Quickly calculate how much money you could save by transferring your credit card balance.
Still not got a card? Start comparing balance transfer credit cards!
Balance transfer savings calculator
Enter your card balance, the annual interest rate, balance transfer fees, and other details to see how much you can save.
Do balance transfers really work?
The difficulty of working out how much money a balance transfer could save was preventing one free-spending Sydneysider from applying for a new credit card. He’d heard about balance transfers and the promotional balance transfer offer of 0% for 12 months sounded good, but it had an annual fee $20 more than the $79 he was already paying.
He had a $3,127 balance on his existing card, where he was being charged 19.74% p.a. in interest. This meant that his monthly interest bill of around $52 was gobbling up most of his minimum monthly repayments of $62, and he felt like he was getting nowhere with his credit card debt.
Running the numbers was easy with our balance transfer calculator. After entering a few details, he made the happy discovery that over 12 months he could save $605 in interest and reduce his balance owing to $2,476, just by making the 2% minimum monthly repayments.
The best credit card that suited his financial needs had a revert interest rate of 21.74% p.a. So his plan is to avoid it by paying off as much as he can each month, now that every cent of his repayments will be reducing the balance instead of paying interest on it.
This case study is intended as a representative example.
Andrew Boyd, co-founder of Credit Card Compare, explains, "It's tempting to use a balance transfer offer to save money, but not actually pay off the balance owed. If you only make the minimum repayment each month, you're doing nothing to pay off the balance owed."
Highlights
- 0% p.a. for 15 months on purchases and balance transfers. Balance transfer reverts to cash advance rate.
- Complimentary mobile phone insurance when you pay your monthly mobile plan bill with your Citi Rewards Credit Card . See Terms and Conditions here.
- Earn up to 1 Citi reward point for every $1 spent.
This product is provided by National Australia Bank Limited, using certain trademarks under license from Citigroup Inc.
How much can I save by making a balance transfer?
This depends on a number of factors:
- The amount of debt you are transferring from your existing card or cards
- The interest rate on your existing card
- The introductory interest rate being offered by the new card (often 0%, but sometimes a low rate such as 2% p.a.)
- The length of the introductory offer on the new card
- The annual fees charged by your old and new cards
- The monthly minimum repayment percentage on your new card
- Whether you intend to make just the minimum repayments or larger repayments
Clearly, with this many variables, the calculation is going to be quite complicated, but our Balance Transfer Savings Calculator can do the hard work for you.
For example: Laura has a credit card debt of $2,750 on a card with a $90 annual fee charging her 19.99% p.a. interest. She is thinking of applying for a new card with a balance transfer offer of 0% for 12 months (minimum repayment 2% per month) and a $150 annual fee. After entering these values into the Balance Transfer Savings Calculator she learns that she will save $539 in interest charges and reduce her debt by $510 to $2,240.
