Discover Card free balance transfer deal ends soon

How’s your post-holiday financial hangover? Let’s hope you don’t have one at all, but, if you do and your credit score’s healthy, you might well be thinking of exploring balance transfer credit cards. Many of these offer a break of 6, 12, 15 or even 18 months from high credit card interest rates through 0-percent APR introductory periods on the amount you transfer.

Balance transfer credit cards: two caveats

Before you get too excited about that weight being lifted from your shoulders, you need to heed three warnings:

1. As with most credit, you can’t always get it if you really, really need it. Credit card companies aren’t crazy (mostly), and they won’t lend to you if they think you are already in financial trouble. The stronger your credit report, the better your chances of approval for the card you want.
2. Don’t see balance transfer credit cards as additional lines of credit. It’s a classic mistake to transfer a balance and then run up others on the cards you zeroed. Instead, use the vacation from interest payments to more quickly pay down as much debt as you can, including that on the new card.
3. Most of these cards charge a one-off fee (often 3 percent) on the amount you transfer. That’s usually added to your new balance, and it’s rarely enough to undermine the economics of the deal, but unless you choose one of the fee-free offers described below, you ought to build it into your calculations. Use one of IndexCreditCard.com’s credit card calculators to model your savings and plan how you’re going to pay down your balance.

Balance transfer credit cards without the balance transfer fee

Sometimes, credit card companies run special promotions during which they waive balance transfer fees. They’re not always available, but you should invariably check for them before you apply for one of these credit cards. Right now, there are at least two such offers, and both are time-limited.

Discover has signaled that its offer is likely to expire on Jan. 31, so don’t delay if you’re considering making an application. Here are some of the headline points for this offer, which is on the Discover More Card:

• No balance transfer fee, annual fee or rewards redemption fees.
• Introductory period of 12 months during which there’s a zero-percent APR on both balance transfers and purchases.
• Discover’s usual rewards program, with cash back that can be earned based on eligible purchase categories.

Of course, before you make any credit card application, you should comparison shop online. If you were to do so at the time of writing, you’d find that Chase is offering a similar deal on its Slate from Chase card. There are no balance transfer or annual fees, and the introductory 0-percent APR lasts for 15 months, with a variable go-to rate depending on creditworthiness.

Not a bad way to start curing that holiday spending hangover.