Discover bal. transfer offer experiences.

[jeffery581]

Took 7 days for mine to go through but no problems at all. I did 4.

[Anonymous]

As a rule, if you pay it off with equal payments, the APR with 0% BT should be 2x the 0% APR's BT fee for an equal deal. That's because the BT fee is applied to the entire balance and paid up front, while interest is applied to the monthly declining balance and paid over time. If one has a longer period, like 18 months instead of 12, even better.

Your offer under those circumstances is better than a 12 month 0% apr 3% bt offer. But if you plan to carry the full balance until the end, then the 0% can be better.

Also be aware that carrying a balance voids your grace period. Purchases will begin accruing interest as soon as they post. So I don't recommend swiping the card while carrying the BT.

[Anonymous]

Ouch, the grace period voiding hurts a lot.

Though since I'm still at 0% APR for my account being less than a year old, this wouldn't affect me right? Discover is the card I use the most right now while I have the double cash back active.

[NRB525]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Ouch, the grace period voiding hurts a lot.

Though since I'm still at 0% APR for my account being less than a year old, this wouldn't affect me right? Discover is the card I use the most right now while I have the double cash back active.

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Correct. When you have both a 0% APR Purchases offer and a 0% BT going on (or low APR BT) then new purchases are not affected, do not pick up interest cost.

When does your 0% Purchases APR expire?

[Anonymous]

I be honest I kinda forgot about the grace period. It's definitely one downside to a bal transfer. But if your transferring from another acct carrying bal it's a non-issue. My normal APR is low (for discover)11.24%, and with the upcoming quarter being restaurants and movies...lets just say I don't get out much I'm still doing better. This transfer will eliminate all my current bal so I can focus more on discover...plan on paying off around $1.5k the first mo this leave me with about $2.5k to pay off in the next few mo barring any unforeseen events.

[Anonymous]

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Correct. When you have both a 0% APR Purchases offer and a 0% BT going on (or low APR BT) then new purchases are not affected, do not pick up interest cost.

When does your 0% Purchases APR expire?

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I'm not sure, I looked at my statement, it shows I'm still at 0% but it doesn't say for how long. I can't remember how long the 0% APR was when I signed up. How can I figure this out? 

Having no grace period & paying full APR on purchases would be painful enough to stop me from taking advantage of this. I'm eyeing up the 0% fee 4.99% APR.

[Anonymous]

As far as I know the 0% promo expiration doesn't show on the acct anywhere...give them a call they can tell you.

[UncleB]

Just a data point, after I submitted my balance transfer back in October, a couple of days later my account was frozen due to a fraud block - I couldn't even log on to the app.  To their credit, they both sent me an email and left a VM for me to call them. 

I was transfered a couple of times, and finally reached a person in security who was markedly less 'cheerful' than the usual Discover CSR.  After a few questions verifying my ID everything was fine, but I had to submit the balance transfer again from scratch (they offered to do it for me on the spot over the phone, but I wasn't prepared with the other account number and mailing address).  They did volunteer that it was the balance transfer request that prompted the block.

It wasn't a huge inconvenience, but had I found my card blocked while attempting to make a purchase I would have been rather annoyed.  I understand the need for security, but their action seemed slightly aggressive, especially since the transaction that prompted the block wasn't 'real time' (it could be easily stopped - as they demonstrated).

I've not had a fraud issue since, FWIW.

Note:  I know many folks will say having a card blocked is perfectly fine, that they appreciate the security... I'm not posting to debate that - I'm only providing a data point for the OP and others, so they can be aware of what my experience was. 

[Anonymous]

That's interesting uncleB. Was there anything unique about your transfer...was it a large amount or something? I would think a small transfer using their offer to the same acct I already use to pay discover wouldn't raise any flags. Guess I'll be prepared just in case.

[Anonymous]

Generally 5-6 days to fully post; I'd say closer to 5 or 6 days because the transfer seems to sit in pending for a couple of days.