Zero Balance Transfer Credit Cards

Zero balance transfer credit cards are those where no interest is charged on balance transfers for a particular period (such as a year). This is a different matter from a card having no interest on purchases for a specified period. Also, some cards apply yet another different set of rules to cash advances, sometimes applying a different interest rate, sometimes charging interest from the date of the transaction rather than the billing date, and sometimes applying repayments to everything else prior to the outstanding cash advance balance. So care needs to be taken to understand the exact details of any particular card.

There are two main ways that 0 balance transfer cards can be used. Firstly, the most common way they are used is for a person who already has an outstanding balance on one or more other credit cards. That person can transfer those amounts of money that they were paying interest on, onto a card where they don’t pay any interest for a certain period. This can save them paying any interest at all on those amounts (for the period), which can make a huge difference to some people’s finances and can be very well worth doing.

The second method which some people apply to these cards, is to transfer the money from them into high-interest bank accounts (for the relevant zero interest period on the card), and thus actually make a profit from the use of credit cards. This too can be very well worth doing.

Cards can even be used for other investments such as business startups, although this practice does of course carry considerable risk. It is rumored that the first batch of hardware used to run the Google search engine, was funded by the use of cards, and it is know that more than one movie was entirely, or in part, financed by credit cards.

In summary 0 balance transfer credit cards can be valuable if used wisely, with careful attention to the exact terms and conditions of a particular card.

For more relevant information see our Blog Post 0 Balance Transfer Credit Cards. For more relevant information see our Blog Credit Card Information.