Balance Transfer question on how to use it

[NRB525]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks OP. I heard that chase no longer does BT's within the same financial institution.  Meaning I have to use 2 different banks correct? Well my problems lies, that chase happens to be my largest limit. So my question is can I purchase the television I want using my slate card an still receiving the benefits of the 0% APR. for the 1st 15 months, without actually doing a BT? Unfortunately the T.V I want to get exceeds all my other limits.

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Only if you have a purchase 0% APR.

The rule about not making BT within any one bank? That's been in place since the dawn of time. One reason to look at several banks to have cards available in each.

[Gunnar419]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Another question if I do a Balance Transfer and you said I have to pay back in a month do I have to pay the full ammount or are they going to give me a minimum to pay back.

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I mat be misunderstanding your question, but you'd never have to pay a BT back in a month. You can take as long as you need to pay it off, as long as you're making at lease the minimum payment, but at some point (looks like 12 months in your case, sometimes it's 15 or 18 months), you'll start paying interest on the remaining balance. So your goal should be to pay it off within the 0% timeline. It's your purchases you'd want to pay off monthly to avoid interest, but even then you don't HAVE to pay them off. It's just a good idea.

[NRB525]

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@Gunnar419 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Another question if I do a Balance Transfer and you said I have to pay back in a month do I have to pay the full ammount or are they going to give me a minimum to pay back.

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I mat be misunderstanding your question, but you'd never have to pay a BT back in a month. You can take as long as you need to pay it off, as long as you're making at lease the minimum payment, but at some point (looks like 12 months in your case, sometimes it's 15 or 18 months), you'll start paying interest on the remaining balance. So your goal should be to pay it off within the 0% timeline. It's your purchases you'd want to pay off monthly to avoid interest, but even then you don't HAVE to pay them off. It's just a good idea.

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+1

OP, the main point of offering you the BT 0% APR terms is so you can move an open balance you are making some payments on, to the new CC, with a more favorable interest rate. It will be added to the "Open amount" on your credit card, and you will be expected to make minimum payments on all the balances on your card. If you had to pay off the BT in the next month, it would not be a very good deal, you would pay 3% for one month of loan funds, which works out to 36% per year.

The part about "paying in full" relates to any amounts that you charge new on the card, which are not in this 0% APR bucket. If you have a "New purchases are 0% APR until 12 months" please clarify that. IF That is the case (If you have a 0% APR on New Purchases included in this offer) then you will be able to carry balances on BT and new purchases at 0% APR.

Given your uncertainty about how to proceed, I strongly recommend you call the CCC to ask your questions of them. They will know exactly what your offer includes, you can explain all your proposed scenarios you want to understand, and being able to TALK with someone is infinitely better than us trying to interpret your situation. We would like to be helpful, but we don't know all your details.

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys and gals. I am looking forward into calling them but I wanted to make sure what was a Balance Transfer and how it works. I usally get confuse over the phone and would first find infomation before talking to them. I always assume that they going to take advantage of me if I don't do my research first. So I thank you all for the commets you added as I have a better understand.

[Odiseous]

In addition to what's already been said, there is another thing to consider.

1) The BT fee is likely *not* included in the 0% APR offer.

- Let's say you did a BT for $1,000.00. At 3% there would be a $30 BT fee, with you now owing $1,030.

- Let's assume your minimum payment is 1% ($1,030 * 0.01 = $10.30, likely rounded up to $11.00).

*note: Many CCs have a higher minimum payment (example $25) if your balance exceeds that amount. For this example, we'll use $10.

Your first payment should be:

$11 (1% Minimum Payment) 

+ 30 (BT fee)

+ any new purchases (PIF).

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$41 (plus any other new purchases)

To keep things simple, when I do a BT to a card, I stop all purchasing on that card until the BT is paid off.

You'll also want to read the fine pint, to make sure any unpaid BT balance after the promo period is not subject to retroactive interest.

[NRB525]

In general, you are correct, a BT 0% should be kept pristine from new charges to stay focused on paying it down.

In this case, however, OP has both a 0% BT offer, and a 0% on new purchases offer during the same period, so the "don't use the card on the BT" can be ignored. One still has to watch the balance, and work to pay it down, and so payment planning is important, but the card can be used.

In the case of my Discover card, I'm paying down a 0% BT, but the 5% cash back on fuel during Q1 will get some charges, because I'm paying enough every month to ensure those new charges get picked off and don't result in any interest cost.