Balance Transfer Offers Remain Strong, Despite Fed Rate Hikes
December 20, 2023
By: Payment Week
Austin, Texas – December 20, 2023 – Despite the Federal Reserve raising interest rates three times in 2017 (and four times since December 2016), credit card balance transfer offers have remained consistent and generous throughout the year. This is according to a new report from CreditCards.com, which looked at 89 cards’ balance transfer terms. Click here for more information:
https://www.creditcards.com/cre
The biggest benefit of a balance transfer is usually an introductory APR for new card members, offered by 41 of the cards surveyed. The most common intro APR offer is 0% (38 cards) and the most common intro offer length is 12 months (17 cards). The 38 cards that offer a no-interest intro period is the same as last January. A noteworthy highlight, the Citi Diamond Preferred Card sports a 0% interest window for 21 months from account opening, the most generous offering in the market.
A vast majority (77) of cards charge a balance transfer fee, most commonly $5 or 3% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater. However, nine cards in the pool charge no balance transfer fee at all (down from 12 in January) and three charge no fee for a limited timeframe. A couple notable cards are Slate from Chase and BankAmericard MasterCard, both of which have intro APRs of 0% for 15 months and zero fees on transfers made within the first 60 days.
Even with the most common 3% fee factored in, a subsequent 0% interest period will typically provide relief from the compounding 16.15% APR charged by the average credit card. To illustrate the potential savings, CreditCards.com has a personalized balance transfer calculator, available here: https://www.creditcards.
“While the holiday shopping season has inevitably wreaked havoc on millions of Americans’ budgets, those planning to finance their overindulgence can save big by taking advantage of generous balance transfer offers,” said Matt Schulz, CreditCards.com’s senior industry analyst. “Credit card issuers are still fighting for your business, which means folks with good credit can look to score lengthy, fee-free 0% APR offers. Like most things in life, it really pays to shop around.”
Cardholders should make sure to read the fine print. Most cards begin charging interest on balance transfers from the posted transaction date if there is no promotional 0% APR window. Forty-three cards also limit the amount of time a balance transfer can be made; the most common time limit is two months or 60 days.
Methodology:
The Balance Transfer Survey was conducted in December 2017 by CreditCards.com. The 100-card survey pool is the same group of cards used to calculate CreditCards.com’s Weekly Rate Report, and is a representative sampling of cards from all major U.S. card issuers. Of the 100 cards examined, 89 allow balance transfers. Information was gathered from the cards’ terms and conditions documents, any publicly available cardholder agreements and phone calls to issuers.
About CreditCards.com:
CreditCards.com is the ultimate credit card destination, filled with the largest marketplace of credit card offers you can find online, along with relevant news, advice, features and user-friendly tools. Our mission is to help consumers seize greater opportunity through smarter spending, and we believe that the right credit card, used the right way, can be a life-changer. In 2016, over 35 million unique visitors used CreditCards.com to find the right credit card to suit their needs.
