Will a Balance Transfer on a Credit Card Help You Save Money ?

Since the credit card boom in India, shopping has been relatively easy for the middle class population. What people forget is the ‘buy now pay later’ option that a credit card provides, makes them pay it for a long time. They ignore the fact that credit card loans are probably the most expensive loan they can possibly incur (thanks to the spending power they get). It gets extremely difficult to make timely payments and coping up with the heavy interest.

The Vicious Circle of Credit Card Payments

Most people just pay the minimum due balance on the credit card along with the interest. What they don’t realize is paying the minimum due doesn’t help their credit situation at all. Rather, the outstanding amount stays as it is and if they still keep using your card for random purchases, the amount just keeps on getting intensified. One fine day they realize that they owe a huge sum to the credit card company and don’t have the means to pay it off.

Yes, the truth is credit card payments are a vicious circle, which entangles your finances in a bad way. Now if you see yourself in this position where the debt is going higher and the minimum payments are not helping in reducing the amount, what would be your first line of defense? Believe it or not, there are a lot many who take a personal loan or borrow money to pay off the credit card. What they are doing here is in fact incurring more debt.

The Role of Balance Transfer to pay Credit Card Bills

So how does one come out of this financial fiasco of credit card debt? Well the fact is there are some easy ways that can help in avoiding the high rate of interest and concentrating on knocking off the principle balance. But for that you need another credit card, with a balance transfer facility. Well of course it may sound a little lame when we say this, because superficially it looks like you are paying one credit card and still incurring debt on another. But the fact is balance transfer credit cards come with hordes of options that help you save money.

Here is how you can save some money for yourself in the bargain and manage your credit card fiasco.

• As long as the outstanding amount on your credit card is under 80% of the new card limit, you can do a balance transfer from one card to another.
• There may be a small processing fee in some case (usually 2% or less), while some other offer free balance transfers.
• Once you transfer your balance, your outstanding credit card gets paid off. Of course you have to pay the new card but most of these cards come with a 0% interest for three months. So whatever you pay on these cards will go purely towards the principle amount
• Some companies don’t offer a 0% for 3 months but a 1.5% for six months, which is a fair deal as opposed to paying the high APR on your other credit card.
• So now instead of struggling with interest + minimum due, you are purely paying the principle amount, which will be much easy to manage as opposed to the previous situation.

This option will work best for those who can pay lump-sums towards the new balance transfer card because only the first 3 months are at 0% interest (in some cases 1.5% for 6 months). The bottom line, you should be able to pay the entire outstanding amount on the new credit card within the stipulated period or you may get entangled again in the interest and credit debt web.