The Business section in the Sunday edition of the NY Times has a list of the highest yielding CD and MM offered by FDIC banks. I don't think you're going to do much better than 3.7% in a MM and I'm not certain the banks' MM are in fact FDIC insured. The telephone numbers are listed so check it out.
why should I worry about 10 visa transactions? You pay your cellphone bill in one dollars 10 times on the website ONCE A MONTH, it takes 6 minutes of mine
If you haven't noticed, times have changed. I'm not saying that it won't work, all I'm just saying the risk of something bad happening is much higher in today's economic times. Perhaps the CC will cancel your card per their new policies, and you can kiss your credit score goodbye. If you want to run in front of the bus to pick up that quarter on the ground, be my guest.
Uhm who cares about your FICO? Unless you're planning on buying a house in the next 12 months who gives a crap. My FICO took a dive after I did my transfers and I still got a mortgage on my new house while putting 5% down. I simply showed them my cash balance and end of story. Plus I got this mortgage just 5 months ago. The original poster is putting the money in a safe investment so there is no harm here assuming the original poster does not: -Miss any monthly payments -Makes sure to pay off the entire balance before the 0% ends. -Finally DO NOT MAKE ANY NEW PURCHASES ON THOSE CARDS UNTIL THE BALANCE IS PAID OFF. Its free money, take advantage!
I'd short this statement just on a guess at the probability that out of 100 guys who say it, 90 come to a messy end.
Help me understand what it is that you are doing. I'm totally ignorant about this, so please go through the steps one by one for me. You owe a balance on a card. You transfer the balance to another card with 0% interest for a specified period of time. At the end of the specified period, you pay the card company back the full balance. I don't understand where the money to pay for this full balance came from. Are my other statements incorrect? Or does the original balance come from a cash advance instead of a purchase? I don't get it.
I've commented on this game several times. Here is a simple example I gave in another thread: I apologize for going off the original topic but here is a simplified example of how this works as its been a pretty handy financial tool that I've been able to utilitze. - Capital one sends you an offer saying you can take out cash up to your capital one credit card limit and you will pay a yearly 3.5% interest rate for life of the loan. - You tap your credit and write yourself the capital one convenience check and deposit 30K into your bank account. - You take the 30K in your bank account and invest it and get a 5% per year return. - So the first month you will generate an interest payment with capital one of (.035/12)*30,000 = 87.5 so your balance due at month end is 30,087.5. - At the sametime your 30K investment will also earn return in the amount of (.05/12)*30,000 = 125 so your balance on your investment at the end of the month is 30,125. So now your balances are the following after 1 month: You owe Capital One = $30087.5 You have in an investment = $30125 So your equity is 30125 - 30087.5 = $37.5 gain. So you could simply take your investment money out and pay off the entire capital one debt and pocket the $37.5 profit which was generated out of money you didn't have. Obviously rather than pay this off you just simply rinse and repeat for a decade or as long as you can. The secret is finding an investment that will give you the 5% return. The only difference between my example above and what the original poster of this thread is that the original poster is borrowing money at 0% rather than 3.5% and the posters 0% rate runs out after 12 months versus in my example the 3.5% rate is for life of the loan. There seems to be repeated statements made on this topic from individuals that a credit card company can change the rate on a PROMOTIONAL rate anytime they want. From my experience this is not true. The credit card company clearly states that a purchase rate is variable and can be jacked up anytime for any reason. However promotional rates are not variable unless stated (ie 0% for 12 months then it switches to purchase rate). What this means is that a CC company CANNOT change the terms on a promotional rate unless the card holder defaults (i.e. misses a monthly payment). The other concern people bring up is that a credit card company can simply close your account in the middle of your promotional period....I HAVE NEVER HAD THIS HAPPEN! Even if this did occur, you would receive a letter saying they are closing your account and you have 30 days to pay off your balance. If this were to happen, then simply take the money that you have in your savings account and pay the CC company back.....no big deal! I've done this for a very long time, I invested the borrowed money in aggressive investments and have done very well. In the many years including the so called credit freeze I have not had a single CC company change interest rates on my PROMOTIONAL balances (Yes they have jacked up my purchase rates but I don't carry a balance on purchase rates so who gives a crap), I have not had a single CC threaten to close an account, and I have had NO DIFFICULTY obtaining any sort of loans. I've had nothing but good experiences with CC companies so I cannot complain simply because I run over my finances with a fine tooth comb, but apparantly other people have not had the same experiences. I encourage everyone to do some research on their own because there are a lot of interesting and beneficial things that can be done using various simple financial tools.
FICO is very important to anyone who wants to get a decent permanent JOB. Most of them check credit history. It also affects things like your car insurance costs and other things. Getting a house or a new apartment can be affected.