How to Calculate your Balance Transfer Savings

If you’ve been stuck paying a high interest rate on one of your credit card balances, a balance transfer deal will sound attractive.

Moving your balance to a card with a lower rate would allow take advantage of a lower interest rate. Your finance charges would be lower and you’d be able to pay off your balance sooner.

Choosing a Balance Transfer Deal

Before you take a balance transfer deal, look at more than just the new interest rate. You should also pay attention to the length of the promotional rate in terms of your ability to repay the balance. Some promotional rates last only six months. That may not be enough time to completely repay your balance, depending on how much you owe.

Know what the interest rate will be after your promotional rate expires. This new regular rate may be much higher than the rate on your current credit card. If you still have a balance after the promotional rate expires, you’ll be charged interest based on the regular interest rate. A higher regular rate could negate the savings you receive during the promotional period.

Finally, watch out for high annual fees, especially if your current card doesn’t have an annual fee. This once-a-year fee increases the cost of your credit card and may not be worth paying if it’s more than the interest savings you get from a balance transfer.

Calculating Balance Transfer Savings

The best way to decide whether to take a balance transfer deal is to use a balance transfer calculator. We provide a free to use calculator to calculate your balance transfer savings here. You can use this calculator to calculate the potential savings from a balance transfer deal. Just enter the information about your current credit cards including the balance and corresponding interest rate.

Then, plug in the information about your balance transfer deal – the introductory interest rate, introductory term, regular interest rate, and annual fee. Press the calculate button to get your results.

The calculator will display your results including a detailed analysis of the balance transfer deal. You’ll find out much you’ll save in interest during the balance transfer promotion and how your payments after the promotion will compare to what you’re currently paying. Of course, if you plan to completely repay your balance during the promotion, the post-promotion payments won’t apply to you.

Based on the results you receive, you can safely decide whether the balance transfer deal is a good one. Using a balance transfer calculator puts the numbers right in front of you so you can make a sound decision about whether to transfer your credit card balance to a new card.

Check out today's featured offers:

Westpac Low Rate	Citibank Clear Platinum	Qantas AMEX Discovery	ANZ Platinum
0% p.a. for 6 months on purchases & balance transfers	2.9% p.a. for 12 months on balance transfers	$0 annual fee Up to 10,000 Bonus QFF Points	0% p.a. for 6 months on purchases & balance transfers

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Popular Credit Card Offers

			Interest Rate (p.a.)	Balance Transfer Rate (p.a.)	Annual fee	Cash Advance Rate (p.a.)
	Westpac Low Rate Card - 0% Offer	A credit card with a low rate offer on both balance transfers and purchases, plus a low annual fee.	0% for 6 months (reverts to 13.49% )	0% for 6 months	$45	21.49%
	Citibank Clear Platinum Card	Competitive interest rate on purchases and balance transfers offer.	11.99%	2.9% for 12 months	$99	21.74%
	St George Vertigo	Take advantage of this great offer from St.George with a low rate on purchases and a low balance transfer offer.	13.24%	0.99% for 12 months	$55	21.49%
	ANZ Platinum Credit Card	An introductory interest rate offer on balance transfers and purchases, plus a $0 first year annual fee.	0% for 6 months (reverts to 19.24% )	0% for 6 months	$0 annual fee for the first year( $87 thereafter)	20.99%