No Fee Balance Transfer Credit Cards

0% APR balance transfer credit cards are pretty hot, but you may be better off with a “no fee balance transfer credit card.”

That’s right, there are balance transfer credit cards with no fee out there if you look hard enough.

No fee balance transfers actually used to be pretty common, but balance transfer arbitrage and a complete financial collapse have made them harder to come by.

No Fee Balance Transfer Credit Card Offers:

Chase Slate No Fee Balance Transfer is the only way to get your hands on a balance transfer with no fee with Chase. For a limited time, get 0% APR for up to 12 months with $0 balance transfer fee! Act quickly before this offer expires!

Discover® More Card – No Balance Transfer Fee – get 0% APR on balance transfers and purchases for 12 months with a $0 balance transfer fee! Discover recently re-launched this offer for the start of 2012. Don’t expect it to last long!

Chase Freedom® Visa – $150 Bonus Cash Back – 0% APR for 12 months on balance transfers, 3% fee. Earn $150 cash back for transferring a minimum of $500. This could easily offset your balance transfer fee and make it a no fee balance transfer! (Offer expired!)

Chase Freedom is also a unique way of getting your hands on a balance transfer with no fee.

So what is a no fee balance transfer credit card anyways?

Well, most credit card balance transfer offers come with an associated fee, which typically ranges from $5 to 5% of the balance transferred.

Credit card issuers charge balance transfer fees to ensure they make some money because a select group of savvy consumers transfer the debt and pay it off (or even transfer it again) before incurring any finance charges.

Let’s look at an example:

Credit card balance: $2,000
Balance transfer offer A: 0% APR, 5% balance transfer fee
Balance transfer offer B: 3.99% APR, no balance transfer fee

If you decided to go with balance transfer offer A, you’d be subject to a $100 balance transfer fee, but you wouldn’t pay any interest for say 12 months (this will vary based on different offers).

If you went with balance transfer offer B, you would avoid the balance transfer fee, but pay 3.99% APR for say the life of the balance (again, this could vary).

That’s up to $80 annually, or $6.65 per month in finance charges using simple math. If you chip away at that $2,000 balance during the year, the finance charges will be less.

So balance transfer offer B could actually be more beneficial than balance transfer offer A, assuming you plan to pay down the balance.

Of course, you may be able to get the best of both worlds if you do a little searching. There are still no fee balance transfer credit cards that offer 0% APR, you just need to do some digging.

But if you can’t find a no fee balance transfer credit card with 0% APR, you could always request that the balance transfer fee be waived.

Credit card issuers are more willing to negotiate than you might think.