Original Message:
Re: I just got scamed into buying two timeshares from developers? Help??????? (by Mike N.):
nathanc26 wrote:Thanks for the advise, i've done that a few times already and actually have made a couple thousand dollars on the cc company. back then it used to be that the cc company would charge you 3 or 4% transfer fee with a max of about $75 or $85, which was a good thing because you can take out a whole lot more money, but these days they are doing away with the max and charging you a full 4% on the whole amount transfered which cuould mean hundreds of dollars in transfer fee depending on how much money you're taking out.
I know what you mean, the last time I did a balance transfer, the max fee was $99. For $15K, that's less than 1%.
If you have to pay 3% tansfer fee for 12 months of 0% interest, then you are basically paying an APR of around 5.5%. With a 12-month, 3% simple interest loan for $10K, you only pay about $160 in total interest.
The only way I've seen to get a "cap" on the transfer fee is to open a new account (and you might get some perks such as airline miles as well).
If someone can't get a low interest loan, then even a 3% transfer fee can be a good deal, but only for a period of 12 months or more AND if they can pay it off at the end of the term.
The other "trap" is that you can't use the card to buy anything else. All payments go towards the 0% balance first. Other charges continue to "rack up" interest at the high rate.