I recently noted that Discover was offering 0% no fee balance transfers to select customers via snail mail.
Well, Chase seems to be doing a similar promotion.
The company currently has an offer for certain lucky customers (some with Amazon branded credit cards) that comes with two special balance transfer options:
– 0% APR for 12 months with a 1% balance transfer fee
– 0% APR for 18 months with a 2% balance transfer fee
While these aren’t no fee balance transfer offers, they are reduced from the standard 3% balance transfer fee Chase typically charges.
Let’s take a look at the potential savings, assuming you’ve got a credit card balance of $5,000 @20.99% APR.
With the standard 3% balance transfer fee, you’d pay $150 for the privilege of transferring your balance.
With the 2% balance transfer fee, you’d pay just $100, and you’d get an additional six months to pay down your balance to zero before incurring any finance charges.
Finally, if you took the 1% balance transfer fee offer, you’d pay just $50, thereby saving $100 over the standard rate.
So you can save some decent money if you happen to receive one of these offers in your physical mailbox (not your e-mail inbox).
You can also log in to your existing Chase credit card account online and click on the balance transfer tab to see if the offer is there.
[What credit score is needed for a balance transfer?]
If not, there’s still a way to get a Chase no fee balance transfer, thanks to a cash back offer that will offset the standard 3% fee.
Chase will give you $100 cash back for transferring at least $500, so a $3,000 balance transfer would actually net you $10.
And smaller transfers would make you even more money.
For example, if you transferred the $500 minimum, you’d pay a $15 balance transfer fee but get $100 cash back, or $85 net profit.
Not a bad deal if you aren’t one of the select few picked by Chase to receive these new special offers.
Update: The Chase Slate No Fee Balance Transfer is now available, so forget about the 1% balance transfer fee and get it for free!