Credit card balance transfers are one of the financial world’s great empowering features, but they can only be done successfully if you follow the rules and don’t fall foul of them. Firstly you must consider the benefits, then the pitfalls. These two aspects are more or less permanent features of the credit card balance transfer system.

The benefits can be summarised as the product of a twofold strategy:

You can transfer credit card balances once the initial interest free period is up to another card, and so continue your interest free credit.

You can more or less plan to do this in advance as long as you have a way of finding new cards to transfer to, and you stay in control of your finances and spending.

Taking these two together – the transfers and the planning – you can aim to give yourself interest free credit for a long time, even interest free credit for years.

The pitfalls are as follows, and must be considered carefully. These are:

Overshooting the Interest Free period

This is a crucial and fundamental issue. There is no point taking out a card with a known zero interest period or low interest period if you just go and breach that time period. Check the date that the interest free allotment ends, and then backtrack by about ten days before then. Ten days is about the right time to apply for a new card. Remember that the application itself will take time, and that this time will vary from card to card. Take into account seasonal changes in the speed and effectiveness of the mail delivery. In the run up to Christmas, for example, it would be wise to allow two weeks.

Minimum Repayment Obligations

Remember to check on what your agreed monthly repayment arrangements are. You may have to pay back a certain percentage (three percent or more, depending on the card) or risk incurring minimum payment fees. This is true even if it occurs within the interest free period, as the credit card provider will want to know that you can at least maintain a minimum repayment to justify the confidence in you when you originally signed up. On some cards, however, such an arrangement may not apply.

Late Payment Obligations

Much the same as above, but this time the emphasis is on paying within a certain time per month. Again, the card issuer may want some kind of assurance that money will be repaid even though interest is not being charged. There will be an extra fee charged if your payment is late, and for small balances this may well be proportionally higher than the interest which would otherwise have been payable (if the charge is a lump sum, as is usually the case). If this arrangement exists, then the best policy is to pay the minimum the same day as you get the statement.

Annual Fees

Remember to check the small print before you apply for the card. This may include information about an annual fee, which is the fee that the issuer will charge you every year for using their credit card. By no means all credit cards have an annual fee, but you must remember to build this in to the total cost of using the card. Things like annual fees tend to muddy the APR figures, which would otherwise give a good indication of how much your credit card actually costs. It is therefore an important factor to consider when deciding which credit card is the right one for you.

Exceeding Your Credit Limit

Whatever you do, don’t exceed the credit limit that you agreed and signed up for at the time you applied for the card. If you do this then you will probably be charged (depending on the card supplier) a percentage or a flat fee. This would be particularly reckless, as it would go against everything that you set out to do in the first place, namely to gain a fixed amount of credit without paying any interest on it!

Of the above five negative factors to be considered, it is always best to think of them all together, as each of them may impact in different proportions depending on the credit card and lender. For example, one card may not charge annual fees, but will come down very heavy on late payment charges; while another card will be lenient about an overextended credit limit but will offset this with a fixed annual charge.

It is possible to meet the criteria of the first two positive benefits, as well as avoid all the pitfalls by careful timing. As long as you transfer your credit card balances in a timely fashion, and observe the rules of the transfer itself, you cannot go wrong. Always remember that there are more credit cards out there to transfer your balances to.

Credit cards are one of the financial industry’s success stories over the last half century, going from strength to strength since the first general purpose card was invented by Joseph P. Williams of the Bank of America in 1958. Since then, the number of cards issued has risen dramatically, and now most adults carry at least one card, with an increasing number of people carrying several.

There’s no doubt that plastic can be a great convenience, making it easier to shop online, by mail order, and by telephone. They remove the need to carry cash beyond small change, and despite some scare stories they are actually more secure than cash, and offer more guarantees should you receive faulty goods or bad service paid for with the card.

However, it’s also widely accepted that credit cards have a serious dark side, although you might perhaps not know that by looking at card issuer advertising and marketing materials. Unfortunately, it’s all too easy to rack up debts on your card account with little to show for the money you’ve spent. The interest rates charged on these debts can be among the highest in the credit industry, and real problems up to and including bankruptcy can result from irresponsible use of credit cards.

So, accepting that you want the convenience of a card, how can you ensure that you stay out of trouble?

The first major culprit in building up debt is impulse spending. Paying with plastic just doesn’t feel the same as spending with cold hard cash, at least until your credit card statement arrives. Resist the temptation to ‘put it on the plastic’, and ask yourself if the purchase you’re about to make is one you’ll regret when the time comes to actually pay for it.

Also avoid using your card to pay bills and other day to day expenses, unless you plan to repay this borrowing when your statement comes. Credit cards are an expensive way of papering over the cracks of a badly thought out budget, and if you really need to borrow then explore other, cheaper ways such as bank overdrafts, credit unions or even personal loans.

As well as allowing payment for goods and services, most card accounts now let you withdraw cash from ATMs and pay by check. Be very careful when making use of these services, as the interest rates charged on them are usually higher than the normal purchase rate. There is also normally no interest free period, so even if you repay the borrowing at the end of the month it’ll still be a costly exercise.

Even by following the above steps to minimize your debt, most people will end up carrying a balance from month to month. This is where possibly the most important advice comes into play: never pay just the minimum amount required. Years ago, the minimum payment was fairly high, at 5% of the outstanding balance. These days, the more common figure is 3% or even 2%. If you only repay this small amount each month, nearly all of your repayment will be swallowed up by interest charges, leaving your debt virtually untouched. This situation can increase the amount of time it takes to clear your debt by literally years, and is hugely expensive in the long run. For this reason you should always try to pay off as much as you can each month, even if it’s only a little bit more than the minimum.

Lastly, while we’re talking about repayments, make sure that you set up an automatic monthly repayment for your card account. It’s very easy to overlook making a payment, and the fees charged for late or missed payments are one of the main ways credit card companies make their profits. It’s better to keep the money in your pocket than theirs!