 TITLE: What Is Balance Transfer APR? CONTENT: How Does Balance Transfer APR Work?\n-----------------------------------\nWhen you swipe your credit card or take out a loan, you agree to pay interest on any portion of your debt that you don't pay off in full each month. Steep rates can cause interest to outpace your payments, but a balance transfer can help you stop—or at least stall—that debt accumulation. As a bonus, balance transfers can also merge some of your monthly bills into one account and potentially lessen your chances of missing a bill and incurring late fees or late payments that can harm your credit score.\nFor the most part, balance transfer cards are just like regular credit cards: They can be used to make purchases and potentially accrue rewards, and the card issuer assigns interest rates and a credit limit based on your credit history and other factors. The main difference is these cards include a low-interest or no-interest introductory period for balance transfers. Card issuers offer these promotional rates to entice you to open an account and move your balances (and, therefore, your business) to them as a new customer, so you usually cannot make transfers between cards from the same issuer.\nThe most coveted offers boast a 0% introductory balance transfer APR. The terms usually last six to 18 months, allowing you a considerable length of time during which you won't accrue any interest on your debt. If you don't pay off your balance by the end of that timeline, however, your APR will rise to the card's ongoing interest rate, which may be quite high. Depending on your card's terms, a late payment can also forfeit your intro rate or trigger a penalty APR, so make sure to always pay on time.\nOf course, few things in this world are free; it's likely your balance transfer will come with a fee. A balance transfer fee is typically typically 3% or 5% of the transferred amount. For example, a 3% fee on a $5,000 transfer would result in a total balance of $5,150 on your new card. Occasionally, creditors may waive this fee, but that's not something you should count on.\nA balance transfer fee might offset your potential savings if you plan to clear your balances quickly, but the cost to transfer can be well worth the price of moving your debts for longer stretches of time. END