As some of you may know from my net worth updates, I currently hold about $15,000 in credit card debt. You may say “but you have a $166k net worth and enough money to pay them off, why would you keep them?”. Well because all that debt is on credit cards that have a 0% interest rate and no balance transfer fee, so I am earning money having it sit in the bank rather than pay it off.

My promo 0% period ends on my Citibank card at the start of August so I decided I should start looking at my various options. Inquiries to your credit report count against your credit score and stay there for one year, however inquiries made on the same day will not show up to other creditors. So it is in your best interest to apply for many credit cards on one day rather than spread them out through the year. At this point my Discover 0% ends in November as well, so I might as well start shopping around for someone to replace the $15,000 on both cards rather than wait till then.

Card Options

I figure I to replace these 2 cards without absolutely maxing out a line it will take 2 others (credit utilizations counts on your score as well). I’ve already used a lot of the more popular cards to do transfers on - Citi Platinum Select Card, AT&T Universal Platinum Card. The terms vary by bank but generally you can reapply 1 year after you’ve canceled your card and get the new card member incentives.

Sometimes it pays to look at your junk mail. I received an unsolicited credit card offer from US bank featuring my old college with a pretty nice offer - 0% balance transfer for 12 months, no balance transfer fee, and no annual fee. The trifecta I am always on the lookout for. The only setback is I’m not sure how stingy they are going to be with the credit line - but I will most likely take a chance on it.

Citibank consistently has the best deals for 0% transfers with no balance fee. Currently I have my eye on the Citibank Upromise card simply because, well, I haven’t had it before. It offers everything I am looking for - 0% balance transfer for 12 months, no balance transfer fee, and no annual fee.

Other Thoughts

Sure I could apply for a ton of other cards and have say $75,000 sitting in the bank rather than $15k, but that gets increasingly hard to manage the minimum payments and if you slip up just once the card issuers are waiting to slap you with the 20%+ non-promo apr on your balance. Right now $15k and 2 cards is about the sweet spot for me personally which nets me about $775 a year for not too much work.