Completed 3rd Balance Transfer for a total of $48,000 0% APR

Since I have no plans to borrow money in the next year, I decided to capitalize on my credit score to boost my income. I have already signed up for a $13,000 Capital One balance transfer and a $26,500 Citi balance transfer - both at 0% APR with no transfer fees.

I decided to try a 3rd balance transfer to boost my free loans a little bit more - after all - if I earn an extra $500 in interest off the balance transfer for a total of 30 minutes worth of work on my part its hard to find a better return on my time.

I decided to sign up for a Chase Flexible Rewards card that was offering a 0% Balance Transfer with no transaction fees until 3/1/2008 - almost a year and a half free loan. I signed up online and received my card with a $4,900 limit in about 2 weeks. I called to activate the card and had them move $6,000 of the credit limit on an old Chase card I have to the new credit card.

The new Chase credit card came with a "purchase check". When I activated the card, I inquired about whether I could use the check as a balance transfer check like I have done with Citibank cards. However, the customer service agent could not confirm for me that I could use the check without a transaction fee. After pressuring him on it further, I gave up and decided to try a different technique to get to the balance transfer.

The customer service agent told me he could handle the 0% balance transfer over the phone without any transaction fees. I gave the agent my line of credit account number and instructed him to transfer my entire available credit line to that account.

I received a $10,800 payment a few days later to my line of credit which now had a $10,800 positive balance. I am transferring the money from the line of credit to my checking account and then into my high yield savings accounts.

I now have a total of $48,057 in outstanding 0% balance transfers earning 5.05% APY in high yield savings accounts. This should be my last balance transfer for awhile.

See my Balance Transfer Guide to learn more about balance transfer techniques.

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Comments (11)

YES. Now we know you're real name Mr. D. Barrett. :)

Posted by Binary Dollar | November 8, 2006 11:21 AM

$48,000. Wow! I'm playing with $500 in balance transfers. I'm still scared of doing this. It's sitting in my Emigrant Direct and I have my finger hovering over the repay button.

Posted by John Wilks | November 8, 2006 11:58 AM

$48K? That's an awfully big number and I wish I could have a similar amount as well. The last time in May when I applied for a Citi Professonal card for the balance transfer, I was rejected because I already had two BT of more than $25K from Chase. I guess have to wait till the offers expire to get a new one.

I LOVE free loans.

Posted by Sun | November 8, 2006 1:49 PM

Awesome!!! Very cool idea. I was under the impression that these free transfer were only from one card to another. Hmmm I need to start reading those advertisements little more carefully.

Cheers...

Posted by MillionDollarCountDown | November 8, 2006 10:54 PM

Try E-loan for a savings account--it is at 5.5%.

Posted by Nagel | November 9, 2006 6:49 AM

Man you are on a roll here !! I am going to give your example to people when I talk about how to use balance transfers !! This is awesome.

Posted by Golbguru | November 9, 2006 10:57 AM

$48,000 is a serious sum. You are going to save a lot in the long term. That Chase deal is the best I've seen in months. I've been getting snail mail about the same card for many months now, about one solicitation per week! I'm waiting for my credit score to rise above the 800 mark before I take advantage of it.

Posted by Free BT | November 9, 2006 4:07 PM

My entire credit line with 3 cards is $19500 and when I last applied for another card they only offered me $750. And my net worth is similar to yours.... it's a puzzle to me. Maybe because I don't have a mortgage and am not a US citizen or permanent resident I can't borrow as much... Anyway I have about $7000 on balance transfer at the moment.

Posted by moom | November 11, 2006 6:32 PM

Is there anyway to apply directly to the company for a new cc instead of waiting to get one in the mail?

Posted by Eric | December 10, 2006 2:17 PM

You've got the right idea! There's PROS and CONS to transfering balances all the time... but it sounds like you knew what you were doing. Since transfering balances could have a slightly negative impact on your credit score (in the short-term), you want to make sure you're not planning on making any big purchases soon (ie. auto, mortgage loan). But you already knew that!

I don't understand why more people don't take advantage of these offers...

Posted by Credit Card Applications | December 11, 2006 11:18 PM

The whole point of having a good credit score is so that you can get credit; what you do with the credit is up to you. You can waste it on consumer goods or you can use it to make money. I choose to make money.

Yes, it's true that maxing out your cards will lower your credit, but once you pay off the card (which you will be able to do easily because you did not spend the money) your credit will go back up.

Posted by Leroy | July 3, 2008 9:27 PM