0% balance transfer to pay down debt

Credit-card issuers are allowed to advertise a 0% introductory APR and still charge a balance-transfer or cash-advance fee. Regulation Z (12 CFR § 1026.60) requires that fee to appear in the application disclosure table — the Schumer box. Read that box. The headline rate is not the whole price.

This page does not name a current consumer or business card, does not quote a live intro length, and does not include an apply link. Offers change. Formation Lane has no live card affiliate agreements as of 28 August 2026. These pages also do not cover consumer travel cards.

Two honest uses

1. Balance transfer to pay down existing high-APR card debt. Move a revolving balance from a card that is charging purchase APR onto a card whose balance-transfer APR is 0% for a stated promotional period, then pay it off on a calendar that ends before the promo does.
2. 0% purchase APR on a business card for real expenses. Equipment, software, a contractor invoice the business would have paid anyway — placed on a card whose purchase APR is 0% for a stated period, with a written payoff date. The expense is real. The float is the product.

Fee math (illustrative — not an offer)

Balance-transfer fees on US cards are commonly disclosed as a percentage of the amount transferred, often with a dollar minimum. Three percent and five percent appear repeatedly in issuer Schumer boxes; treat those as examples to run, not as this month’s market average. Confirm the percentage, the minimum, and the window to complete the transfer on the specific offer.

Worked numbers, labeled as a hypothetical:

• Existing balance: $6,000 at a 22% purchase APR (hypothetical old card).
• Transfer fee at 3%: $180. New balance if the fee is added to the card: $6,180.
• Transfer fee at 5%: $300. New balance: $6,300.
• Simple interest on $6,000 at 22% for 12 months, if nothing were paid and APR were applied that way: $1,320. Real card interest uses a daily balance method; this comparison is only to show that a 3–5% fee can be smaller than a year of high APR — if the balance is actually paid off inside the 0% window.

If the transfer is not paid off when the promotional APR ends, the remaining principal is usually charged the regular APR, which may be a penalty APR if the account went late. The fee is not refunded. A transfer that still has $4,000 on it when 0% expires was a delayed bill, not a payoff.

A CFPB supervisory bulletin on promotional APRs also flags a separate trap: carrying a promo balance can eliminate the grace period on new purchases, so purchase APR starts immediately on new spend. If the card is being used to pay down debt, stop using it for new purchases until the promo balance is gone — unless the issuer’s grace-period disclosure says otherwise.

Payoff calendar

Before the transfer posts, write three dates:

1. The last day of the 0% period, from the offer (months from account opening, or from the transfer date — they are not always the same).
2. A cutoff 30 days earlier, so a lost mail payment cannot land after the promo.
3. The monthly payment: remaining promo balance including the fee, divided by the number of whole months left after the transfer posts.

Autopay at that monthly amount, from the business checking account if this is business debt. Do not wait to “see how the month goes.” The issuer’s remaining-statement-balance figure is the one that matters, not a spreadsheet that forgot the fee.

Under the CARD Act / Regulation Z payment-allocation rules, amounts above the minimum generally go to the highest APR first. That helps when a promo 0% balance shares an account with a higher-APR cash advance. It does not help if the only balance is the promo and the payment is below the planned payoff pace.

Utilization

FICO’s public score-factor page treats amounts owed as a substantial piece of FICO Scores (commonly described as about 30%). Utilization is balance divided by limit, on each card and across cards.

• The old card continues to report until the transferred balance actually posts as paid. There is a lag. Do not close the old card in a panic the same afternoon; a closure can also shorten average account age.
• The new card’s utilization can spike to a high percentage if the transfer is large relative to the new limit. That can move a score the wrong way in the short run even as interest cost falls.
• Paying the new card down on the calendar above is what brings utilization back.

A business card reported on a commercial file, a personal file, or both depends on the issuer and the product. Read the application. A personal guarantee on a small-business card is ordinary. “Business” in the product name does not mean the owner’s credit is unused.

Business cards on this site

The stack’s fourth step is a business card for LLC expenses, not a consumer travel card. Underwriting still looks at the owner. Annual fees, employee cards, and category bonuses are issuer terms; this page does not rank them and does not carry apply links.

A 0% purchase APR on that card is useful only when (a) the purchase would have been made anyway, (b) the payoff calendar fits inside the promo, and (c) the card is not then used as a margin-loan substitute. If those three are not true, pay the vendor from checking.