How to utilize 0% cc promo offer?

[volleyballer]

I have an old credit card that I don't normally use. It now has a promo 0% rate on purchases and balance transfers until March 2023. There is a 4% fee for balance transfers. Any ideas on how to utilize this promotion as a right proper mustachian?

My regular card is a sapphire reserve, so I would prefer to use that for my regular spending to keep racking up points (but I'm open to ideas). I have no high interest debt that can be offset by this promotion.

Is there a way to finagle an I-bond purchase with the credit card?

[sonofsven]

I don't have any "strategery" for you, but 4% transfer fee is on the high side.

[maisymouser]

My best thought is to charge everything to the cc while opening a CD. But CD rates are low...

[cool7hand]

This is a question that only you can answer. We don't like debt, even 0% debt, regardless of the math. But if you have any big purchases, that 0% until March 2023 allows you to gain the benefit of the time value of money.

[ducky19]

Yeah, the 4% fee is steep - I don't even consider them above 3%, and then only if I have a large expense.

[gary3411]

Uhh yeah! Charge everything you can on it and don't pay until March 2023. To me, this is a no brainer. I do this all the time. If you put like 10k on it, you could be making a hefty profit from investment of that 10k in the interim.

[maisymouser]

Uhh yeah! Charge everything you can on it and don't pay until March 2023. To me, this is a no brainer. I do this all the time. If you put like 10k on it, you could be making a hefty profit from investment of that 10k in the interim.

Investment where, you propose?

[Effervescent]

I have an old credit card that I don't normally use. It now has a promo 0% rate on purchases and balance transfers until March 2023. There is a 4% fee for balance transfers. Any ideas on how to utilize this promotion as a right proper mustachian?

My regular card is a sapphire reserve, so I would prefer to use that for my regular spending to keep racking up points (but I'm open to ideas). I have no high interest debt that can be offset by this promotion.

Is there a way to finagle an I-bond purchase with the credit card?

I don't have all the answers, so take this with a grain of salt. But here is what I have started doing.

Get a 0% interest credit card, they usually last 18 months at 0%. Put your expenses on here if possible (utilities, groceries, even large purchases like rent through Venmo, etc.). In the meantime, put whatever you would have spent paying off your credit card into an investment like a Roth IRA or just a regular brokerage account. Or something else - whatever could make a decent profit in 12-18 months. Now might not be the best example since markets are going sideways or down recently, but in an upward-trending market, 18 months of investing can yield potentially hundreds or thousands of dollars in profit.

At the end of the 0% interest period, you could pull out your investment to pay off the credit card. Hopefully you've made a profit - if so, you can bank it. You wouldn't have had this if you had paid off your credit card on time every month.

Another option is to balance transfer to another credit card for a fee (usually 3% or 4%). Many credit cards offer 0% interest on balance transfers for another 12-18 months. If you do this and the money that you would have otherwise have used to pay off the credit card can make at least 3-4% profit, then it might be worth it, if you don't mind the mental stress of keeping tracking of everything.

Again, markets are not doing great right now so this might not make sense for now. But it can make sense in upward markets.

Another consideration is that inflation is at 7%, and your debt will be cheaper in a year than today.

[sailinlight]

I have an old credit card that I don't normally use. It now has a promo 0% rate on purchases and balance transfers until March 2023. There is a 4% fee for balance transfers. Any ideas on how to utilize this promotion as a right proper mustachian?

My regular card is a sapphire reserve, so I would prefer to use that for my regular spending to keep racking up points (but I'm open to ideas). I have no high interest debt that can be offset by this promotion.

Is there a way to finagle an I-bond purchase with the credit card?

I don't have all the answers, so take this with a grain of salt. But here is what I have started doing.

Get a 0% interest credit card, they usually last 18 months at 0%. Put your expenses on here if possible (utilities, groceries, even large purchases like rent through Venmo, etc.). In the meantime, put whatever you would have spent paying off your credit card into an investment like a Roth IRA or just a regular brokerage account. Or something else - whatever could make a decent profit in 12-18 months. Now might not be the best example since markets are going sideways or down recently, but in an upward-trending market, 18 months of investing can yield potentially hundreds or thousands of dollars in profit.

At the end of the 0% interest period, you could pull out your investment to pay off the credit card. Hopefully you've made a profit - if so, you can bank it. You wouldn't have had this if you had paid off your credit card on time every month.

Another option is to balance transfer to another credit card for a fee (usually 3% or 4%). Many credit cards offer 0% interest on balance transfers for another 12-18 months. If you do this and the money that you would have otherwise have used to pay off the credit card can make at least 3-4% profit, then it might be worth it, if you don't mind the mental stress of keeping tracking of everything.

Again, markets are not doing great right now so this might not make sense for now. But it can make sense in upward markets.

Another consideration is that inflation is at 7%, and your debt will be cheaper in a year than today.

The problem is that you don't know when the upward markets are and when the downward markets are. If you did, you could make a fortune in many other ways.

[Telecaster]

I have an old credit card that I don't normally use. It now has a promo 0% rate on purchases and balance transfers until March 2023. There is a 4% fee for balance transfers. Any ideas on how to utilize this promotion as a right proper mustachian?

My regular card is a sapphire reserve, so I would prefer to use that for my regular spending to keep racking up points (but I'm open to ideas). I have no high interest debt that can be offset by this promotion.

Is there a way to finagle an I-bond purchase with the credit card?

I don't have all the answers, so take this with a grain of salt. But here is what I have started doing.

Get a 0% interest credit card, they usually last 18 months at 0%. Put your expenses on here if possible (utilities, groceries, even large purchases like rent through Venmo, etc.). In the meantime, put whatever you would have spent paying off your credit card into an investment like a Roth IRA or just a regular brokerage account. Or something else - whatever could make a decent profit in 12-18 months. Now might not be the best example since markets are going sideways or down recently, but in an upward-trending market, 18 months of investing can yield potentially hundreds or thousands of dollars in profit.

At the end of the 0% interest period, you could pull out your investment to pay off the credit card. Hopefully you've made a profit - if so, you can bank it. You wouldn't have had this if you had paid off your credit card on time every month.

Another option is to balance transfer to another credit card for a fee (usually 3% or 4%). Many credit cards offer 0% interest on balance transfers for another 12-18 months. If you do this and the money that you would have otherwise have used to pay off the credit card can make at least 3-4% profit, then it might be worth it, if you don't mind the mental stress of keeping tracking of everything.

Again, markets are not doing great right now so this might not make sense for now. But it can make sense in upward markets.

Another consideration is that inflation is at 7%, and your debt will be cheaper in a year than today.

Seems like a lot of karate to earn maybe 2% in interest.  No one knows what the markets will do in 12-18 months.  You could easily lose a bundle.  For short term, I recommend getting something like the Fidelity 2% back card, which gets you...2% back with no hassles. 

[sonofsven]

I think these offers only make sense if one has cc debt that is not 0%, because of the 4% transfer fee (or 3, or less). Then it can make a huge difference in paying off that debt.
If you have spending you want/need to do then find a 0% for (x) months card and use that instead, no transfer fee. I have two of those going now and pay off a few hundred per month.
I could pay them easily with my e fund/slush fund but I like to use it for churning bank bonuses so the more I have in that bucket the more bonus offers I can pursue.

[katsiki]

Just a brief note that there is a difference between 0% purchase APR and 0% balance transfer.  The former can be useful to defer payment on an expense.  Depending on amount, someone might use that money elsewhere in some way as mentioned in this thread.  Agreed, it is usually not wise to mess with the latter unless you have debt higher than the transfer fee.