Jonathan Kamens wrote:
- quote -

How about 15 months interest free? Of course the credit
"limit" they initiate is rather low.

- quote -

Capital One. What's in YOUR wallet?

- quote -

It don't get no better than this. What I don't understand
though, is why credit card companies do this? It just
lowers their (immediate) rate of return. (Or do you reckon
their rate of return is already so obscenly high that their
guilty conscience got the best of them? Nawwwwww)

(snipped)

Every added credit card you get just adds to your total
credit limit, and thereby lowers your utilization
percentage. And I read or seen nothing to the effect that
the more cards one has, the more it impacts your credit
score adversely.

ChEAr$,
Harlan Lunsford, EA n LA

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Dick Adams wrote:

- quote -

This isn't exactly tax-related, but I have first-hand
evidence that the statement above is not true. I recently
signed up for a Citizens Bank MasterCard offering ten months
of 0% interest on either transfers or charges. I believe
they reduced the promotion period to six months shortly
after I signed up. I examined the deal up, down and
sideways to make sure there were no strings attached, and
there weren't -- they really are willing to let people sign
up for a credit card and run up a balance for months without
paying any interest.

I have another credit card which allowed me to max out my
credit limit with a balance transfer charged at 1.99%, with
no transfer fee, even though I had no outstanding balance.
Not exactly 0%, but a significantly lower rate than my home
equity line, which has an outstanding balance, so you can
bet I took advantage of it :-).

I have a friend whose card company kept sending him checks
for free balance transfers which were treated, during the
promotional period, like regular charges, i.e., there was a
grace period until several weeks after they appeared on a
statement. For as long as they kept sending him the checks,
he kept maxing out his credit line with them, depositing the
cash into a money-market account, and then paying it off on
the next statement-due date. Free money!

Furthermore, even if the credit-card company does try the
hook-your-previous-balance trick to make you pay interest
while paying off the 0% offer, you can beat them at their
own game by first paying off your old balance and *then*
doing the balance transfer. The deadline they give you for
the offer is usually far enough into the future to have time
to do that.

In short, while it's true that the goal of the creditor when
they give you one of these deals is frequently to get you to
pay interest on a prior balance, that isn't always true, and
even when it is, there are ways around it.

The way I see it, the credit-card companies are such
dirt-bags that I look for every way I can to (legally) take
advantage of them.

<< ================================================== ===== > << The foregoing is intended for educational purposes only > << and does NOT constitute legal OR professional advice. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting > << messages to this newsgroup are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2005) - All rights reserved. > << ================================================== ===== >

Moderator: The poster actually said he wouldn't use the
card for any other purchases. Very few 0% offers REQUIRE
you to make a purchase. Lately , some offer a longer term
for the 0% if you make a purchase. Most 0% offers do not
charge a fee, although some do. The fee is usually limited
and for large transfers equates to a relatively small
*interest* percentage. However, you are right about the
bad effects if you do a balance transfer and make purchases,
which are at about 17%.

As to the poster's question. If the % is 0 thee is nothing
to deduct.

ed

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Harlan Lunsford wrote:

- quote -

All thoughts of a jokester aside for a moment.

There are credit card companies out there who even if you
don't owe them a cent, will extend such a deal to pay off
any debit, mortgages included. I know; I did it; got
mucho dollars at 0% for about 10 months I think, then
called another company to cancel that card, and in the
conversation mentioned about the 0% thing, and the guy said,
"well, we can do that, too." How much do you want? So
that enabled a virtual continuance of the other loan for 0%
for another 9 months.

However, as Dick hints, just don't charge anything else to
the card on which you have the zero balance.

What's this? Today ANOTHER offer for 0% for 15 months?
Sigh.

ChEAr$,
Harlan Lunsford

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Harlan Lunsford <lunstax[at]belllsouth.net> wrote:

- quote -

That's not what I've observed. I get offers for 0% and no
transfer charge for loans taken on a _new_ credit card (one
I don't have yet). If I don't make any purchases on that
card, there's nothing they can charge interest on until the
0% period expires.

Seth

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Since yesterday I have noticed four posts which may be the
work of a prankster. All use either some variant of hotmail
or yahoo dot com addresses with subject matters that stretch
the imagination. All appear to be from someone who actually
may know a thing or two about taxes.

$5000 refund? 1031 exchange? 2006 new tax law? The one
about the home equity line of credit asks if he will be able
to "take TAX DEDUCTIONS for the balance I transfer from my
credit card to HELOC? "

Notice what is capitalized above.

Now I'm wondering if "chuluckus" is chuckling oday.

Nice try, "chucky".

ChEAr$,
Harlan Lunsford

Moderator:
I understood what he meant was not what he wrote. He
wants to transfer part of his home equity loan balance
to a 0% credit card offer. That makes sense except
for the fact that such offers are only made when you
have a credit card balance. The creditor then charges
you interest on the previous balance and applies the
the principle to the 0% loan so you never pay down the
existing balance - which is a lot more than he explained.
And of course there is a balance transfer charge which
is not deductible.

<< ================================================== ===== > << The foregoing is intended for educational purposes only > << and does NOT constitute legal OR professional advice. > << > << The Charter and the Guidelines for submitting > << messages to this newsgroup are at www.asktax.org. > << Copyright (2005) - All rights reserved. > << ================================================== ===== >