The Balance Transfer Trade Trick...

Okay, so we have all heard that one of the keys to reducing your debt is transferring the balance to a low rate or promotional rate credit card to reduce your monthly interest. Pretty good plan, but sometimes we don't have any credit room, or we can't/don't want to open another credit card to acheive this. Here's a little trick to bring your rate down (after exhausting other options, like just calling the company).

When your credit card company offers a balance transfer (even if your card is maxed) do the following:

a.) Take every spare penny that you have (credit line, upcoming mortgage payment, anything!) and make sure you can part with it for about a week.

b.) Put all of this money on the credit card with the low transfer rate.

c.) Wait until the money has been applied. If it is a bank credit card, you can sometimes speed up the process by physically making the payment at a branch.

d.) Write one of the handy dandy cheques that come with the transfer offer to yourself and put in the bank.

e.) Put the money you spent back to where it belongs.

Voila! Whatever money you managed to put on your card is now traded from your high interest rate to a low promotional rate. This may only be short lived (due to length of promotion, or low amount of money that you managed to scrounge up in step a) but even any reprieve in interest costs will help to pay down the amount faster and reduce your interest charges.

After the amount is paid off (or the promotion runs out), try the traditional standbys to reduce your rate, and if all else fails, repeat the above process ensuring that you maximize the amount of money that you put on your card.