0% APR for life on Transferred Balances

[luvozzie]

A friend of mine got an offer from Discover to get a card with 0% APR for life on transferred balances. There are some conditions with the card....you have to make 2 purchases per month. But there is no set $ amount for these purchases so technically you could buy a candy bar and charge it. BTW, my friend has awful credit and she's not planning on applying for this card. But I have great credit and I would love to have this card. Why was she offered the card with her bad credit and I wasn't. How do companies determine who to send offers to? And should I call Discover and ask them about this offer.

Luvozzie

[NightStar]

May be that they purchased her name from a marketing company or one of the credit reporting agencies meaning that she is opted in.

You might use the number on her application and call the company yourself to ask if you can have them mail you the same offer.

[sage]

A friend of mine got the offer too...and I didn't. No big deal, I simply called and got the offer over the phone. The rep was very reassuring about the fact that a couple of $1.00 purchases each month meets the criteria to maintain the 0% rate. I transferred a $15,000 balance that I was carrying in my home equity line of credit. Now I gotta remember to buy a couple packs of gum with the card each month.

[luvozzie]

No, it's not a 100% 0% for life deal, but if you keep your purchases really small you can still do good with this.

Say 2 packs of gum cost $1.00 each....that's $2.00 X 12 months......that's only $24 a year. And say you do this for five years..... that's only $120.00. If the APR is reasonable, which I'm sure it is, you still come out pretty good.

[sage]

You definitely need to be careful with this type of offer...but you can make it work to your advantage. Another point to keep in mind, the 0% card may end up with a higher minimum monthly payment...I believe Discover is 2% of balance.

In my case I transferred a HELOC balance. If I get tripped up somehow and the 0% isn't working for me anymore, I can simply write a check on my HELOC to pay off the credit card and be back to where I was. If I don't get tripped up, I can net about $500/year interest savings. Moving the HELOC to Discover also means my house isn't on the line anymore.

[HJM]

... Now I gotta remember to buy a couple packs of gum with the card each month.

If you have Sprint, you can make multiple small payments. I know that Verizon doesn't accept Discover.

Say 2 packs of gum cost $1.00 each....that's $2.00 X 12 months......that's only $24 a year. And say you do this for five years..... that's only $120.00. If the APR is reasonable, which I'm sure it is, you still come out pretty good.

You'll pay more because of $.50 minimum finance charge. However, you're right that the deal is still good for at least a few years.

HJM.

[jbkinn]

I called Discover today to apply for the card in this forum that offered a 0% on transfers for life. They said I would have to have a code to get this. What are they talking about you who have gotten this card?

[sage]

They didn't require a code when I called, but that was a couple months back. You might try this code: FWAE at 1-866-254-4262. I saw it on another forum that was discussing the Discover 0%. If you happen to already have a Discover, tell them you're thinking of cancelling. Good luck!

[luvozzie]

I applied over the telephone this week and they didn't ask me for a code.

[jbkinn]

I just applyed for the discover card over the phone and they did not ask for any code. I should be getting a response within 30 days. They said if I did not qualify for this card with a $9K limit minimum another card would be issued with a $500 minimum. I surely would not want this card as it would not beifit me with sizeable balance to transfer and have the abiluty to pay off over the next year.

[pennypicher]

I too have got these offers. The catch I see is "we have the right to change the rate at anytime for any reason we see fit". So this means that 0% or any rate is not forever. Am I reading this wrong. Bank 1 keeps sending this offer as well as others. Sounds great but the clause keeps me wondering.

[luvozzie]

They all same that but as long as you pay on time the 0% will last for the length of time stated in the offer. At least that's been my experience.

[luvozzie]

I meant to say that they all say that.

[jbkinn]

The lastest on my application for the Discovery card was that the terms are different than originaly stated. On balance transfers they are 0% till May 2005. If I use the card twice a month (min $1 each) it will extend the 0% for as many months as I do it.

The other conditions are the same as for the original card. They also return up to 5% on gas purchases.

