Should I get cash from credit card at 0% for 8 months and put it on loans?
"There are two issues here: arithmetic and psychology. Scenario 1: You are presently paying an extra $500 per month on your student loan, above the minimum payments. Your credit card company offers a $4000 cash advance at 0% for 8 months. So you take the cash advance, pay it toward the student loan, and then instead of paying the extra $500 per month toward the student loan you use that $500 for 8 months to repay the cash advance. Net result: You pay 0% interest on the loan, and save roughly 8 months times $4000 times the interest on the student loan divided by two. (I say ""divided by two"" because it's not the difference between $4000 and zero, but between $4000 and the $500 you would have been paying off each month.) Clearly you are better off. If you are NOT presently paying an extra $500 on the student loan -- or even if you are but it is a struggle to come up with the money -- then the question becomes, can you reasonably expect to be able to pay off the credit card before the grace period runs out? Interest rates on credit cards are normally much higher than interest rates on student loans. If you get the cash advance and then can't repay it, after 8 months you are paying a very steep interest rate, and anything you saved on the student loan will quickly be lost. What I mean by ""psychological"" is that you have to have the discipline to really repay the credit card within the grace period. If you're not very confidant that you can do that, this plan could go bad very quickly. Personally, I've thought about doing things like this many times -- cash advances against credit cards, home equity loans, etc, all give low-interest money that could be used to pay off a higher-interest debt. But it's easy to get into trouble doing things like this. It's easy to say to yourself, Well, I don't need to put ALL the money toward that other debt, I could keep a thousand or so to buy that big screen TV I really need. Or to fail to pay back the low-interest loan on schedule because other things keep coming up that you spend your money on instead, whether frivolous luxuries or true emergencies. And there's always the possibility that something will happen to mess up your finances, from a big car repair bill to losing your job. You don't want to paint yourself into a corner. Finally, maxing out your credit cards hurts your credit rating. The formulas are secret, but I understand that if you use more than half your available credit, that's a minus. How much it hurts you depends on lots of factors." 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! "If there is any fee at all on the cash advance, and zero interest on the student loans (for now), it's not worth it mathematically.  And for only 8 months of ""free"" money, it's rare for it to be worth it overall. You need to save a significant amount either by having a good net interest rate (e.g., saving 20% on another card and not paying any interest on the new loan) or by saving a lot on principal (e.g., paying off $100k now and not paying the interest on that for the next 8 months). I wouldn't worry about it hurting your credit score unless your credit is going to be evaluated during the time you're maxing your card. Part of your score (20-30% IIRC) is your credit utilization ratio, which is how much you have available vs. how much you're using. It's separate from the part that accounts for history, so it's only relevant at the time you're looked up." On the face, this appears a sound method to manage long run cumulative interest, but there are some caveats. Maxing out credit cards will destroy your credit rating.  You will receive no more reasonable offers for credit, only shady ones.  Though your credit rating will rise the moment you bring the balance back down to 10%, even with high income, it's easy to overshoot the 8 months, and then a high interest rate kicks in because of the low credit rating. Further, maxing out credit cards will encourage credit card lenders to begin cutting limits and at worse demand early payment. Now, after month 6 hits, your financial payment obligations skyrocket.  A sudden jolt is never easy to manage.  This will increase risk of missing a payment, a disaster for such hair line financing. In short, the probability of decimating your financial structure is high for very little benefit. If you are confident that you can pay off $4,000 in 8 months then simply apply those payments to the student loan directly, cutting out the middle man.  Your creditors will be pleased to see your total liabilities fall at a high rate while your utilization remains small, encouraging them to offer you more credit and lower rates. The ideal credit card utilization rate is 10%, so it would be wise to use that portion to repay the student loans. Building up credit will allow you to use the credit as an auxiliary cushion when financial disaster strikes.  Keeping an excellent credit rating will allow you to finance the largest home possible for your money.  Every percentage point of mortgage interest can mean the difference between a million USD home and a $750,000 one.
