Chase promotional balance transfer checks

[bz386]

Yeah, the banks always ensure they make money off you in one way or another. Your job is to prevent them for doing that.

Now if you already carry a balance on another CC with a high APR, then it certainly makes sense to transfer over the balance and pay the 2% BT fee.

[Anonymous]

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@bz386 wrote:
Yeah, the banks always ensure they make money off you in one way or another. Your job is to prevent them for doing that.

Now if you already carry a balance on another CC with a high APR, then it certainly makes sense to transfer over the balance and pay the 2% BT fee.

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Yeah, I don't have significant (if any) balances on other cards that I can't pay off right now. I was just trying to see if I could game this to my advantage.

All I've come up with is that I am not, after all, smarter than Jamie Dimon.

[core]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So basically, even if I do everything perfectly according to plan, the house still wins. 

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At Chase, yes.  If you want to game balance transfers it's very possible to do at certain credit unions that don't charge BT fees.

[Anonymous]

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@core wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

So basically, even if I do everything perfectly according to plan, the house still wins. 

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At Chase, yes.  If you want to game balance transfers it's very possible to do at certain credit unions that don't charge BT fees.

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Doesn't Chase offer no-fee B/T on the Slate card?

Other than that, I haven't seen a 0% no-fee B/T offer from Chase in many years.  If I did I'd probably take advantage of it, though it's hard to consider it worth much for me, what with marginal deposit interest rates at only ~1%.

Chris.

[Anonymous]

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@14Fiesta wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi everyone. 

Does anyone have any experience with Chase CSP promotional interest-free balance checks? I got a mailing from them this week that's offering an interest-free deal if I use the attached pre-printed Chase checks, which I assume is drawn on my CSP card account.

The letter offers "0% promotional APR Balance Transfers through your billing cycle that ends 03/2017...After that, your standard APR will apply, which is currently 15.99%." 

So I can use the checks to pay off other credit cards, or make a purchase with them, or use the checks as cash to myself as interest-free loan for 14 months. Is this right? - Yes, that's exactly what you can do

The other thing I'd like to get clarification is this line: "Once you take advantage of this offer, you will have a new promotional balance on your account. As a result, you will lose your interest-free period (also called your grace period) on new purchases unless you pay your entire balance in full every month (including any promotional balances that you add by using this offer.) This means that while you will enjoy the promotional rate on the balances that you add by using this offer, you will pay interest on your new purchases."

Wouldn't I be paying interest on new purchases anyway, if it wasn't paid for by these promotional checks? - Yes but sometimes people think that they can make purchases and it would be covered under the 0% offer or don't make a significant enough payment to cover those purchases.  If you charge for example something for $100 you want to pay the $100 back or you'll stat paying interest.

I usually PIF this card, and the balance is currently zero.

Am I missing anything? Will this hurt my credit or my standing with Chase in anyway? (Obviously there's the hit on utilization.) - You identified the utilization factor so that's covered.  You also dont want to make minimum payments.  Otherwise you should be fine.

Thanks.

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I disagree with this. It states he will lose his grace period unless he pays his ENTIRE balance (including the promotional balance transfer), in full each month.

Which makes since, because if you take the offer, technically your account is revolving a balance and you ARE being charged interest. You are just being charged interest at 0%. If you make a charge on the account outside of this offer, it will immediately begin accruing interest, this time at the purchase rate of 15.99%. 

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Both of you correcting me are right.  I missed the grace period exclusion.  Not all balance transfers work that way but it certainly does in this case. Very important to read the fine print.

[Anonymous]

Thanks to everyone for their clarifications.

This offer seems like a booby-trapped rose garden, even more than most BT offers.

[takeshi74]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Does anyone have any experience with Chase CSP promotional interest-free balance checks?

What purpose does your CSP serve?  Keep in mind that if you're using it for rewards that you will lose your grace period on purchases if you carry a balance.  Interest will more than kill any rewards.  The CSP, generally speaking, is not a good card for BT's.  If you're not earning rewards with it then you will not overcome the AF.

If you're going to BT you want to ideally find a card with no BT fee, no AF and that you won't use for purchases while carrying the balance on the promotional offer.

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@Anonymous wrote:

So basically, even if I do everything perfectly according to plan, the house still wins. 

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Of course.  Creditors are in it to make money.  Even those playing the rewards gmae and dodging interest aren't really winning.  Rewards are just the carrot dangled to encourage swipes.  Creditors aren't doing all this just of out the goodness of their hearts.

[Anonymous]

Yeah wow that is actually a horrible BT offer with the grace period wording. I have never seen such a penalty, but it is a CSP...

I wouldn't do it unless you are SDing your CSP. A better option would be taking a new hardpull to open a card from a CU.

[14Fiesta]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Yeah wow that is actually a horrible BT offer with the grace period wording. I have never seen such a penalty, but it is a CSP...

I wouldn't do it unless you are SDing your CSP. A better option would be taking a new hardpull to open a card from a CU.

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Wow really? I thought this was a standard practice across the industry. Looking at balance transfer offers from several different creditors, I see this language used in the T&C.

[Imperfectfuture]

Only Barclays does not have that wording. You still get the 0% grace period, and the BT.