Americans now owe $1.13 trillion in credit card debt

  • MeekerThanBeaker@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I used Discover for a balance transfer. However, be sure you do the math. They have options like 0% interest rate with a 4% transfer fee to pay it off in 12 months. I chose instead 0% transfer fee with 5.99% APR over 15 months, but still plan to pay it off in 12 months.

    The 4% transfer fee is on the entire balance as soon as you move it over… while the 5.99% interest is on your balance divided by 12 each month… which can get less and less each month depending on how much you pay off.

    So for example… $5000 with 0% interest has a 4% transfer fee of $200. But $5000 with no transfer fee has 5.99% interest of around $25 for the first month, and less interest each month if you are paying chunks of your balance down every month. If you are not paying big chunks then the 0% interest with 4% transfer fee may be better.

    It really depends on whether or not you plan on paying it off… and how fast you intend to do it. My previous interest was rising to 13% on one card, 19% on another… so 5.99% is much better for me.