least one per day. They all are coming with big trans fees.

At one point a few years ago I had nearly $50,000 out.

If any of you recall MTL from the old forums, he had noted that at any one time he had several hundred thousand out on these types of offers.

[Mardi Gras Audrey]

Didn't we have a poster on YM that had his house note on balance transfers (I think he had paid off his mortgage with the BTs and then either paid down the transfers or kept rolling them over)? I think his name was dark frequency but I could be getting confused. I thought it was kinda cool to say that you bought your home with your CC ;D

[myrrh]

It's my understanding that using a card with multiple interest rates (regular charge rate + balance transfer rate) the minimum payment amount is allocated however the bank likes; anything over the minimum goes to highest rate amount (regular charges). link: www.bankrate.com/finance/credit-cards/5-ways-the-card-act-helps-balance-carriers-1.aspx.

And no I never see offers like that either!

[Plain Old Petunia]

Well I am going to head on over to chase.com right now! I'm not at all certain what I need that 0% no fee offer for, but darn it, they need to give me that offer!

[qofcc]

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Didn't we have a poster on YM that had his house note on balance transfers (I think he had paid off his mortgage with the BTs and then either paid down the transfers or kept rolling them over)? I think his name was dark frequency but I could be getting confused. I thought it was kinda cool to say that you bought your home with your CC

I have a relative who paid off his mortgage with balance transfer checks with crazy low interest rates locked in for the life of the balance. His minimim payment keeps going down every month they live in the house.

[Plain Old Petunia]

They won't give it to me, I have "no available balance transfer offers at this time". I have a credit limit of 17,750 and it looks like my balance on my next statement will be 456. Why shouldn't I have an available offer? Now I am CRANKY. ATSiaRU got something and I didn't! No fair.

[Deleted]

Haven't gotten one of those in years...

[Tiny]

Petunia100 -- wxyz got an offer with a $5500 limit! Let's both be CRANKY with wxyz - he got something neither of us got!!

How does one give the 'Stink Eye' in an electronic forum???

[Plain Old Petunia]

Well, we could go with this one:

or we could give wxyz some of these:

[Havoc]

woot! The offer of $150 after the first purchase on a new Chase Freedom card expired and I was sort of kicking myself for not signing up just to get that kickback.... but yesterday I got a new offer in the mail for $200! I am not big on collecting credit cards, but I don't think I will pass this up.

They must have a good marketing system though - I don't think I have ever personally received an offer that waives the balance transfer fee that some folks have been talking about here... so I wonder if credit companies can get a more detailed report than I get for the free annual that shows that we pay off every month, so they tailor it more towards cash instead of waiving fees...

[garion2003]

ATS has been helpful in a thread I started on my own offer, so I thought I'd chime in here since it has more traffic

I have a Chase Freedom and they just me a BT offer with no fee and 0%. Like others, that's my main rewards card and I use it monthly (but pay it off). So I was worried if the payments would go to the lowest rate first. Can't wait to hear what ATS finds!

I did just get a new offer for a rewards card (through AAA). It gives me 2% on gas and groceries which is more than Chase (unless groceries happen to be on the 3 month 5% deal, but they aren't for the rest of this year as I recall).

So I may use the new card for every day stuff and leave the BT on the Chase.

[Tiny]

So, I got my user agreement in the mail and here's what it sez:

Payment Allocation
What it means to you: You may want to consider making more than your required minimum payment. When you do, the excess generally goes toward paying off your highest APR balance first, then other balances in order of descending APRs. Because we apply payments in excess of your minimum payment first to higher rate balances, you may not be able to avoid interest charges on new purchases if you have anoterh balance at a higher interest rate unless you pay your balance in full each month.

Our Responsibility: For the portion of any payment less than or equal to the required minimum payment and for any credits, we will apply that amount to your balance in any way we choose.

So it looks like I can continue to use my Freedom card - I just need to make sure I send in enough money to cover all the minimums AND the new monthly charges... Chase will allocate my payment first to the minimum balances and then the rest of the payment to the balance with the higher APR (aka my monthly charges).

I've just paid my current balance in full and probably on Sat I'll cash the Balance Transfer check. I just put the Freedom card into storage - and pulled one of my other cards - I figure this is a good time to use one for a month to keep it active. I may just rotate thru the cards month by month... maybe I'll get a no fee Balance transfer from one of my old 'Balance Tranfer' cards that way!