I Finally Did It! — 0% Interest

Zachary Spencer of This Can Change made a comment over at Mr. Debtbeater's and following his link to his blog I found a post where he mentions the Citi Professional Cash Card which offers 0% interest on your balance transfers, with no fee to transfer, and no annual fee. This is the best deal I've seen yet, so I decided to go for it. It's simply amazing. You put in your information online and within moments you find out whether you qualify.

Here's my details – notice the 0% applies to the first balance transfer. My initial line of credit is only $4000, and I have two cards that come to $10.808.81.

I can't access my new account until I receive my card in the mail and activate it.

So I guess what I have to do now is:

  1. Wait until my card arrives
  2. Request to have my limit increased to $10,000
  3. Transfer the highest rate card for 0% transfer fee
  4. Transfer the second card at 3% interest

I'm assuming they will readily raise my credit limit. Time will tell if that's an option or not. I guess $4000 with 0% interest is better than what we're doing now.

In the meantime, going on the assumption I'll be able to transfer both cards, it seems like it would be in my best interest to pay everything extra that I can toward the lower card, so the transfer fee will be as low as possible. There is a 3% transfer fee if this isn't the first transfer.

In that case, I'll be paying the minimum payment due ($177) to the higher card for the next payment, which is due on February 16th, and I will pay the remainder to the other card. That means instead of paying $450 to the lower card, I'll be paying $473.00.

Have you done this before? Am I following the right steps? Am I missing anything?

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6 thoughts on “I Finally Did It! — 0% Interest

  1. Wow, that’s impressive. I may have to give that card a shot today. I’ve got a card with almost a 6K balance on it, and it’s the one I mentioned with the horrendous interest rates last week. I’d love to see if I qualify for the whole balance.

    Last time I did this, I had so much revolving credit that I only got a $1500 card out of it.

    You’re doing it right, just make sure not to go spending crazy next month. 😉

    [Reply]

  2. Hey Mrs. Accountability, the way I would run the payment schema would be to minimize debt as fast as you can, since that 0% interest rate is only 0% for so long. You’ll notice that the terms for the citi card are 0% for 12 months since the transfer is initiated, and that it is the first balance transfer you put on the card.

    I would call them to ask them, but I’d be willing to bet that it only applies to the first card you do the transfer on. If so, I would call them and request a balance transfer cheque, which functions in the same way, and allows you to write a check to yourself for $x, where $x is your credit limit, and then use that cheque to pay off the highest interest credit card you have right now as much as you can.

    now lets say you only get the $4K credit line,and you use it to pay off the $2.7K card and $1300 of the $8K card. This would leave you with an outstanding interest bearing balance of ~$6.7K.

    Now, if you don’t pay off that 0% balance within the 0% period, THEY WILL BACKCHARGE YOU THE INTEREST. This is something that is critically important to understand about 0% offers!

    [Reply]

  3. Zach, your warning that the credit card company will backcharge the interest if not paid within one year sent chills up my spine! Thank you very much for commenting, I was *NOT* aware of that little (major!) detail!

    Thank you for your help!

    [Reply]

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