It makes no sense to transfer a balance from a low-interest card to one with no interest for a few months just to end up with a higher interest rate once the promotional period expires. For example, suppose you have a 9% APR credit card bill.
You wouldn’t want to transfer the entire balance to a card with 0% interest for 12 months just to have the rate increase to 18% permanently in month 13.
If you can’t locate a card with a standard rate that is lower than the rate on your current card with a balance, only transfer the amount you intend to pay off during the introductory period. You won’t know your standard rate until after you’ve been approved. This is why it is critical to wait until after approval before transferring any balance.
Checks for Convenience
If you need to use the 0% APR offer in unusual circumstances, such as paying off non-credit card debt or paying a merchant who does not take credit cards, choose a card that enables convenience checks. A convenience check is a paper check with the credit line as the payor account.
Simply write a check to yourself and deposit it into your bank account to convert the credit card balance (plus the fee) of the transaction into cash in your account that you may use as you see fit.
It is not always clear whether or not this is an option for a certain card, and some cards have limits that limit the usage of these checks to balance transfers only. This, however, is difficult for the bank to enforce.
In my experience, most credit cards provide convenience checks in the initial welcome packet, but obtaining further checks might be difficult.
