The content is accurate at the time of publication and is subject to change.
If you have a credit card debt of $5000, you might end up paying quite a stiff amount of money in terms of interests every month or even every year. Part of the reason why you are unable to pay off the debts is that you can only cater so much towards the debt every month because of other expenditures. You would then wish, there was no interest for a few months, so that you could quickly pay off the debt you have and return to normal.
The gods have heard your plea and you have many credit cards offering you balance transfers for 0% interest rate. But wait, are you really sure you want to go ahead with this balance transfer? It is one of the most tempting decisions one can ever make with respect to a credit card and is exactly the reason why one should avoid it in most cases.
Credit card companies are not out there to do charity and at most times in balance transfers it is the customer and the credit card trying to outfox each other. The offer the credit card company makes is a balance transfer with 0% interest rate up to 12 months. As soon as you get your card mailed, find out what the interest rate is for you and how long would that stay? Most often your credit history could be the excuse, credit card companies would use to reduce the intro term period to less than what it was promised.
Another common mistake that people do with balance transfers is to not check the intro term percentage terms. Good credit card companies which are honest offer this 0% interest on both balance transfers and all other purchases too. At the worst the intro term would be different for balance transfers and for other purchases. Assuming the term period and the categories would be a grave mistake one can do.
If one is not getting the intro term for other purchases, it is not a risk worth taking. Also, if you are transferring your balance for the sake of getting rid of your interest for some time you must remember that and not shop extravagantly. For all you know, the regular interest rate might be too high for you to take the risk of not completely paying off the debt. So make the balance transfer only if you are sure the debt will be cleared during the intro term period.
A common mistake made by people is to ignore other terms and conditions. If you are going to use the credit card, you are going to attach quite a few months of credit history to it. If you are good with the payments, your credit score will go up to. So you would want to take a card which offers other incentives like cash back, rewards, offers and benefits along with a reasonable interest rate apart from the balance transfer, so that you can continue using the card even afterwards.
