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Am I the only BOA Dividend Miles Visa card holder who noticed that BOA has sent out balance transfer /courtesy checks which now offer 0% interest for about 6 months, with no transaction fee either?
Having moved my charging off the BOA Visa to the new Div. Miles Mastercard (at least temporarily, anyway), I have no balance on the BOA DM Visa. Therefore, the offer of free money for 6 months seemed like a good one, so I wrote myself a check for $15,000, and deposited it into my account.
Only caveat (which did not apply to me) is that the check T&C's say that any payments go to pay off the promotional balance at 0% first, and the rest of your balance will continue to accrue at standard rate until you pay off balance. So, you'll rack up some interest at high rates (on the other balance) if you keep using the card for other purchases.
Only free if you just take the 0% money and don't use the card for anything else. Which is what I am doing for a few months.
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Are you sure there's no balance transfer fee?
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Positive. Says in BIG Print -- No balance transfer or check fees. (And, being an attorney, I've read every word of the fine print too, and nothing in there about any charges.) It truly is free money (at least for a few months, in the right circumstances, see caveat above).
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Indeed 0%.
I find bofa convinience checks (they send them EVERY week) to vary...
3 out of 4 sets of checks have a balance transfer fee, then once in a while no balance transfer fee.
One recent one had NO fee on the 1st check, and a fee on the other two.
Read the fine print. =)
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I guess I just don't trust these offers. There is usually some sneaky fee hidden somewhere.
I would confirm that there is no fee whatsoever before I did the transfer. I have recently seen several offers which state no balance transfer fee in big letters and mention the transfer will be treated as a cash advance (at a 3% fee) in little tiny letters, if at all.
Good luck!
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No, there are no fees at all, but here's one thing I noticed that I am suspicious of: I got an early set of checks for this and used one. It says 0% through, oh, I think April, maybe May. Well, I've gotten a more recent set that says 0% through June or July. Hm. If I were to use the more recent checks at all, I think I would be screwed unless I pay it all off by the initial April/May timeframe. Otherwise, the rate on that earlier transfer would expire, leaving only the newer check at 0%. And any subsequent payments would go towards the 0% first, allowing them to rack up interest on any earlier balance until it's all paid off. Could catch a few people unawares.
But yeah, I'd say it's safe if you use one check or only checks from one single mailing. They really do have no fee and no interest. They're hoping to catch you on either leaving balance past the end date or perhaps on the different end dates that I noted above.
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Moving to Credit Card Forum.
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One thing to watch out for with these types of offers is credit utilization (balance as a percentage of your credit limit) - high utilization can lower your credit score (which may or may not matter depending on your financial situation, need to apply for new credit or lack thereof, etc).
High utilization on one account is unlikely to matter as much if your overall utilization on revolving accounts is low.
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I guess I just don't trust these offers. There is usually some sneaky fee hidden somewhere.
Just read the fine print and be careful. These deals can be quite lucrative. I make ~$1000 per year for a couple hours' work by simply putting fee-free 0% offers in my ING Direct account and paying the minimums until the end of the promotion.
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You also cant put anything else on the card, as the bank will first apply the minimum payment to the balance txfer @ 0% and will charge interest on the purchases balance.
I've had problems depositing checks into the ING Direct account - they returned a check from my employer as a "second party" check, basically they said that a check has to be from me to me to be eligible for a deposit.
Also some banks dont accept credit card checks, and I was told that that possibly can trigger a returned item fee (although it doesnt make much sense as the check isnt returned, its just not accepted per their policy)
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Just want to make sure I have this straight....
I have the same checks as the OP (No balance or check fees). I can write a check to myself, deposit in my personal checking account, transfer to ING, and just make the minimum payments until August when I pay off the rest of the money?
I too have stopped using this card while the 1.5 points are valid over at Juniper. So I would just keep the card in a junk drawer so I never accidently use it.
Am I missing anything? Sounds like a great way to get some free money.
