If you have credit cards debts then this is a great way to pay off the outstanding balances at an accelerated rate. To do it successfully you have to have discipline and a decent enough credit rating to be able to own more than one credit card. The underlying principle involves you moving the balance of one credit card, on which you are currently being charged interest, over to a new credit card that is offering an interest free period for such balance transfers. This means that 100% of any payments you make to the new card comes off the total balance and doesn’t go towards paying the interest charges each month.

Most credit card companies offer an interest free period for balance transfers when you are issued with one of their cards. They also tend to offer the same kind of deal following the transfer of a balance away from them, simply in a bid to keep your custom. This means that if you have two or three credit cards, one of which is always empty, then you can continuously play the balance transfer game and pay very little interest for the life of your balances.

As mentioned earlier though you do need to have a certain amount of discipline when playing this game as there are often a few terms and conditions to watch out for when using new credit cards with the 0% interest balance transfer offer. For example:

The interest on the balance transfer is set at 0% but it will be considerably higher for new purchases.

This means that if you make purchases with the credit card you will be charged interest on them and this balance is paid off after the balance transfer. The result of this condition is that you continue to pay interest on the balance of the new purchases until your initial balance transfer is paid off. Only then do you start to pay the rest of the balance and with a large balance transfer this could be months or even years. Because of this it is advisable to cut the card up once it has been activated and the balance transfer has gone through so that there is no temptation to use it.

The balance transfer offer will only last for a specified number of months.

Generally these range from 6-12 months however the credit card companies won’t warn you when the interest free period is coming to an end. It is up to you to keep a note of when the offer ends so you can transfer the remaining balance elsewhere before interest charges begin again.

Another thing to watch out for when playing the balance transfer game is that applying for multiple credit cards in a short space of time can affect your credit rating – and not in a good way. This is especially true if you already have a reasonable amount of debt or you have missed payments to other lenders. If you are thinking of transferring balances from one card to another then only apply for one or two credit cards at a time and leave a decent interval between applications. This will give you a better chance of being successful with at least one application – which is all you need at the end of the day.