Is it possible for me to keep my credit card APR at 0% permanently?
If you pay your statement balance in full before the due date you will never pay a cent in interest no matter what your interest rate is.*  In fact, I don't even know what my interest rates are. Credit card companies offer this sort of thing in the hopes you will spend more than you can afford to pay completely in those first 15 months.  * Unless you use a cash advance, with those you will accrue interest immediately upon receiving the cash sometimes with an additional fee on top. "Banks are in it to make money. But they're expected to provide a social good which powers our economy: secure money storage (bank accounts) and cashless transactions (credit/debit cards).  And the government does not subsidize this.  In fact, banks are being squeezed. Prudent customers dislike paying the proper cost of their account's maintenance (say, a $50/year fee for a credit card, or $9/month for a checking account) - they want it free.  Meanwhile government is pretty aggressive about preventing ""fine print"" trickery that would let them recover costs other ways.  However there isn't much sympathy for consumers who make trivial mistakes - whether they be technical (overdraft, late fee) or money-management mistakes (like doing balance transfers or getting fooled by promotional interest rates).  So that's where banks are able to make their money: when people are imprudent.  The upshot is that it's hard for a bank to make money on a prudent careful customer; those end up getting ""subsidized"" by the less-careful customers who pay fees and buy high-margin products like balance transfers.  And this has created a perverse incentive: banks make more money when they actively encourage customers to be imprudent.  Here, the 0% interest is to make you cocky about running up a balance, or doing balance transfers at a barely-mentioned fee of 3-5%. They know most Americans don't have $500 in the bank and you won't be able to promptly pay it off right before the 0% rate ends.  (or you'll forget).  And this works - that's why they do it.   By law, you already get 0% interest on purchases when you pay the card in full every month.  So if that's your goal, you already have it.  In theory, the banks collect about 1.5% from every transaction you do, and certainly in your mind's eye, you'd think that would be enough to get by without charging interest.  That doesn't work, though.  The problem is, such a no-interest card would attract people who carry large balances.  That would have two negative impacts: First the bank would have to spend money reborrowing, and second, the bank would have huge exposure to credit card defaults.   The thing to remember is the banks are not nice guys and are not here to serve  you.  They're here to use you to make money, and they're not beneath encouraging you to do things that are actually bad for you. Caveat Emptor." No. There is no incentive for the card issuer to permanently loan you money for free (Even though they make a small amount of money with every transaction). Yes, there are many credit cards that offer introductory 0% APR, often lasting for a year, some even two years. In theory, you could keep applying for new cards with these terms, and continually transfer the balance to the new card (Though you would probably incur a fee for doing so). Banks don't care that you are responsible cardholder. They care to make money. Interest rates are basically 0% by government policy and the banks charge their responsible cardholders 20% interest rates. Think about that for one second, and realize they really do not care about your ability to avoid paying interest, they only need you to 'slip up' one month during your entire lifetime to make a profit from you. It is in their interest for you to get into a spending habit, from 0% promo rates, so that eventually a frivolous purchase or life changing event causes a balance to stay on the card for over one month. No. The intro rate is a gambit by the bank - they accept losing money in the short term but expect to gain money in the long term when your intro is over and you (hopefully) start paying interest. There's not much in it for them if you never get around to paying interest. Same can be said for people who close the card after their intro period, but that's different - the bank is correctly expecting that most people won't bother.
