I think 'no transfer fees' may be a thing of the past, but there are still
some deals with an upper limit to the transfer fee, where the upper limit
is less than market interest rates. Right now, I have a several open
accounts with 0% and a one time fee that's far less than the money's
earning in my money-market account. Free money!
--
Chris Cowles
Gainesville, FL


"ibookdb.net" <nospam[at]ibookdb.net> wrote in message
news:ee3p01$o8l$1[at]murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU...
- quote -

qdisc wrote:

- quote -

Yes, check out the Finance forum at http://www.fatwallet.com/c/52/ for
extensive discussions on leveraging 0% balance transfers. It's tricky
because if you screw up, it can end up costing you more than you saved or
made, but if you're careful and not faint of heart about your credit score,
there's gold in them thar hills!

Will Trice wrote:
- quote -

I did this when I graduated too. I had no debt, I did it to earn
interest. Get 0% cards, pay only minimum. It greatly helped my credit
score too. I paid off all my balances before I bought my house and my
score jumped 60 points. I still do that sometimes if I get a card with
0% for > 1 year and no balance transfer fees.

Mark Bole wrote:

- quote -

I did this for a few years coming out of school. I had racked up
considerable CC debt to finance my education (read: beer). When I left
school I had four cards maxed and I just kept rolling them from 0% rate
to 0% rate until they were all paid off. I think I ended up with 13 or
so credit card accounts. There were no transaction fees on the cards I
used at the time. However, I don't think that's very common any more.

-Will

Mark Bole wrote:

- quote -

Well, I guess I wasn't expecting to transfer my entire 80k HELOC
balance to a CC, but if I got more than one card I guess I could do a
few different cards and spread that 80k around. If I could put the
whole 80k at 0% for a year, I would save myself about $6000 (minus the
effect of the tax deduction for the HELOC interest).

- quote -

Yes, I agree, at the end of the 0% period, I'd probably end up putting
the balance back on the HELOC, or I guess I could always try to
transfer the balance to another 0% balance transfer card.

In article <R5oLg.8234$yO7.2193[at]newssvr14.news.prodigy.com> ,
Mark Bole <makbo[at]pacbell.net> wrote:

- quote -

Writing a check against the credit card is a convenient idea. The
problem is that many of these convenience checks carry a hefty
fee, sometimes 3% to 5% of the balance. The one exception that I
am aware of is MBNA, which caps the fee. I have some older MBNA
cards where the fee is only $30 no matter the size of the check.

An even better idea is to call the credit card company and ask
what their best deal of the day is. They sometimes have balance
transfer deals that are not advertised. The trick is to have them
direct deposit the balance transfer money into your checking account.
That way, you get the money in a day or two, it clears right away,
there is normally no advance fee, and you can use the money for
anything you want including paying off a HELOC.

-john-

--
================================================== ====================
John A. Weeks III 952-432-2708 john[at]johnweeks.com
Newave Communications http://www.johnweeks.com
================================================== ====================

qdisc[at]hotmail.com wrote:

[...] I would love to be
- quote -

In addition to a "balance transfer", look for an option to write a check
against your credit card (sent to you with the promotion from your
credit card company). Use the check to pay down your HELOC. Read the
fine print, might also require a one-time transaction fee of $50 or more.

- quote -

How many concurrent offers of 0% introductory interest rate do you
expect to have, for what time period, and for what total amount?

Under your scenario, if you normally pay off the credit card in full
each month, you won't be able to do that anymore. Also you will want to
pay off the balance at the end of the introductory period, which
probably means just kicking your HELOC balance right back up where it was.

-Mark Bole

I was sitting in a doctor's office waiting room last week and read a
short article that said as follows: given recent higher rates on home
equity lines, you can transfer a HELOC balance to a 0% introductory
rate/balance transfer credit card and save some money.

I have about 80k on a variable rate HELOC that I end up paying about
$500 in interest on each month at today's rates. I would love to be
able to transfer some of this balance to a 0% credit card as the
article suggested. But in checking out various credit card offers
online, I can find plenty that will charge you 0% interest on balance
transfers for 12 months, but I can't find any that would actually allow
me to transfer the HELOC balance to the new credit card...they only
allow you to transfer another credit card balance for the 0% rate.

What this article suggested seems too good to be true. If you could
transfer HELOC balances to 0% cards, you could pay no interest for the
period of time that you get the 0% rate, and then just find a new card
to transfer the balance to and do the same thing.

Any thoughts? Was what the author suggested possible?

Q