Balance Transfer Arbitrage

Once of the nice things about balance transfer arbitraging is that the minimum payment for a particular card, after a transfer, will be the highest with the first payment. Each subsequent payment will be equal to that first payment or less, since your balance is going down and your minimum payment will generally be a strict percentage of that total value. So, knowing that, and seeking to simplify the process (and reduce errors), it makes perfect sense to auto pay your bill each month if you can. Just take your first minimum payment value and set that as the minimum payment each and every month. While this will result in a loss of some interest (very very small, we’re talking 5% of the extra you’re paying, this can guarantee you won’t forget a payment!

There are a few warnings I must impart on you:

• Don’t forget when the 0% balance transfer terms are up! It’s easy to forget that your transfer offer ends if you don’t have to remember to pay the bill each month, so set some sort of alert to warn you when the period expires.
• Don’t forget to review the bills each month because you never know what sort of shenanigans may be at work. If someone commits fraud and you don’t catch it until a year later, you’re going to be out of luck when it comes to the fraud department.
• Double check that your bills are monthly because sometimes cards bill you every 20 days, thus screwing up the math on the auto-pay. Confirm that you are billed monthly, on the same day, before trying this tactic.