It's a good idea to have some emergency money so I would propose a plan that keeps some in your savings:  If the 0% goes away, then consider paying it off, but by that time hopefully you have built up your savings a bit more. Also consider the ability to move the balance from the 2% cards to the 0% one, if that is possible. "I think so.  I am doing this with our furniture.  It doesn't cost me any more money to pay right now than it will to pay over the course of 3 years, and I can earn interest on the money I didn't spend. But know this: they aren't offering 0%, they are deferring interest for 3 years.  If you pay it off before then great, if you don't you will owe all the accumulated interest. The key with these is that you always pay it, and on time.  Miss a payment and you get hosed.  If you don't pay on time you will owe the interest that is being deferred.  They will also be financing this through a third party (like a major bank) and that company is now ""doing business with you"" which means in the US they can call you and solicit new services.  I am willing to deal with those trade offs though, plus, as you say, you can always pay it off. WHY THEY DO IT (what is in it for them...) A friend of mine works for a major bank that often finances these deals here is how they work. Basically, banks do this to generate leads for their divisions that do cold calls.  If you are a high credit, high income customer you go to a classic bank and request cash, if you are building credit or have bad credit, you go to a ""financial services"" branch.  If you tend to finance things like cars and furniture, you get more cold calls." "I would think it extremely unlikely that an issuer would cancel your card for having an ADB of approximately zero. The issuer charges the vendor that accepts a card a percentage of the transaction (usually up to ~3%, AMEX is generally higher) - so they are making money even if you carry no balance on your card (the specific language for various vendor-side (acceptor) credit card agreements boils down to ""we are essentially giving you, the vendor, a short-term loan and you will pay us for it). This why you see credit-card minimum purchase amounts at places like hot-dog stands - they're getting nailed on the percentage.  This is also why, when given the choice between ""Debit or Credit"" for a particular card, I choose where to put the hit on the company I like less - the retailer or the bank." Your utilization ratio history is irrelevant to its impact on your credit score.  If you run up 80% of your utilization In January, then pay it back to 10% in March, your score in March will reflect the new reduced ratio with no memory of the 80% utilization last month. With that said, don't go around overspending just because you have 0% apr for a little bit.  Spend what you would spend with cash. Do you know how many people end up with an 18-21% rate on their credit card?  They started off with low teaser rates.  There was an article about it recently on Yahoo.  Mainly this comes from a lack of discipline, or an unforeseen emergency.  However, lets assume, that you are a bit uncommon and have iron discipline. It comes down to a math question.  What is the rate on your student loan?  I am going to assume 6%, and lets say that you are now paying interest.  So there is 7 months between now an then, you would pay $140 (4000 * .06/12 * 7) in interest if you left it on the student loan. Typically there is not really a free lunch with the zero percent interest rate CC.  They often charge a 3% balance transfer fee, so you would pay that on the entire amount, about $120.   Is it worth the $20?  I would say not.   However, those simple calculations are not really correct.  Since you would have to pay the CC $588.6/month to take care of this, you have to shrink the balance on the student loan to do a true apples to apples comparison.   So doing a little loan amortization, you can retire $4000 on the student loan only paying $583/month, and paying a total of $80.40 in interest. So it would cost you money to do what you are suggesting if there is a 3% transfer fee.   Even if there is no transfer fee, you only save about $80 in interest.   If it was me, I would direct my energy in other areas, like trying to bring in more money to make this student loan go away ASAP. Oh and GO STEELERS! Even if you can get a credit card with a $0 limit, that doesn't necessarily mean that the charges won't succeed. Some of my credit cards have gone over limit by a significant amount (e.g. 140% of limit) without any transactions being declined. The limit just means that the bank is allowed to decline the transaction, but they are also allowed to approve it anyway. So basically what you would have is a credit card where any transaction can always be declined or approved. Yes, 0% APR = no interest. APR = Annual Percentage Rate. As in, the lender gets an annual percentage returned to them for lending you money. This is the opposite of APY, which is Annual Percentage Yield, or the money that an investment yields. Dude- my background is in banking specifically dealing with these scenarios. Take my advice-look for a balance transfer offer-credit card at 0%. Your cost of capital is your good credit, this is your leverage. Why pay 4.74% when you can pay 0%. Find a credit card company with a balance transfer option for 0%. Pay no interest, and own the car outright. Places to start; check the mail, or check your bank, or check local credit unions. Some credit unions are very relaxed for membership, and ask if they have zero percent balance transfers. Good Luck! it is possible that if you do not accept the offer, they will try offering you an even lower rate.  if they offered you close to 0%, you could start carrying a balance and find a better use for the cash you would have spent paying it off. there are plenty of investments with a guaranteed return of over 0%. personally, i am using a 0% offer from one of my cards to invest in the stock market.  