I struggle with 0% interest things in my personal life.  A responsible me that thinks logically says continue to pay it on time and take advantage of the benefit of the interest free loan you got. It will keep your funds liquid in the case of an emergency, build your credit and teach you self control.  Paying it off now has little to no benefit. It does however tie up $3,000 worth of capital you could be using for building interest or leveraging against other purchases. No, don't open a credit card. Get used to paying cash for everything from the beginning. The best situation you can be in is not to have any credit. When it comes time to buy a house, put down %30 percent and your 0 credit score won't matter. This will keep you within your means, and, with governments gathering more and more data, help preserve your anonimity. I am answering this in light of the OP mentioning the desire to buy a house.  A proper mortgage uses debt to income ratios. Typically 28/36 which means 28% of monthly gross can go toward PITI (principal, interest, tax, insurance) and the total debt can go as high as 36% including credit cards and car payment etc. So, if you earn $5000/mo (for easy math) the 8% gap (between 28 and 36) is $400. If you have zero debt, they don't let you use it for the mortgage, it's just ignored. So a low interest long term student loan should not be accelerated if you are planning to buy a house, better put that money to the down payment. But for credit cards, the $400/mo carries $8000 (banks treat it as though the payment is 5% of debt owed). So, I'd attack that debt with a vengeance.  No eating out, no movies, beer, etc. Pay it off as if your life depended on it, and you'll be happier in the long run. Sometimes there are credit cards that offer a (promotional) 0% APR on transfers with no transfer fees.  It can be a good option to move the money to one of these if you're disciplined enough to keep hacking away at the debt before the APR jumps. Keep in mind that you NEED to have a cash reserve.  Blindly applying all stray cash to debt reduction is a bad idea.  Your lenders do not care about your balance.  All they care about is your NEXT payment.  It is therefore imperative that you have a cash reserve that can carry these payments for several months.  Having zero cash reserves puts you at high risk for such simple things as the payroll clerk at work missing the monthly deposit (Rare, but it happens.) I've also been in situations where a major client had a cash flow issue and delayed payment, and our company had to borrow to meet payroll that month.  Fortunately, we were in good standing with the bank and had low debt, but it could have been catastrophic for any employees living paycheque to paycheque. "Your use of the term ""loan"" is confusing, what you're proposing is to open a new card and take advantage of the 0% APR by carrying a balance.  The effects to your credit history / score will be the following:" I would not go down to zero cash on hand. I would keep $1,000 on hand and pay off most of the credit card balance.  Then I would pay off the last $1,000 on the credit card followed by building my emergency savings back up. If you think you can pay off the entire amount you borrowed over the next 12 month, then you're getting an unsecured loan at around 4% APR, assuming you're borrowing for the whole year.   That's pretty good compared to what you can typically get at the credit union.  However, if you only need the money for, say, 3 months, that 4% fee effectively becomes a 16% APR! And, the real trouble comes when you don't pay it off by the end of the 12 month and the standard rate kicks in. If you do use the convenience check, be sure to put in your calendars a reminder that the balance is due -- set the reminder about a month before the last billing cycle of your 0% period. Make sure you also have sufficient cash flow and an automated payment setup to make sure you always pay at least the minimum due on time.  Depending on your banking history, you might be able to get away with one missed payment -- but more likely, you'll be penalized as soon as you miss a payment by a penny or a day -- and the 0% loan suddenly becomes very expensive. Read all the fine print, make sure you understand them, and set up a system to make sure you can play to the rules of the game. "You are effectively 'making' 3.8% right now. By maintaining a loan at 0% vs the 3.8% you'd otherwise pay, you are ahead by that percent.  Now, if you borrowed at 3.8%, and made 7.6% on your investments, taxes aside, you'd break even. you are exactly ahead by the same 3.8%.  