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Am I missing anything? Sounds like a great way to get some free money.
Sounds like you have the gist of it. Just make your minimum payments early every month to avoid any mishaps, and make sure to have the balance paid off before the ened of the promotional period. I generally have ~$30k in 0% cash-advance money sitting in ING earning me ~$1k per year for nothing.
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Thanks for the info.
I just re-read the T&C's and it looks like I earn miles on this too. Really a great deal.
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Thanks for the info.
I just re-read the T&C's and it looks like I earn miles on this too. Really a great deal.
If this is true, its a phenomenal deal. However, I have found that any mileage offer comes with the 3% fee attached. But to get 0% and miles is awesome. I would be skeptical of this to good to be true offer.
Ken in Phx
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If this is true, its a phenomenal deal. However, I have found that any mileage offer comes with the 3% fee attached. But to get 0% and miles is awesome. I would be skeptical of this to good to be true offer.
Ken in Phx
I'll call to confirm tonight and let you know.
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Wow, that would be crazy to get miles on it. My BofA card isn't mileage-earning, so I can't confirm that.
BTW, from what I know of credit scoring, I would recommend you pay $1 more than the minimum payment. Paying more than the minimum is helpful to your score, and apparently this is a simple true/false test. In other words, it doesn't matter how much more than the minimum you pay, just that you pay more than it. It's a small part of the scoring, sure, but every little bit counts for something, and it's sure not difficult to pay $1 more.
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Confirmed:
"you'll receive one mile for every dollar spent."
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Confirmed:
"you'll receive one mile for every dollar spent."
Is "spent" equal to "purchase"? Usually balance transfer falls into the same category as "cash advances" instead of "purchases." If I were you, I would definitely re-confirm the terms and have it in writing, or have the CS put a notation to your account stating the BT check will earn you miles.
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Got my offer through email. I went for it, 0% finance,0 BTfee and miles. I could not resist. I have read all the T&C's. This is the first one I have seen with this kind of offer. Bear in mind I do have a Zero balance to begin with. Of course that is the only way this works..............
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Wow, that would be crazy to get miles on it. My BofA card isn't mileage-earning, so I can't confirm that.
BTW, from what I know of credit scoring, I would recommend you pay $1 more than the minimum payment. Paying more than the minimum is helpful to your score, and apparently this is a simple true/false test. In other words, it doesn't matter how much more than the minimum you pay, just that you pay more than it. It's a small part of the scoring, sure, but every little bit counts for something, and it's sure not difficult to pay $1 more.
Good point. I always pay $1 over the minimum.
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I just got some checks in this month's BofA US Visa Signature statement. No balance transfer fees for using THESE CHECKS (as opposed to others), one mile per dollar transferred, up to 20,000 miles per offer. The down-side is that they have an interest rate of prime minus 2% (currently 5.25%).
It may cost me a few dollars for a few days interest while money shuffles around, but 20,000 miles seems worth it.
(edited for this update)
Even better. You can enter your card information at www.easybt.com to see if you're targetted for this offer and do the balance transfer right there. Read the fine print, as you may get a different offer than the one I listed here.
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I just got some checks in this month's BofA US Visa Signature statement. No balance transfer fees for using THESE CHECKS (as opposed to others), one mile per dollar transferred, up to 20,000 miles per offer. The down-side is that they have an interest rate of prime minus 2% (currently 5.25%).
It may cost me a few dollars for a few days interest while money shuffles around, but 20,000 miles seems worth it.
I've done this before on a UA card when I got a rare mileage-earning check offer. As I recall there was no transfer fee and I think it was at an insane 2 miles per dollar level. For a few dollars in interest (enough time for the check to post, and then a payment right back, even faster and easier now in these days of simple electronic payments) you can earn thousands of miles. It had a maximum I think, but it was enough to get 20-odd thousand for just the several dollars in interest. Whatever you pay in interest, it'll be well worth it for 20k.