The content is accurate at the time of publication and is subject to change.

At one point of time 0% balance transfer deals flooded the market. Consumers could juggle their credit when they knew how and manage their bills fairly well. During the economic recession however these offers pretty much dwindled to nothing and now they are back offering consumers a good avenue to pay off their bills and a respite from mounting payments due to interest rates that simply keep increasing. You could have many reasons for opting for a balance transfer. You may have wrongly picked a card which after awhile for no reason had an increase in the interest rate. You may have been picking out the card based on attractive cash back deals only to find affording the payments on it have grown very taxing. Whatever your reasons you can find a way with a 0% on balance transfer.

The important thing when you do a balance transfer is to ascertain exactly how long a promotional period you have at hand with it. Does your promotional period meet with your needs of debt settlement or is it too short to pay off what you owe. When you do a balance transfer your main aim should be not to get a new line of credit but rather to close off what you owe before things get out of hand. Thinking to achieve this important goal you must decide to not make any purchases on your card but rather to pay off what is there in the outstanding balance.

When you do a balance transfer you do not have to worry about the interest rates anymore, or at least for a year which is the best deal you can get on the card. For a time span longer than that there may be additional fees or higher interest rates involved afterwards. Make sure you are paying off in the best way possible the money you owe on the card and not waiting to settle it slowly while the amount remains unchanged. Any new purchases made would have a different interest rate applicable and therefore the consumer should make sure they read the terms and conditions carefully to avoid unpleasant surprises.

Make sure you look for a card without a balance transfer fees as well. When you find such a deal you will be able to also do the transfer without much loss. Transfer only about 305 of the total balance available to your new card to make sure your credit score stays unaffected as well.

Disclaimer: This editorial content is not provided or commissioned by the credit card issuer(s). Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of the credit card issuer(s), and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the credit card issuer(s). Reasonable efforts are made to present accurate information, however all information is presented without warranty. Consult a card's issuing bank for the terms & conditions.
All rates and fees, and other terms and conditions of the products mentioned in this article/post are actual as of the last update date but are subject to change. See the current products' Terms & Conditions on the issuing banks' websites.