There’s a lot to be gained from transferring the balance of one credit card to another. For one thing, you could end up saving a significant amount of money if the interest rate of the card your transferring debt to is much lower than the one you’re transferring from. And you’ll probably be glad to have just one payment instead of two. Plus, if you have a little problem with spending on credit, transferring a balance will allow you to close at least one account, alleviating the temptation to spend more than you can reasonably afford to pay. But if you want to gain the greatest possible benefits from credit card balance transfers, there are a few things you need to know going into the process. Here are some basics to ensure that your credit card balance transfers have a positive financial impact.
The place to start is by crunching numbers, and if you’re having some trouble doing this on your own, you might want to talk to an accountant or a financial advisor to make sure that transferring your credit card balances is actually in your best interest. The reason is that you’re probably going to have to pay fees in order to transfer your balances, and these fees will likely vary by creditor. Some could be quite high, say several percent of the transfer amount. And if you’re doing multiple balance transfers, this could quickly add up to a significant cost.