Balance Transfer Pitfalls That You Might Fall Into Part III

In the first and second installments of this series, we gave you four things you need to consider when taking advantage of low-interest and no-interest balance transfers on credit cards. To conclude the series, we give you two last tips to help you get the most out of transferring your credit card balance.

Check If You Really Got The Advertised Rates

You see a credit card advertising zero-interest balance transfers and you send in an application.  Once approved, you’ll finally get to enjoy zero interest on floating credit you’ve been paying 16% markups on for the last year.  Time to rejoice, right?

Not yet.  Before you approve the transfer, make sure to read the terms sent and call your credit card issuer to verify if you’ve been assigned the rate as advertised.  Credit card companies will sometimes approve you and issue you a card but assign you a higher rate, especially if your credit rating isn’t very high.

A lot of people approve balance transfers without realizing this and later on complain once they get their first statements.

Late Penalties

The moment you transfer a balance for the purpose of lower rates, bear in mind that it is usually subject to certain conditions.  One of those conditions is timely payments.

The moment you’re even a day late settling your bills, the credit card will convert to a higher rate, usually the standard interest charges.  If you pay it late one more time, you can get see your interest rates hike to as high as 30 percent!

It bears repeating to yourself over and over: once you do balance transfers, always pay on time.