i might lose that bet, but on average over the last 10 years, i have not. a pretty safe bet would be paying down your mortgage, or buying a cd that matures when the offer ends. that said, even a 10k$ balance might only pay you around 300$. is that worth the hassle to you? Welcome to the world of personal finance.  IMO, you are heading for trouble. To answer your question, the APR is the annual percentage rate, or what you pay to borrow money from the CC issuer.  For example, if you charge $100, and the bill comes, and you pay $100 on or before the due date you pay nothing.  If you pay the minimum payment, which would be around $15, you would then borrow $85 (100-15) and pay interest on that amount.  The next month's balance would be 85 + any new charges + interest.  The interest in this case can be estimated as follows:  85*.199/12 = 1.41. For your information that is a very high interest rate especially given the current market for borrowed money.  Many people become saddled with debilitating debt starting off just like you are planning.  If we were friends, I would implore you not to get a CC, instead save up and pay for things with cash. Look for offers for 0% (or low) APR on balance transfers. It is more likely to get a promotional APR on balance transfer, than to lower the APR you already have. Of course, try to pay off the balance as long as you're in the period of the promotion, because otherwise you'll end up paying the high rate again. If you cannot get such an offer (low credit etc) - then just try to pay off ASAP and start rebuilding your credit, not much workarounds there. BTW: When you consider the balance transfer promotions - look at 3 things: The promotion period - when it ends, so that you'd know how much time you have to pay it off. The balance transfer fee - usually the balance transfer itself is not free, and you pay 3-5% on the transfer. If you have 0% APR for 12 months, it makes it effectively 5% APR (for the 5% fee), if the period is lesser - the APR is higher. Take that into the account. The APR after the promotion, in case you can't pay off in that time frame. "Whether or not the specific card in question is truly 0% interest rate for the first 12 months, such cards do exist. However, the bank does make money out of it on the average: Still, 12 months of not having to think about paying the bill. Nice. This is exactly what they want you to do. Then in 12 months, when you start thinking about it, you may find out that you don't have the cash immediately available and end up paying the (usually very large) interest. It is possible to game this system to keep the ""free"" money in investments for the 12 months, as long as you are very careful to always follow the terms and dates. Because even one mishap can take away the small profits you could get for a 12 month investment of a few thousand dollars, it is rarely worth the effort." I think is an excellent idea. Use free money or almost free to do a lump sump payment. My recommendation is to have a reminder to pay credit card before, almost finishing, the 0% APR period. "I've done exactly what you are describing and it was a great move for me. A few years back I had two credit cards. One had a $6000 balance and a fairly high interest rate that I was making steady payments to (including interest).  The other was actually tied to a HELOC (home equity line of credit) whose interest rate was fixed to ""prime"", which was very low at the time, I think my effective rate on the card was around 3%.  So, I pulled out one of the ""cash advance checks"" from the HELOC account and paid off the $6000 balance. Then I started making my monthly payments against the balance on the HELOC, and paid it off a bit more quickly and with less overall money spent because I was paying way less interest. Another, similar, tactic is to find a card that doesn't charge fees for balance transfers and that has a 0% interest rate for the first 12 months on transferred balances. I am pretty sure they are out there. Open an account on that card, transfer the balance to it, and pay it down within 12 months. And, try not to use the card for anything else if you can help it." I also had a student loan and glad you are taking a good look on interest rate as it really makes a huge difference. One of the strategies I followed was since my credit improved as I stepped out of school. I took advantage of a good 0 percent credit card. I applied for discover and got a decent credit limit. There are 2 particular things you are looking for in a credit card in this situation  Usually the initial $0 transaction charge is only for a couple of months so ensure you take advantage of that. What is the benefit: Imagine being able to pay off that higher interest rate balance with 0% and not have to worry about it immediately. That way you save on the interest you would be paying and stress as well Watch out for: Although you have to ensure that you do payoff the money you paid through the 0 percent credit card ( which may have been put off for a year or even 15 months or so) other wise you may have to pay it all at once as the offer is expiring. Note: for credit cards ensure to note when the 0% is expiring as that is usually not mentioned on the statement and you may have to call the customer service. I was in a similar situation and was able to pay it all off fairly quickly. I am sure you will as well.