[luvozzie]

The 0% was always only until May, 2005 with 2 minimum purchases thereafter to keep the 0% going. What kind of credit limit did they give you?

[jbkinn]

They did not say and I forgot to ask about the credit limit. There is some confusion about this card within their organization. One weeek after applying on the the I got a call requesting info so the application could be processed. It was then I learned that this was a gas card not a 0% type. So I cancelled the application and returned to the application dept. There I found out that the card indeed did have the 0% offer. She said that it also had an up to 5% savings on gas along with the 2% overall. So I uncancelled the cancellation and should expect something in the mail within a week. I'll let you know what happens.

[luvozzie]

I applied over the telephone and got the card in one week. They only gave me a $4000.00 credit limit which is less than I wanted. I didn't know the card offered cashback on gas purchases.....but maybe mine doesn't. They seem to have a lot of diffeent offers going. And when I got my card there was no information included about the 0% offer. I called to make sure I had the 0% and they said I did. They weren't too friendly on the telephone. I'm going to ask for something in writing before I transfer any money to this card.

[jbkinn]

I finally received the Discover Card. The 0% on transfer balances can be extended indefinitly with 2 minimum purchases per month, in the billing cycle. I am still looking through the fine print to determine in writing the"minimum purchase".
This has been a strange adventure. First my wife opened my mail and did not inform me that the card had arrived about a month ago. Second, I looked at the card this morning but could not find it this evening until I removed my shoes. It had fallen from the desk into my shoe and I have been wearing it all day.
This is what "Discover" means? The card is a platinum card marked as "Gasoline Cashback Bonus Plus".

[hesiden]

Intresting as long as I'm careful I could pay off my car loan with a card like this and save about 700 dollars a year in intrest.

What would be a good backup plan if you accidently missed a payment on a 0% intrest for life card? Clearly you'd want to pay it of as quicky as possible since the intrest rate would sky rocket.

[Polonius]

A good backup plan is to have other low interest cards on hand with available credit to use for balance transfers if that happens.

Never hurts to have a lot of credit available!

[hesiden]

Now that I take a closer look at it, it looks like "balance transfers" are only allowed from other credit cards. Is that true?

Anyway I don't see that 0% for life card being offered at discover. Deal over now?

[Board Monitor]

hesiden,

Thanks for your post and welcome to the board! I believe you have to receive an invitation for the 0% for life offer. Have you tried calling them, though?

Out of curiosity, how did you find out about our website?

[DHK]

I think it's a clever way for credit card companies to keep their card in your wallet!

[hesiden]

I called discover and the deal seems to be for new accounts. So I applied for a second account.

I'm curious, has anyone computed minium finance charge for this "for life" deal?

Curtis, I believe I found this site thru google.

[wilco]

Hey Hesiden, I called DC to cancel my 2 cards cuz my 0% intro rate was over and I paid them off with my HELOC, so I figurd there was no reason to keep them around. But, they convinced me to keep the cards by enticing me with an insane offer... 0% for life, NO transfer fee, raised my limit AND I only had to make 1 purchase per month (rather than 2 like the new card offer). So, simply call to cancel your old one and keep pushing them till they give you this offer (they first tried another 6mo 0% offer with a BT fee, but I told them that wasn't good enough, so they totally bent over and gave me the goods. I'm lovin it, have a total of 30k at 0% for life! At that rate I'll pay off my mortgage in 3 more years.

Happy deal hunting!

Paul

[wilco]

I too have got these offers. The catch I see is "we have the right to change the rate at anytime for any reason we see fit". So this means that 0% or any rate is not forever. Am I reading this wrong. Bank 1 keeps sending this offer as well as others. Sounds great but the clause keeps me wondering.

You mention you have seen this 0% for life offer from Bank 1 and others? Can you be more specific? I have only seen it from Discover but would love to find others. Has anyone else seen this cool offer from others? Please advise?

[hesiden]

Does it still sound good?

