What is a balance transfer credit card?

A balance transfer, as the name suggests, is the process of moving your credit card balance, including debts, from one card to another. To incentivise making the switch, many Australian providers offer balance transfer rates. These are much lower rates, often 0%, that occur for a limited period, known as the honeymoon or promotional period. The length of this promotional period varies between providers. Some are as quick as three months, while others can last over two years.

When you balance transfer your debts, you give yourself the honeymoon period to pay off these debts at a significantly reduced or eliminated interest rate. After this time though, the interest rate will revert, often to a far higher rate.

Example: Lorne Mower transfers his credit card debt

Lorne Mower has over $3,000 worth of credit card debt built up, and he’s struggling to pay it off. His current card has an interest rate of 17%, and at his current rate of repayments ($150 a month), it’ll take him two years to pay off this debt and will accrue nearly $500 extra in interest charges.

He can’t quite afford to pay off more than this yet, but he finds a balance transfer card that’s offering 0% interest for 24 months – the length of time it’ll take him to pay off his debts. He opens this card and fully pays his debt off within the promotional period. Therefore, he pays not a single cent in interest.

How to compare balance transfer credit cards

We’ve focused on some of the longest balance transfer periods for this article, however, there are a number of features besides this that you should compare to understand whether a card is right for you.

Here’s a list of everything you should compare before making a decision: 

1. Length of promotional period

We’ve covered this already and for good reason. The promotional period is what makes balance transfers attractive, so the longer you can have interest free debt, the better. It’s rarely cheap to have debt, so any time you can have it for free is golden.

2. Balance transfer rate

This article focuses on 0% balance transfers, however, there are other cards on the market which do charge an interest rate on balance transfers, but these are generally below 5%. Obviously the lower the interest rate, the more you save, so you may want to look for a 0% rate for the best value. 

3. Balance transfer fee

A balance transfer fee is a percentage-based fee charged when you transfer your existing debt to a new card. The fee is typically 1-3% of the balance transfer amount. So for example, if you’re transferring $10,000 and are charged a 2% balance transfer fee, the new debt on the card will be $10,200 (2% of $10,000 equals $200 which is the fee, plus the balance transfer amount). 

4. Purchase rate

It’s generally not advised to use your new credit card for purchases, as it makes the whole balance transfer effort a bit pointless. However, if you do expect to make some purchases with it, make sure you’re getting a low rate; you don’t want to be paying through the nose on interest in your supposedly interest-free period. 

5. Revert rate 

The revert rate is what the debt on your card will be charged at, should you still have any at the end of the promotional period. It’s generally higher than the purchase rate – double it in some cases. Aim to pay off your debt before you have to encounter this rate. 

6. Annual fees

Annual fees on balance transfers can range from nil to $400. It’s easy to forget you have to pay to use the credit card, especially if you’re caught up with low rates and long balance periods. But if you’ve got a 24-month promotional period with an annual fee of $400, that could negate your savvy interest-free efforts. 

7. Debts eligible for transfer

Different credit providers have different debts that are eligible for balance transfer. Typically you can transfer one or multiple debts from Australian credit card accounts, while in some cases you can transfer debts from personal loans and lines of credit. 

8. Balance transfer limits

Some cards will have a balance transfer limit, so you’ll only be able to transfer a percentage of your debt to the new card, which is typically between 70% and 100%. To put this into real terms, if your new card has a credit limit of $10,000, a balance transfer limit of 80% and you have $12,000 worth of debt you want to transfer, you would only be able to transfer $8,000 from your old account. The remaining $4,000 would stay put in your old account, attracting interest. 

Is a balance transfer credit card a good move?

Balance transfers can offer an effective method of dealing with short-term debts, as long as you pay it all off fully within the time period and don’t make any purchases with that card.

But they’re only really a short-term solution. Long-term, you’ll need to look at how you got into so much debt, and what you can do to prevent it from happening again. It might be that you have an unsuitable credit card for your spend level or have an interest rate that’s too high. Or maybe you just spend much more than you should. If that’s the case, let old habits die hard!

There are also several traps you can fall into with a balance transfer. You’ll want to familiarise yourself with these before you do anything as they can mean you end up in a worse position after the transfer.

Whatever the reason, Savings.com.au provides practical tips and tricks to minimise your credit card spend and boost your savings instead. You can access these tips by reading our articles on balance transfers and other types of credit cards.

How to do a balance transfer

If you’ve decided that you want to do a balance transfer, it’s actually a pretty straightforward process, but you do need to take a bit of time and care to make sure you get the best one for you.

  1. Evaluate your situation: whip out a pen and paper, an excel spreadsheet or even just your smart friend to work out how much of your debt you can afford to repay each month. When considering a balance transfer, you’ll also need to be aware of the potential balance transfer traps that can happen if you aren’t careful.

  2. Compare balance transfer deals: look into the length of the balance transfer offer, interest rates, fees charged and credit limits on the different cards available and see which one suits you (the credit limit is important because you might not be able to transfer your whole debt if the credit limit is too low).

  3. Apply: go online and submit an application detailing your current debts, how much you want to transfer and everything else about your current credit card.

  4. Activate your card: this needs to be done before the balance transfer can be processed.

  5. Close your old card: this isn’t always necessary, but it can make sure you don’t keep spending on it or get charged fees.

Why do credit providers offer balance transfers?

It might seem like a strange concept to some that credit providers would offer their products interest-free for an extended period of time; how are they making money?!

The unfortunate fact is that credit providers are well aware that a lot of us are bad borrowers. Many of us won’t pay off our balance transfer before the promotional period, so when the debt is charged at the revert rate, which often exceeds 20%, the provider can make thousands. There’ll also be some of us who make new purchases, again resulting in more interest charges. On a more optimistic note, people don’t like change, so providers offer balance transfers as a way of getting people to switch to their products and garnering more business.