Thursday, December 15, 2011

What is the best credit card available in the U.S. for someone carrying a balance?

A friend of mine is carrying several thousand dollars in credit card debt right now. She has a decent credit score (~700) and wants to transfer the entire balance to a card that will give her 0% APR for the first year and give her rewards. She intends to pay it off over the next 6 months. Any ideas?|||I would say pay attention to the mail. I get several offers each week. Most for 0% for 6 to 12 months. You say her score is ~700, so it should be no problem...





another thought is to simply call one of the cards she has a balance on now and simply ask them if they would be willing to do a deal for her business. There may be a transfer fee (as much as $150 for all the transfers) as well.





Some cards give checks to do this very thing. This would help to cut the transfer fees as they typically top out at a certain amount (pay attention to the fine print). Write the check to self and deposit it in the bank. Then write personal checks to the various cards for the amounts owed each one. This will put the entire balance on one card for only one fee.





As for rewards, Discover gives cash back (or partner rewards), Visa and others do similar things. Watch the mail, check online (google it), or simply ask the various cards already owned.





I used to do this transfer money thing a lot. I like using the banks money to earn interest... hehehe. Now I am debt free (except mortgage). Hope it all works out for your friend.|||Sounds like she's on the right track. Calling several companies I'm sure one if not more would have a 0% APR for 3-6 months. As far as gaining rewards on a couple thousand dollars for 6 months I'm not sure you'd really get enough to be of any use. I know Visa offers airline miles. The biggest reward however would be to finish paying it off and keep the balance at zero. That would put anyone further ahead than what they could gain in reward points.|||go with citi-card, or go here to compare them, they have a few here http://www.bestcreditrates.net|||You might also want to have her check out www.bankrate.com or www.fool.com (that's the Motley Fool financial website); they both offer some pretty good advice on cards when you're carrying a balance from month to month.|||there are many cards out there that will provide you this. you need only check online. However, I would recommend calling 1-800-Discover. This is the # for Discover card. I know that they have the best rewards program around and I believe you can get the 0% APR for the first year. Note though I don't think any credit card companies Awards Program will give award points on balance transfers. Card companies make money on the interest and they also make money on the transaction. Generally, the rewards are based on transacted dollars not transfered dollars. You'll probably want to check that out.

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