How to Do a Balance Transfer With a Chase Credit Card
When you owe money on your credit card and feel like you’re never making headway in paying it off, a balance transfer to another card could be the way to go. Chase credit cards offer excellent balance transfer opportunities so you can start reducing your debt and clearing up your finances.
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Balance transfers can take your rocky credit card situation and turn it into a more manageable problem. If you’re in over your head, cutting out some of the interest you’re paying can be just the advantage you need to get out of debt.
For example, the Chase Freedom credit card offers a 0% APR for 15 months. Read on to find out how to do a balance transfer with a Chase credit card.
How to Transfer a Balance to a Chase Credit Card
Doing a balance transfer can be easy and quick. If you don’t currently have a card with Chase, it will take a bit longer to perform the balance transfer. We’ll review the necessary steps to perform that balance transfer.
Apply for a Chase Credit Card
If you don’t already have a Chase credit card you’d like to transfer a balance to, you can go right to the Chase website to apply for one of their credit cards. You’ll have the opportunity to review every card they offer, what their perks are, the APR you’ll get for the balance transfer, as well as how long that APR will last. Plus, you’ll be able to see if your preferred card has an annual fee.
Gather Your Balance Transfer Information
Sit down with your other credit card statements and review which ones have the highest interest rates. You’ll want to transfer those balances first since you stand to save the most money on the interest you’re paying out every month.
But before you call to transfer that balance to your Chase card, you should look at the limit on your new card. You’ll want to leave a bit of breathing room on the balance. There will be fees involved with your balance transfer as well. For example, with the Chase Freedom card, the balance transfer fee can be either $5 or 5 percent of the amount of the transfer, whichever is higher. So you don’t want to end up transferring so much that you’re immediately socked with an over-the-limit fee.
Before you call Chase to transfer your balance, make sure you have your account number handy for the card you’re trying to transfer from and a firm dollar amount of how much you’d like to transfer.
Contact Chase to Initiate Your Balance Transfer
To get a balance transfer through quickly and make sure your request has been received, it always pays to make a call. This also gives you the added advantage of having a company representative go over the terms with you so you don’t miss any of the crucial information.
To contact Chase about a balance transfer, call (800) 935-9935.
Once you have your card, you can also sign up for an online account to do your balance transfer. Even after you complete that balance transfer, you’ll still want to use your online account. It’s handy for checking your balance, paying your bill, seeing new offers, and ensuring your payment has posted.
Complete Your Balance Transfer
Your balance transfer might go through within a week, or it could potentially take two to three weeks. You should occasionally check your account to see when it goes through. In the meantime, keep making those payments to the card you transferred your balance from. If you mistakenly assume your balance is paid off and it isn’t, you won’t make a payment and then you’ll be hit with a late payment fee. And keep in mind, late payments can affect your credit score.
How to Transfer a Balance From a Chase Credit Card
If you want to transfer a balance from your Chase Credit Card to another credit card, you should first sign up for the card you’d like to transfer it to. Then you’d get your card number and amount you want to transfer and call the credit card company. After you make your balance transfer request, you should continue to make your monthly payments on your Chase card until you receive notification the balance transfer has been completed.
Summary
You may potentially save hundreds or even thousands of dollars with a balance transfer. That can give you the opportunity to finally pay off your credit card. While you’re trying to clear up the debt, avoid charging anything more to your card. You don’t want your progress to be sabotaged by new charges.
If you can afford to, make more than the minimum payments. That will lower your balance faster and give you a better chance of owing nothing on that card by the time the introductory rate has expired.
Whatever you do, ensure you make your monthly payment on time. If you don’t, that introductory APR will likely revert to the regular APR and you’ll then owe interest on the balance.
