Best Balance Transfer Credit Cards

How do you find the best balance transfer credit cards?  This is actually easier than you would think.  When you are searching for the best cards you can put in the keywords for best balance transfers or even just balance transfer credit cards.  The internet will pull up the information for you.  There are a few things you will need to look at regarding balance transfers. 

First most of the credit card companies are offering balance transfers at an introductory rate of zero percent interest.  This means for a certain period of time you will not be charged any interest on the balance your transfer to the new card.  This duration can last for 30 days up to 15 months depending on the bank you are looking at.  Another thing to consider is the fee associated with the balance transfers.  Most cards will charge between 2.5% and 3% for a balance transfer.  This means that if you transfer 3000 dollars to the new card they will charge you at most 3% of the 3000 dollars as a transfer fee.  So you could end up with a ninety dollar fee.  Some of the companies are more straightforward than that by telling you to expect a 30 dollar fee for every balance transfer.  Recently though it has been a percentage game, as the companies tend to make a bit more.  There are a few companies that are now offering you the chance to waive that fee for the introductory period.  You should be very careful about these cards.  You usually have 30 days to transfer the balance once you obtain the card, after that you would be paying the APR.  Make sure you have read everything carefully.  Next you want to look for the introductory APR on purchases.  Many of the cards are offering 3 to 6 months of zero percent interest on the purchases as well.  A card that will offer you zero percent interest on purchases and balance transfers for a year and a smaller transfer fee will be the best balance transfer cards.

Discover currently has an offer for zero percent on balance transfers for a year with zero percent interest on purchases for six months.  Bank of America offers a zero percent no fee balance transfer fee and zero percent on purchases for six months.  As you can see between the two the Bank of America card doesn’t offer you a fee, but the period is shorter.  If you can pay the card off in those six months then the Bank of America card would be the best one.  But wait, let’s look at Citibank.  Citibank is offers zero percent no fee balance transfers for nine months with good credit required?  So is this better?  Probably not, they are not offering the card to someone struggling with their debt and they are not saying anything about purchases.  So you would most likely want to search for the best balance transfer credit cards in that the card will be most beneficial to you and not what they advertise as the best.