Has anyone here dabbled in zero balance transfer credit card fees.

They're still being offered on the market with zero interest on balance transfers, typically for the first 10-12 months.

You could interest arbitrage this by just putting money into a GIC transferring from a zero interest credit card and earning a free 4% or so that's being offered on GIC's right now. Or alternatively if you believe its more advantageous to invest into the market now use that money , index it and just pay down the credit card before the zero interest period runs out.


Anyone have any cards they have done this with before?

If it works like I think it does with preliminary research, you could technically take 5 or 6 15K cards and just pump them into guaranteed investments at zero risk.

This post was edited by SBD on Oct 27 2022 10:55am

I do this regularly.

It's literally free money as long as you are responsible enough to not get underwater.

That's the rub though. You gotta stay credit worthy and not get so many you couldn't pay them off if you get I trouble by losing your job.

This post was edited by NetflixAdaptationWidow on Oct 27 2022 11:25am

I was always under the incorrect assumption that for it to function you had to transfer from the credit card to another credit account essentially using the zero balance to eliminate a higher interest credit account like a LoC or another credit card with an outstanding balance.

Its partly why I never gave it the time of day, and for the past few years margin has been cheap so I levered up that way.

Its come to my attention now though that you can just balance transfer to your chequing account and its not considered a cash advance that typically had other interest terms? If i'm understanding it correctly.

This post was edited by SBD on Oct 27 2022 11:30am

Do this regularly. The only payment I do independent of credit are my mortgages

Some of the perks on cards are amazing. I don’t invest in the market with cards cuz I always find something else to do. Have a couple different properties so there are always random bills and have done an extensive amount of remodeling the last 1-2 years

The trick is to stay organized and remember when 0% timeframes are ending and having balances accounted for by then

This post was edited by Bazi on Oct 27 2022 11:33am

For a long time I used the WestJet MasterCard because I travelled alot using them and used the companion vouchers.

Considering ditching it now as my main card and going with the AMEX Cobalt Mastercard for primary use. The issue is here in Canada there's a lot of places that wont accept AMEX.

This post was edited by SBD on Oct 27 2022 11:39am

I've never done it as a deposit into my checking. I've always just routed things to my monthly credit card (1-5% rewards depending on what is spent) then when it's sufficiently full I transfer it to a 21 month balance transfer card (3% fee with 0-2% cash back) and then set the auto-pay to pay it off 2 months ahead of time.

When applying for the transfer card did you have to give the company the credit accounts you intended to transfer to or you just have free rein online to transfer as you please?

You can apply without but you can also give it at the time of application.

Typically there's a 2 month window to make your transfers

This post was edited by NetflixAdaptationWidow on Oct 27 2022 01:09pm

would this be different for US vs CAD? as far as I know most credit card balance transfers were to be processed to another credit card directly (CAD). I would say you'd need a significant limit to make a real difference but can potentially get up there 2k per yr on a 50k limit @ 4%.

only thing is the impact to utilization on your credit score if its for a full year.

i have a couple that basically demands me to do a balance transfer after i pay it off and do nothing else on it for 2 months. easy money to use for a number of things including your mentioned investing in safe assets with decent yield.

like bazi said it’s worth it if you track the 0% apr timeframes religiously