{"id":3,"date":"2005-05-30T15:28:34","date_gmt":"2005-05-30T20:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jjmediaoutlet.com\/blog\/?p=3"},"modified":"2005-11-03T01:31:57","modified_gmt":"2005-11-03T06:31:57","slug":"discover-0-for-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jjmediaoutlet.com\/?p=3","title":{"rendered":"Discover 0% for Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

It seems the biggest rage in the credit card industry for a while has been the 0% balance transfer deals. The theory behind the deal is rather simple; you take a new or empty card and transfer a large amount via direct deposit or convenience check into your bank savings account. You make the minimum payments until the deal expires and then payback the transferred amount while enjoying 6 months or a year of free interest on the credit card company’s dime. Some possible downsides to this type of deal need researched before trying it. Check Fatwallet’s Finance forums<\/a> for some stories about this. <\/p>\n

I finally took the bait and did this type of deal with a discover card, but for different reasons. Over the past few years, I had racked up a bit of credit card debt (I know the lectures, but as they say you always ignore your own best advice) and realized I was not making much progress on getting rid of it. The math of course is not hard, paying 0% interest is a heck of a lot better than say 20%. The downsides were the balance transfer fee ($50) and starting in September I will have to make a few purchases every month to keep the rate. Nevertheless, I figure I will be better off than otherwise.
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\nI did have one problem though with the process. The transfer had started on Discover’s side and had been posted on my statement, but kept not showing up with MBNA. I knew that it could take some time, so I figured I would just be patient. Then while looking at my Discover statement, I noticed that it appeared that Discover had entered my MBNA account number wrong by one digit. So of course, now I was worried someone else just got a nice payment thanks to me or my funds were lost somewhere in lala land. I think I called the regular Discover Card customer service line first. The guy there was no help whatsoever, basically telling me there was nothing Discover could do, it is all MBNA’s problem so call them. Therefore, I call MBNA who is just as confused by that advice as I was, but the nice person there gave me a few suggestions and a direct number to call them back if needed. Therefore, it is back to calling Discover again, but this time I found a direct number for the Balance Transfer department and got a hold of someone who took my information so it could be forwarded to the investigation department and was able to answer my questions. Within a few days I had a letter from Discover explaining the matter was under investigation and they would work things out with MBNA etc…and they would let me know the results. <\/p>\n

It appears that MBNA posted the transfer payment; Discover issued a stop payment so MBNA reversed the payment and then Discover sent a new payment that MBNA posted. The good news is the transfer went through and a good chunk of my balance of MBNA was being charged a lot less interest. The bad news though was MBNA charged me an unpaid funds fee of $40 because of the money returned to Discover I guess. I got even worse news with my next statement. MBNA allocated my monies around so now a large portion of my remaining balance with MBNA is under the cash advance interest rate instead of the lower purchases rate as it had been. <\/p>\n

My MBNA card is my oldest card and I have generally always been happy with them. They have been generous with my credit line and although my interest rate overall is higher than I would prefer it, there have been few problems otherwise. But now with this whole fiasco with the balance transfer stuff, particularly the cash advance balance, I’m going to try to be careful with my usage of this card at least until I can pay down some of the balance. <\/p>\n

One of these days, I will get all this credit card stuff behind me and I hope that have learned my lesson. Of course, I will have my student loans to keep myself occupied with after that. The joys of being young, fabulous and broke…<\/p>\n

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