It seems to me that with a break-even of 7.6%, you'd be taking a risk based on the market return over the next few years. In a sense, that's true for any of us, but in your case, you are not deciding where to put idle cash, you already have the 3.8% option of ""leave well enough alone."" This is where I'd quote Harry Callahan - 'you've gotta ask yourself one question: ""Do I feel lucky?"" Well, do ya, punk?'" As long as you can get a cash advance on the credit card if you need it, then you're not putting the money beyond use if you use it to pay down card debt, you're just putting it where it gets the best rate of return. Your practice of waiting until you can pay cash is a good one. It will certainly prevent you from getting into debt! Now, to be clear, your question puts a credit card in the same category as a loan, but it doesn't have to be. You could use a credit card almost like cash, if you are careful. I'm not familiar with the system in France, but in the US, even if you are paying cash all the time, there are some benefits to getting a credit card and paying it off in full every month, instead of simply paying with cash. Some of those benefits are: One pretty big downside of having a credit card depends on your personality. Some people, once they have credit, end up spending beyond their means, and end up getting into debt. Please look into whether credit cards work the same way in France before considering the above advice. As for your question regarding getting a loan vs paying cash, that will usually be personal preference, since with a loan you can buy expensive items (such as a house or car) much sooner than you otherwise could if you waited until you saved the money. For example, it might take 10 years or more to build up enough money to purchase a house with cash, so if you don't want to wait that long, you'll need to finance it. "never carry a balance on a credit card. there is almost always a cheaper way to borrow money. the exception to that rule is when you are offered a 0% promotion on a credit card, but even then watch out for cash advance fees and how payments are applied (typically to promotional balances first). paying interest on daily spending is a bad idea. generally, the only time you should pay interest is on a home loan, car loan or education loan.  basically that's because those loans can either allow you to reduce an expense (e.g. apartment rent, taxi fair), or increase your income (by getting a better job). you can try to make an argument about the utility of a dollar, but all sophistry aside you are better off investing than borrowing under normal circumstances. that said, using a credit card (with no annual fee) can build credit for a future car or home loan. the biggest advantage of a credit card is cash back. if you have good credit you can get a credit card that offers at least 1% cash back on every purchase.  if you don't have good credit, using a credit card with no annual fee can be a good way to build credit until you can get approved for a 2% card (e.g. citi double cash). additionally, technically, you can get close to 10% cash back by chasing sign up bonuses. however, that requires applying for new cards frequently and keeping track of minimum spend etc. credit cards also protect you from fraud. if someone uses your debit card number, you can be short on cash until your bank fixes it.  but if someone uses your credit card number, you can simply dispute the charge when you get the bill. you don't have to worry about how to make rent after an unexpected 2k$ charge. side note: it is a common mis-conception that credit card issuers only make money from cardholder interest and fees. card issuers make a lot of revenue from ""interchange fees"" paid by merchants every time you use your card. some issuers (e.g. amex) make a majority of their revenue from merchants." Ultimately the question is more about your personality and level of discipline than about money.   The rational thing to do is hang on to your cash, invest it somewhere else, and pay off the 0% loan as late as possible without incurring penalties or interest.  Logically it's a no-brainer.  Problem is, we're humans, so there's a risk you'll slip up somewhere along the way and not pay off the loan in time.  How much do you trust yourself? "It really depends on the exact wording of that zero rate offer.  Some specifically state they are to be used for paying other debt. Others will have wording such as ""pay other debt or write yourself a check to pay for that next vacation, or new furniture.""  Sorry, it's back on you to check this out in advance." "This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://qz.com/1064061/house-flippers-triggered-the-us-housing-market-crash-not-poor-subprime-borrowers-a-new-study-shows/) reduced by 83%. (I'm a bot) ***** &gt; Analyzing a huge dataset of anonymous credit scores from Equifax, a credit reporting bureau, the economists-Stefania Albanesi of the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Geneva&amp;#039;s Giacomo De Giorgi, and Jaromir Nosal of Boston College-found that the biggest growth of mortgage debt during the housing boom came from those with credit scores in the middle and top of the credit score distribution-and that these borrowers accounted for a disproportionate share of defaults.  &gt; The mortgages these prime borrowers were able to secure were much bigger than those taken out by poor homebuyers.  &gt; Shoar&amp;#039;s work reveals that borrowing and defaults had risen proportionally across income levels and credit score, but that those with sounder credit ratings drove the rise in delinquencies.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6xfbx2/house_flippers_triggered_the_us_housing_market/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~202565 tl;drs so far."") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **credit**^#1 **borrowed**^#2 **mortgage**^#3 **score**^#4 **crisis**^#5"