{"id":564,"date":"2022-07-09T15:50:34","date_gmt":"2022-07-09T07:50:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.druryjournal.com\/?page_id=564"},"modified":"2022-08-01T19:11:36","modified_gmt":"2022-08-02T02:11:36","slug":"important-things-to-know-about-credit-card-balance-transfer-offers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.druryjournal.com\/?page_id=564","title":{"rendered":"Important Things To Know About Credit Card Balance Transfer Offers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It seems that hardly a week goes by without receiving a balance transfer offer from one of my credit card companies.  These offers always sound very appealing in that most offer 0% APR for the first 12 to 18 months.  I learned at an early age that, if something sounds too good to be true, chances are it is.  Such might be at least partly true with these offers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First off, it is indeed incredibly good to have an opportunity to avoid paying interest on any balance, even if only for a short while.  However, with the offers that I have received, the devil is in the details in that the fine print states that all new charges will accrue interest until the entire statement balance is paid.  The fine print also defines the statement balance as both the new charges and  the balance that was transferred from the other card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, if you normally pay the statement balance in full each month, you\u2019ll immediately start to pay interest on the new charges that have occurred during that particular billing cycle.  Since this is cumulative with all new charges in future billing cycles, the amount of interest you will pay will continue to increase with each billing cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This could be disappointing for someone who uses his\/her credit card heavily and has avoided paying interest by paying his\/her statement balance in full.  Yes, you\u2019ll have the 12 to 18 months 0% APR on the amount that was transferred, but you\u2019ll also start to pay interest on all new charges until you pay the card off in full.  Also, chances are the bank will deduct each monthly payment from the 0% APR balance that was transferred, not the new charges and until that 0% APR balance is depleted.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Creditmantri<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Hence, in such cases, you should determine if this progressively increasing interest expense truly offsets the cost of the interest being paid on the other credit card.  I suspect it would in most cases.  Please also note that the rate of increase of these new interest charges will depend entirely on the APR and how much you use that particular credit card.  If it\u2019s a high APR and you use the card heavily, then your interest payments will increase quite rapidly, and you\u2019ll erode your 0% APR balance quite rapidly.  However, if your balance is zero at the time you transfer the balance from your other card and you do not add any new charges, then you should indeed be interest free for the full 12-18 weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, I figure a balance transfer of this nature would still pose an advantage in most cases, just a more modest one depending on the APR and how much you use the card after transferring the balance from your other card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I just wanted to point this out to help level-set expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking for more information on credit or debit cards?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please click here \u201cThinking Smart In Selecting a Credit or Debit Card<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It seems that hardly a week goes by without receiving a balance transfer offer from one of my credit card companies.  These offers always sound very appealing in that most offer 0% APR for the first 12 to 18 months.  I learned at an early age that, if something sounds too good to be true, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":524,"parent":326,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"credit card, balance transfer, credit card balance transfer, debt consolidation","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-564","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":494,"url":"https:\/\/www.druryjournal.com\/?page_id=494","url_meta":{"origin":564,"position":0},"title":"Thinking Smart In Selecting a Credit or Debit Card","date":"July 8, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"We all hear lots of things about credit cards \u2013 both good and bad.\u00a0 Some say they should be avoided because they encourage overspending and accumulating too much debt while others, including myself, say they are a valuable component to a sound financial\/spending plan if used in the right way.\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.druryjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/card-logos.png?fit=1200%2C628&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":405,"url":"https:\/\/www.druryjournal.com\/?page_id=405","url_meta":{"origin":564,"position":1},"title":"How To Save Money and Make Your Income Go Further","date":"July 4, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"During these times of turbulence and high inflation, there probably very few subjects more relevant than this one.\u00a0 Yet we sometimes tend to gloss over certain spending\/saving habits that have proven successful, time and time again.\u00a0 Let\u2019s talk about a few of them here. Have a savings plan and stick\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.druryjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/save-money.png?fit=1200%2C628&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1667,"url":"https:\/\/www.druryjournal.com\/?page_id=1667","url_meta":{"origin":564,"position":2},"title":"The Value of a True Friend","date":"August 17, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"We often get so caught up in our work, social media, and other things that we tend to neglect building and maintaining true (AKA close) friendships, as they are becoming more and more scarce.The word \u201cfriend\u201d has multiple implications, many of which don\u2019t represent true friendships.\u00a0 The hallmark of a\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.druryjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/bestfriends.png?fit=1200%2C628&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1901,"url":"https:\/\/www.druryjournal.com\/?page_id=1901","url_meta":{"origin":564,"position":3},"title":"An Inflation Solution That Would Also Help With a Soft Landing \u2013 Increase Immigration","date":"September 5, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Background\/Problem Statement It seems that not a day goes by, and we don\u2019t hear about inflation and the Fed raising interest rates as a means to cool the economy and bring inflation back down to ~2%.\u00a0 As we know, there are several factors that drive inflation.\u00a0 One is the cost\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.druryjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/immigration-featured-.png?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":351,"url":"https:\/\/www.druryjournal.com\/?page_id=351","url_meta":{"origin":564,"position":4},"title":"Why Is Inflation So High and When Will It Subside?","date":"July 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"There has been a lot of discussion and handwringing on this subject lately.\u00a0 The Reuters article in the link below captured Janet Yellen\u2019s assertion that inflation is here to stay, at least for some time.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sold on this as an absolute reality, and I believe we can change\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.druryjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/10-Year-CPI-Data-May-2022.png?fit=1200%2C661&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":437,"url":"https:\/\/www.druryjournal.com\/?page_id=437","url_meta":{"origin":564,"position":5},"title":"My Easter Sunday RCIA Reflection \u2013 20 April 2014","date":"July 5, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"My name is Tom Drury, a candidate (baptized Christian seeking confirmation into the Catholic Church) completing the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) process and preparing to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation on Pentecost Sunday. \u00a0I was baptized Presbyterian, raised in a Christian home, and have been enjoying an\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.druryjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/RCIA-Initiation.png?fit=1200%2C628&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.druryjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.druryjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.druryjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druryjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druryjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=564"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.druryjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":573,"href":"https:\/\/www.druryjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/564\/revisions\/573"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druryjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/326"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.druryjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.druryjournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}