I use a BoA promo to transfer a loan to my CC for 0% interest. How does it work to use my CC for other purchases?

Submitted by greenejs t3_127u77e in personalfinance

This is probably a dumb question, I'm just not entirely sure how this works. I had a personal loan to pay for some medical debt. It was a little over 6.5k at 5.9% interest. I got an offer from BoA that I could transfer na amount up to like 12k to my credit card I have for 0% interest (plus a one-time processing fee) until June 2024, so I took advantage of that. I calculated that I could up my pay an extra $150 a month on top of the payments I was paying for the loan and I would pay it off by June 2024 and save ~$1000. My question is now what happens if I use my credit card to make other purchases (I usually use it for gas for 3% cash back). Will those purchases get my regular interest charged since I'll be carrying an amount month to month?

Thanks!

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nkyguy1988 t1_jeftass wrote

Rule number 1 of a balance transfer card is to not use it for anything until paid off. What will likely happen is the terms will say something along the lines of "to avoid interest on purchases, all promotional balances must be paid in full."

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Werewolfdad t1_jeftcdi wrote

> Will those purchases get my regular interest charged since I’ll be carrying an amount month to month?

Yes

Do not ever use a credit card to which youve r transferred a balance

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DeluxeXL t1_jeftqfq wrote

Unless you have promotional 0% APR for both balance transfer and purchases, DO NOT USE the same card for purchases until you fully pay the entire balance off.

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greenejs OP t1_jefuvr6 wrote

Well crap. I did use that card to buy like 60 bucks of gas once. So I guess that purchase is about to get like ~22% interest for the next year 🙃

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DeluxeXL t1_jefv6d0 wrote

Don't worry (too much). When you make a payment, it'll be applied in this order:

  1. Minimum payment on the bill
  2. The balance with the highest interest rate

Therefore, you just need to pay minimum + about $62 to clear out the purchase balance.

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greenejs OP t1_jefwtzs wrote

OH! Okay that's very doable. Thanks for clearing that up!

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Ambitious_Feature_87 t1_jegdcsr wrote

You’ll be charged interest on any purchases on top of the balance transfer but any payments you make go towards the interest charging portion of your debt first. So using the card once or twice would be ok if you pay off asap but be careful not to trap yourself into not paying off the entire balance by the end of the promo or you are REALLY going to owe some interest.

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