Say rate 10% on purchase
and min. finance charge 1 dollar min. purchase 1 dollar.
It will take a $120 balance at 10% to exceed the min. finance
charge.

Of course 0% on the BT.

1st month purchase $1.
2nd month purchase $1 + fin. charge $1 total $3.
3rd total balance at 10% intrest $5, total finace charges $2
4th total balance at 10% intrest $7, total finace charges $3
5th total balance at 10% intrest $9, total finace charges $4
6th total balance at 10% intrest $10, total finace charges $5
7th total balance at 10% intrest $12, total finace charges $6
8th total balance at 10% intrest $14, total finace charges $7
9th total balance at 10% intrest $16, total finace charges $8
10th total balance at 10% intrest $18, total finace charges $9
11th total balance at 10% intrest $20, total finace charges $10
12th total balance at 10% intrest $21, total finace charges $11

APR for the first year is half a percent with a BT of 2000.
Much better for higher BT of course.

12th total balance at 10% intrest $23, total finace charges $11
13th total balance at 10% intrest $25, total finace charges $12
14th total balance at 10% intrest $27, total finace charges $13
15th total balance at 10% intrest $29, total finace charges $14
16th total balance at 10% intrest $31, total finace charges $15
17th total balance at 10% intrest $33, total finace charges $16
18th total balance at 10% intrest $35, total finace charges $17
19th total balance at 10% intrest $37, total finace charges $18
20th total balance at 10% intrest $39, total finace charges $19
21th total balance at 10% intrest $41, total finace charges $20
22th total balance at 10% intrest $43, total finace charges $21
23th total balance at 10% intrest $45, total finace charges $22
24th total balance at 10% intrest $47, total finace charges $23

Just 12 in finace charges for the second year.
End of 3rd year

36th month total balance at 10% int. $71, fiance charge for 3rd year
still 12 dollars.

Same for 4th year. Maybe someone should check my math.
It looks good for several years. Of course purchase balance
will eventually get too large or you'll miss a payment and invalidate
teh 0% deal.

[wilco]

Hey there, thanks for the math. Which I have done as well and found that I'll end up saving approx $5000 in interest over the long haul and it will only cost me about $280 (I have 4 discover cards). So, heck yeah its worth it. And I didn't even calculate in the first 6 months of hassle free 0% (no purchases required).

Also, the minimum finance charge on two of my cards is only .50 and there seems to be NO min finance charge on the other two... this is the 4th month of my "make a monthly purchase" deal now, and I am telling you, it rocks!

I use a bill pay service and automatically pay just a few $ more than the minimum every month. Never miss a payment. I then set a reminder in my Outlook to make my monthly trip the Dollar Tree and buy 4 items, which is a hassle sometimes but well worth it!

I say take Discover to the bank as much as possible on this people!!! Get your card, transfer your car payment, student loan, HELOC, whatever. If you already have a card, call and tell them you want to cancel and get them to give you the goods! Tell them you want to increase your credit line too, they'll do it right there on the spot. Then, see if you can get another card! Get one for your spouse too! Who knows how long this crazy deal will last, but it is amazing how quickly you can pay off debt with NO interest.

Rock on

Paul

[hesiden]

Wilco, did they just ofter you the 0% intrest for life on BT when you called to cancel?

My wife has been with discover since 1989 and has a credit limit of 12K. I'm hoping she can get it bumped up to 15K and get the 0% intrest for life deal so we can transfer a car loan and save a bunch in intrest.

She's applied for a citi platnium dividend card with the 12 months 0% intrest on BT, however we want to use that one for the 5% cash back. Last night she was "pre-approved" for a chase platnum visa with 0% in BT until April 2006.

However I'm really looking for the "for life" deal from discover since there is no way we can pay off the car loan in 12 months. Any suggestions on the story we should tell discover so they give us what we want?

