2012 Credit Card Balance Transfer Offers

So 2011 is officially behind us, and it feels like 2012 is already fleeting. After all, it’s already the 4th of January!

Okay, I’m just being dramatic, but the days can get away from you pretty quickly if you don’t take action every on in the year.

I learn this every year when I find myself scurrying to do my taxes in late April.

All that aside, the beginning of the year is a perfect time to assess your financial standing and make moves to improve it.

If you’re like most people, you likely charged up quite a bit of credit card debt during the holiday season.

And if you’re unable to actually pay it all off, you’re likely facing a bit of dilemma. Well, not really a dilemma, but more a harsh reality of credit card finance charges, otherwise known as interest.

Don’t Pay Interest!

But not all hope is lost. There is a simple way to avoid paying interest on your credit card while also continuing to carry a credit card balance.

I’m talking about credit card balance transfers, which put simply, allow you to shift the debt from one credit card company to another.

So if you’ve got a $2,500 credit card balance with Chase (thanks to all those presents you had to buy for family, friends and co-workers), you can transfer it to Discover and pay nothing in finance charges for a certain period of time.

If you have a credit card balance with Chase, you can shift the balance to Discover or Citi or whatever other company allows balance transfers.

The point I’m trying to make is that you can’t transfer balances within the same bank.

Okay, so we’ve got an idea of how balance transfers work and some of the rules. Let’s talk about specific offers for 2012, shall we.

2012 Balance Transfer Offers Are Aggressive

Right now is actually a really great time to transfer a credit card balance thanks to some aggressive offers currently on the table.

Discover just re-launched its no fee balance transfer for a limited period of time. It comes with 0% APR on both balance transfers and purchases with a $0 fee.

In other words, you can transfer a balance and pay nothing to do so. It doesn’t get much better than this folks.

Chase Slate also has a no fee balance transfer on offer. It comes with 0% APR for up to 12 months as well with a $0 fee.

Both these offers have no annual fee, making them truly free balance transfer credit cards, and the only two of their kind currently.

You can learn more about each offer by clicking on the associated links above. These are by far the best offers available, though there are longer 0% APR balance transfers available on the right-hand panel of this site.

Even so, you could always transfer you balances to these cards first for free, then transfer your balance again to a longer-term 0% APR balance transfer card after, assuming you need more time to pay down the balances.

This would effectively reduce any subsequent balance transfer fee, as your balance would likely be smaller because it was paid down during the first transfer.

Strategy: Transfer your balance(s) to one of the mentioned no fee balance transfer credit cards for $0. Pay it down as you prefer.

If there is a significant balance remaining around the 12-month mark, execute another balance transfer to a different 0% APR balance transfer credit card and pay down accordingly. This will be the cheapest way to rid yourself of credit card debt.

(photo: stockerre)