Quote:
Originally Posted by fffresh
Jeff these are some great tips! I actually didn't know customer service reps made commission on the amount of balance transfers. Can you negotiate on the interest you pay on the balance transfer too? When I did one before I got the 0% but only for 9 months and it took a lot of haggling to get - this spring with Bank of America.
Thanks again for the tips.
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I know of that bank very well
and yes haggling is a big part!!! The customer service rep is a customer service rep... if you get a "balance transfer specialist" or an "account manager" typically they can do much better deals... for example, you 0% 9 months probably was the best deal - also transfer fees are negotiable from getting a cap to no cap.
Also, be careful on how you do your BT... if you pay off the BT within 9 months its awesome for YOU... BUT for the bank, they are losing tremendous amount of money... meaning the bank will keep track of these records and you can be black listed in the system as what we called CH a "RATE SURFER" (someone who is using promos to pay down debt-going back and forth from one card to another)... once you are black listed is it very difficult to get a rate under 4.99%...
Oh and yes they make commission so they have incentives to give you good rates, especially if they haven't locked in the commission towards the end of the month =)