[wilco]

Hey Hesiden, I've been playing the BT game for about 6 yrs, the story that always works and they can't argue with is that you are trying to buy a house and your loan officer told you to close some accounts (too many accounts can be viewed as a liability when trying to get a house loan) and that you really don't need all the cards you already have, so, you are THINKING about canceling your DiscCard. They then transfer you to their "customer retention dept." there you tell your story again and they will usually entice you with another 6mo 0% intro rate. You tell them that you don't think that's really going to save you much, especially with the BT fees... This is when they pull out the really good stuff from under the counter... the 0% for life deal, no BT fees, with only 1 purchase per month required after the 6mo intro. At that point you tell them it sounds pretty darn good if you could raise your limit and transfer over 15k. They will do a quick little soft credit inquiry and make an instant decision, as long as your credit score is decent they will at least hand you another $2500, if not more.

Then, and this is important, you'll need to set a reminder in your Outlook calendar to make that first purchase just before the 6mo intro runs out. Ask them exactly what the date is that you need to make your first purchase. See, they are giving you that 6 months to FORGET! Don't let them win! Make your purchases and pay your minimums ontime or you're hosed.

Oh, also, before you do that you have to make sure your current DC balance is paid off, so transfer it to your 0% Chase or Bank One for now.

Let me know how it goes and how much you'll be saving in interest, I'd love to know (and I'm sure others here would too).

Good luck stickin' it to the man!

Wilco

[jbkinn]

I finally read the fine print in the Terms and Conditions and decided to make the BT on the Internet. It worked like a charm.
The interesting thing about the Terms and Conditions is that the default rate can only happen if you fail to make a payment or 2 minimum purchases on the Discover Card per month. There is no mention of the default occuring as a result of a payment problem with any other account not with Discover.

[wilco]

So, how much were you able to transfer and when do your purchases have to start? What do you figure this will save you over the long run? It would be cool to figure out just how much people are saving on average on this deal.

Oh, and more importantly, what internet site did you go to to get this deal?

P

[jbkinn]

I transfered $6k. The minimum charges need to start in May. The minimum payment on the TD is 2%. However I plan to pay 4% which would take 25 months to pay off. The interest saved would be based on a 18.5% rate from the original Mastercard. I f memory servs me right I think a rule of thumb is half the money for half the time for a declining sum. This would be 25/2 = 12.5 months of $6k/2 =$3k. Or to make it simple one year at 18.5% for $3k = $555. The cost of the minimum purchases is $2 x 25 months = $50. With an interest rate of 15.5% using the same math it comes to $7.75. The net savings would be 555-7.75 = $547.5

This what I expected to do from the start.

[rustsleeps]

Tucked into the latest WalMart flier today was a full page ad with the DiscoverPlatinum Gas Card deal. It allows up to 10% back on gas purchases, up to 2% cashback bonus, etc plus a free PDA thrown into the mix. According to the small print you must call: 1-866-254-4261 and mention "Invitation #FZPP" , and make a purchase within the first 4 months. The usual dire consequences listed for late, missed payments, etc.

No, I am not advocating - just passing it along .

[hesiden]

I believe the keywords in that offer at "up to".

[hesiden]

I got my second discover card with the 0% rate on BT for life (with 2 purchases per month starting in Aug to keep the 0%). The credit limit on the new second card was 6K and on my first card the credit limit is 11K. I called customer support and asked about decreasing the limit on my first card in order to increase it on the second. They said they couldn't just swap the limits, but would need to pull my credit report again. Since I was hoping to get 15K on the second card they decreased the limit on the first card to 3K. The discover card guy said total avalible revolving credit matters. That is not exactly what I've heard on this board, but it made sense. Any way all that happened was my second card was increased from 6K to 7K. Bah.

Obviously there must be some formual they use for deciding credit limits, anyone have a clue what it might be?

Anyway my wife called and tried the what wilco says in several messages up saying her loan manager says she should close some accounts. They transfered her around to 5 or so people but in the end they never gave her the 0% deal. They are willing to let her, a good customer for 15 years, switch to another card with one of the 12months 0% on BT teaser rates.

