Update: This offer is no longer available at 0% APR! Check Barclays website for current offer.
For a while now, the only mainstream no fee credit card balance transfer offer came via Chase Slate, which for years now has offered 0% APR for 15 months on balance transfers with no fee.
Sure, I compiled a list of literally hundreds of no fee balance transfer offers, but many of those come from local credit unions and smaller regional banks.
Some require that you actually live nearby or ask that you visit a branch to apply.
Barclaycard Ring Now Comes with 0% APR
But now another major credit card issuer has joined the fray, with the Barclaycard Ring now offering 0% APR for 15 months on balance transfers with no fee!
The card was always a no-fee option, but the APR was nowhere near 0%. In fact, the last time I checked it was above 8%, which kind of defeats the purpose of a balance transfer.
In most cases, you want the APR to be 0% or a tad higher than that, otherwise you’d just be better off paying the typical 3% balance transfer fee on the many 0% APR offers available.
But it seems Barclaycard Ring held to its promise of being a crowd-sourced credit card. The so-called “community-built” credit card allows the Barclaycard Ring Community to vote on the features of the card, including potential product changes.
It’s unclear if the people have spoken, or if the executives at Barclaycard just made the change on their own, but this is a great balance transfer deal from a major credit card issuer.
Barclaycard Ring Allows You to Pay Off Multiple Credit Cards
As I’ve said before, it’s hard to find a truly free balance transfer offer, one that charges no fees whatsoever and offers 0% APR, but the Barclaycard Ring MasterCard meets those rigorous standards.
The current offer is 0% APR on both purchases and balance transfers for the first 15 months with no balance transfer fee and no annual fee. Heck, they don’t even charge foreign transaction fees!
There is one caveat though – you need to execute the balance transfer within 45 days of opening the account to snag the 0% APR on balance transfers.
In other words, don’t wait too long, or just enter the balance transfer details when you apply for the card.
There is a section on the application toward the bottom that allows you to enter your credit card number and the requested amount to transfer, as seen above in the screenshot.
So if you’ve got an Amex card with a $2,500 balance that needs paying off, simply enter your Amex card number and $2,500 for the requested amount. Then just hope Barclaycard gives you a credit line large enough to cover that.
You can add multiple cards by the way, so if you have another balance of say $1,000 with Chase, you can do the same thing. But again, you need to ensure the credit limit they give you covers both these balance transfer amounts.
Alternatively, you could just wait to see what your credit line is, then make the balance transfer requests over the phone, or perhaps on their website.
In any case, this is a deal you shouldn’t pass up if you have outstanding credit card balances subject to finance charges.
The icing on the cake is that Barclaycard is a somewhat more obscure credit card issuer, meaning you probably have balances with other issuers so you won’t have to worry about transferring within the same bank.