Balance transfer savings calculator
Compare paying off your current card with transferring to a 0% APR balance transfer card. Includes transfer fee, promotional window, and post-promo APR — the math most balance transfer calculators omit.
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Balance transfer saves $1,485 net of the $180 fee, and finishes 4 months sooner. The balance is fully paid within the 18-month promotional window.
How balance transfer math actually works
A balance transfer is a settlement transaction. The new card issuer pays off your existing balance with the old card, and you now owe the new issuer the same principal under different terms — most importantly, a promotional 0% APR for a stated window (typically 12 to 21 months) followed by the card\'s standard purchase APR. The cost to access this deal is the transfer fee, almost always a percentage of the transferred amount (3% to 5% in the 2026 US market). On a $5,000 transfer, a 3% fee is $150 and a 5% fee is $250, added to your new card balance at the time of the transfer.
The reason transfers can save money is mechanical: every dollar you pay during the 0% window goes to principal instead of interest. At a 25% APR on a $5,000 balance, simple interest in the first month is roughly $104. If you pay $400/month against the same balance at 25% APR, more than a quarter of each early payment is going to interest. The same payment at 0% APR is fully principal. Over the promotional period, the cumulative savings can substantially exceed the transfer fee — but only if you actually pay off the balance during the promo.
The trap most balance transfer offers hide
If you do not pay off the full balance during the promotional window, the remaining balance reverts to the card\'s standard purchase APR, which is often 18–25%. The interest meter starts running again, on the remaining balance, at a rate close to what you were trying to escape. The transfer was still useful — you avoided interest during the 0% months — but the net savings shrinks fast.
The honest math, which the calculator above models explicitly, is: balance transfer savings = (interest you would have paid at the current card APR) minus (transfer fee + interest paid at post-promo APR after the window). For tight payment schedules where the entire balance clears during the promo, this is a large positive number. For loose payment schedules where a significant balance remains after the promo, the savings shrinks toward zero — and at low enough payment levels, it can actually go negative. The widget surfaces this explicitly: if the calculation shows "Balance transfer does not save money", the structure of the deal does not work for your payment level.
How to size the monthly payment
The right monthly payment for a balance transfer is at least: (balance + fee) ÷ promo months. If you transfer $5,000 with a $150 fee onto an 18-month promo, you need to pay $5,150 / 18 = ~$286/month to clear the balance during the window. Paying less than that leaves a remainder accruing at the post-promo rate. Paying more clears the balance early and starts saving from then on. The calculator lets you adjust the monthly payment input and immediately see whether your proposed payment clears the promo window.
A common pitfall is treating the balance transfer card as a fresh slate and starting new purchases on it. Most issuers apply your monthly payment to the promotional balance last under the federal CARD Act\'s payment-allocation rules after a 2009 change — but only the portion of the payment above the minimum. The minimum payment itself can be applied to any balance the issuer chooses, which typically means the lowest-APR balance (the promotional one). New purchases accrue at the standard purchase APR, often immediately without grace period if a promotional balance is outstanding. The right operational rule is to use the balance transfer card only for the transferred balance and not for new purchases until the promo balance is fully paid.
When the deal is clearly worth it
Balance transfers are clearly worth doing when: (a) you can confidently project a monthly payment that clears the balance during the promo window, (b) the transfer fee is at most 3–5% (some lower-cost cards offer 0% fees with limited promo windows; those rarely make sense unless the promo is very long), and (c) you have the discipline to stop charging new debt to either the transfer card or the original card during the payoff period. Under those three conditions, a typical $5,000 transfer at 25% original APR saves $700–$1,200 net of the fee. Those are real dollars, and balance transfer is one of the highest-ROI personal finance moves available to a US consumer carrying credit card debt at standard APRs.
Where balance transfers do not work is the inverse: irregular cash flow that cannot reliably hit the monthly payment, ongoing new spending on either card that prevents balance progress, or a balance large enough that the promo window is structurally insufficient. For very large balances at typical promo lengths, the math sometimes favors a fixed-rate personal loan (5- or 7-year amortization at 10–14% APR) over a transfer, because the personal loan\'s fixed term forces payoff discipline that the transfer\'s open-ended timing does not.
Frequently asked
Why does this calculator include the post-promotional APR?
Because that is where most balance transfer math goes wrong. The headline 0% APR window is real, but if you do not pay off the full balance during the promo period, the unpaid portion reverts to a standard purchase APR — often 20–30%. The interest that accrues on the remaining balance after the promo can wipe out most or all of the savings from the 0% period. Most online balance transfer calculators stop at the promo end date as if the balance disappears; the honest math has to include what happens after.
What payment amount makes a balance transfer worth doing?
The break-even point is approximately: (transfer fee + post-promo interest on remaining balance) < (avoided current-APR interest over same horizon). At typical inputs — $5,000 balance, 25% current APR, 3% transfer fee, 18-month 0% promo — the transfer wins if you can pay roughly $280/month or more, which fully clears the balance during the promo. At lower payment levels, the deal degrades quickly because the remaining balance starts accruing at the post-promo rate. The calculator above shows the breakeven explicitly for your numbers; if "Balance transfer does not save money" appears, your payment level is too low for the deal to work.
What about the credit-score impact?
Two effects, opposing directions. The new card opens with a fresh credit limit, which lowers your aggregate credit utilization — likely a small positive for FICO. The new account also generates a hard pull (2–5 point temporary drop) and lowers your average account age (a small ongoing drag until the new account ages). For a reader with multiple existing accounts, the utilization improvement usually outweighs the inquiry impact within 2–3 months. For a reader with thin credit history, the average-age impact can be more meaningful. The credit hub's utilization optimizer covers this in detail.
Should I close the old card after transferring?
Usually not. Closing the old card removes its credit limit from your total available credit, which can spike your aggregate utilization — sometimes overnight, by a meaningful margin. It also shortens your length of credit history, especially if the old card is one of your older accounts. The honest math: leave the old card open with a zero balance and put it in a drawer. The only reason to close it is if it has an annual fee that exceeds the residual value of keeping it open, in which case do the closing math separately.
Can I transfer the balance from one Chase card to another?
No. Balance transfers do not work between cards from the same issuer. Chase will not transfer a Chase balance; Citi will not transfer a Citi balance. The promotional balance transfer offers always come from a competing issuer's product. If your current balance is on a Discover card, you transfer it to a non-Discover card; if it is on a Chase card, you transfer it to a non-Chase card. This is a basic feature of how the transfer mechanism works at the network level.