Discover to Remove Cap on Balance Transfer Fees
Discover will be removing both the minimum and maximum balance transfer fees on its consumer and business credit cards, effective November 1, 2008. Currently, balance transfers are assessed a fee of 3% with a $10 min and $75 max for consumer accounts. As of next month, all balance transfers will be subject to a flat 3% fee.
Discover seems to be following an industry-wide trend, as this move closely follows Chase’s decision to remove the balance transfer fee caps on nearly all of its cards. Discover and Chase join Citi, which also eliminated the max balance transfer ceiling on the vast majority of its cards earlier in the year. As credit tightens, we should probably expect more issuers to follow suit.
I would add BOA to that list as well. There’s only 1 BOA card that I am aware of which has a capped BT fee.
Mike, actually there are still a number of Bank of America cards that have either no fee or a capped fee. Several of their airline/auto affinity cards still have no BT fee. Their student cards also are currently capped at $75.
Are you sure about that? I’m 52, so my student days ended 30 years ago, but their only 0% card with a capped fee that I’m aware of is their NEA card, which I found out about and applied for right here at your website.Their Pet Rewards card used to have no BT fee at all, but now it’s 3% uncapped.As I recall, their no BT fee airline cards aren’t 0%, they’re 1.9%.
Best Regards,
Mike
Okay, I checked your directory.Their USAIR card is 0% with no fee, but there’s an uncapped 3% fee for check cash advances and direct deposits, and that would apply to me. I’ve never actually transferred a balance; I just let the $$ sit in the bank and draw interest, and pay off the card when the 0% offer ends.
Mike, You’re right about the USAir card being the only 0% no BT fee airline card. I only was trying to say that the other airline cards also have no fees on their balance transfers, though as you point out, they do carry a 1.9% APR.
Also, unless they’ve changed their policies very recently, BOA allows you to ACH your BT money directly into your checking account, so it won’t be subject to the uncapped 3% fee. It would probably would be wise to do it over the phone with a rep to confirm this, if you decide to try.
Yes, BOA ACHed my BT $$ into my checking account, so I didn’t pay a dime. Chase will do this for you as well.
Looking at the times that these messages were posted, you must be located on the west coast.It’s 10:14pm here in Bethesda, MD.