Will you use a card because 0 Intro APR (but less rewards)?

[Turbobuick]

Many cards expect you to use the 0 intro and they are providing a bonus incentive to do so... aka "spend $1000 get $250 back"  etc..

Other than that, I like to use 0% transfer offers when they mail checks of which I can extract cash at a low transfer rate 2% or less.

[tcbofade]

We do both.

DW has a NFM card that we ONLY use for major purchases once a year...when they're offering 30-36 month no interest financing.  In nine years, and I've lost count of how many large purchases, we've never paid any interest at all.

[Anonymous]

I traditionally PIF all of my accounts so APR hasn't been very important to me.  But I did get a 0% APR for 24 months deal on my Care Credit account which is great because I am using funds that contribute to my HSA (Health Savings Account) to pay it back so I will have it paid off in 12 months.  

I recently had an unexpected expense of $4k come up and really did not want to dip into my savings to pay for it.  So I purposefully applied for the Venture One so I can earn rewards, qualify for the bonus and take advantage of the 0% APR until May 2017.  I do have the Venture card which earns more rewards than the Venture One but for this "emergency" the 0% APR is more important. 

[Anonymous]

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@tcbofade wrote:

We do both.

DW has a NFM card that we ONLY use for major purchases once a year...when they're offering 30-36 month no interest financing.  In nine years, and I've lost count of how many large purchases, we've never paid any interest at all.

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This is def a great way to do things... love it!!

[jbsea]

DW and I have a Chase Slate that we got for the purpose of carrying a balance on a purchase.... But I hate to carry a balance so I ended up just paying it off.  So not it just sits in the SD.  It was a waste of a Inq and now we have to wait to get any other chase card.  

[Revelate]

Eh, if I can't write a check for something I'd use 0% absolutely.  There is a breakpoint in there mathwise as Aahz correctly states (fractional interest rate before full payment vs. rewards) but it's a back of hand calculation to figure that out and nothing challenging.

Case in point, if my darned school didn't happen to be one of the few that didn't accept CC's for tuition payments (it's a serious outlier) I would've financed the whole damned thing on that Citi 21 month 0% offer and just keep kicking 1K a month to it and then BT it off or just pay it off with the quickness post graduation; instead I get to do similar minus the BT thing (well maybe) at 3.25% HELOC instead, with maybe some stupid reindeer games with student loans

Can't wait till I'm clean on EX/EQ and I can stop trying to maximize every little stupid thing in the algorithm.

[RonM21]

I do it if it works for me at that time. In the times I've been in that situation, like someone else mentioned, I usually already have it planned for already.