I stumbled upon a no fee balance transfer today, currently being offered by the Navy Federal Credit Union (NFCU).
It comes with 0% APR on balance transfers for 12 months – after that, the APR is variable, ranging from 7.99% to 18%.
The purchase APR is based on your creditworthiness, not that you’re interested in the purchase APR anyways…
And yes, there is no balance transfer fee, making it the only 0% balance transfer with no fee at the moment.
Discover nixed theirs a while back…
Navy Federal uses a good example to illustrate the cost of the balance transfer fee.
Using $5,000 as the balance transfer amount, their fee is, drum roll…$0, Discover’s is $150, Bank of America’s is $200, and Citibank’s is $245.
Of course, they’re skewing the numbers in their favor.
Most, if not all of the balance transfer offers on this site have a 3% fee, not the 4 or 5% fee that they allude to.
So what’s the catch?
Well, besides having to be in the Armed Forces (or affiliated with someone who is) to be eligible, there is a catch.
So don’t go running out and joining the Navy…at least not for this credit card deal.
There’s an annual fee on the associated balance transfer credit cards.
An $18 annual fee applies to their goRewards card and a $49 annual fee applies to their Visa Signature Flagship Rewards card.
So I guess it’s not really a “no fee balance transfer” after all.
Their so-called “$0 Credit Card Balance Transfer Fee” offer ends on July 31, 2011.
Here’s An Alternative
And you don’t need to be in uniform for this offer.
Chase is currently offering $100 cash back if you balance transfer just $500 within the first 3 months from account opening.
So you could transfer $3,000 ($90 fee) and still come out $10 ahead, while enjoying 0% APR with no annual fee…take that Navy Federal!
Learn more about that offer here.