All I can say is I'll be using my citi card with the 5% cash back alot now.

[wilco]

Hey Hesiden, I'm sorry to hear they would not give her the killer deal. But at least you got another 12 mo. I've had others (family and friends) use that approach and it worked like a charm everytime... well, first DC tried some other deals on them, but in the end they all got the 0% for life deal. Maybe DC is tapering back on offering the world. It's good to hear you got an additional card though, between the 2 of you you should be able to get 4 cards total.

And good idea on using that Citi card, make your self some cash back (it's kinda funny, but you could think of it as using Discover cards money to make 5% + whatever % you were paying on your auto loan, that's a pretty good return!)

Nothin's better than workin the system!

Wilco

[hesiden]

My wife finally got a 0% deal for life of the balance transfter from discover, she had to get a second discover card same I did. Our two cards combined have enough to pay off a 15K auto loan at 4.8%. So we should save about $700 in intrest the first year. I also got a bank one visa with 0% apr on transfers for 15 billing cycles which I plan to use just put in to Emigrant Direct savings account (3% APY) just to earn intrest. That plus a new citibank dividend cards for each of use should save and/or earn us well over $1000 dollars this year.

That is directly attributable to reading this board. Thanks everyone!

It should be intresting watching my credit score as my utilization shoots up when the balance transfers go thru and then slowly rises as balances get payed off and the recent hard inquires and new accounts age. Any suggestions as which is the best credit monitoring deal?

Any idea what a good average account age is? I have 5 cards now and 3 are very new and one is about 6 months old. The last is very old 9 years or so.

[wilco]

Hesiden, that is SO COOL! Sorry, don't have any info on which credit monitoring service is the best, I use the one from CreditReport.com, it was free when I ordered my complete credit report (some promotion deal). Don't have any info on the average age formula either.

I suggest a spreadsheet, an auto bill pay service to make the minimums and putting reminders in your calendar to stay on top of all your stuff.

Rock on,

Wilco

[Polonius]

PrivacyGuard gives you access to reports and simulated scores from all three of the major bureaus; it's the best deal I've found. (CreditExpert from Experian costs about the same for only one report and one simulated score--and its simulated score isn't at all close to a FICO score in my opinion.)

Optimal age for the best scoring is supposed to be around 30 years for the oldest account.

[hesiden]

Optimal age for the best scoring is supposed to be around 30 years for the oldest account.

Ha. I'm looking more for the age where it doesn't effect your score "much". For example, I think hard inquires don't effect your score much after 6th months or maybe a year, but say on the report for 2 years.

Similarly I assume there is some account age where it doesn't help your score much to have a higher average age.

What about mycreditkeeper.com? It is 9.95/month has also has 3 scores.

[Polonius]

I never looked at mycreditkeeper.com before--but it seems identical to PrivacyGuard (same layout screens, even the same color scheme!). Since it's a little cheaper, go for it. Or just take advantage of the trials on each, switching back and forth between that and PrivacyGuard when each trial expires. (You have to sign up using a different credit card than you used before.)

As for as age goes, these scoring models are crunching numbers according to a number of different variables and do offer simple answers to most questions. I've read that 30 years is considered optimal, which means that shorter or longer reduces the score. There's some rationale--if you have 3 years of credit history, who knows how you really will pay your bills if faced with a problem? If you have 60 years of credit history, then you're old and probably retired without necessarily much income coming in. 30 years puts most people in their 50s--probably the top overall earning bracket, since they're mostly still employed at their top salaries and not yet retired.

I don't know any way to figure out how age affects the scoring more specifically--you can't play with that factor in the simulators because it's basically beyond your control unless you close open accounts to reduce the account age, which usually is not a good idea.

[hesiden]

I don't know any way to figure out how age affects the scoring more specifically--you can't play with that factor in the simulators because it's basically beyond your control unless you close open accounts to reduce the account age, which usually is not a good idea.

Only the age of the open accounts counts? Or is that also unknown?