There have been several posts on the DansDeals Facebook Group and the DansDeals Forums asking about the best credit cards that have 0% intro APR on purchases and balance transfers.
As I wrote in the beginner’s guide “word of warning,”
“It’s important to note that the credit card points system is subsidized by the millions of Americans who fall into the trap of debt, buying things they can’t afford, and paying huge amounts of interest to the banks.
If you’re susceptible to that behavior, then don’t start in the first place. Pay for things in cash and be happy not being in debt. Any gain from the points system will be obliterated by interest payments.”
That being said if you do have existing balances or do need to make a purchase that you need to finance, you may as well get the best rates from the best rewards earning card.
Business cards with 0% APR offers:
One negative of carrying a balance, even if you pay your bills on time, is that it can drastically hurt your credit score as a whopping 30% of your credit score is based on credit utilization. This can be avoided by taking advantage of a 0% APR offer on a business card as business card balances won’t hurt your credit score.
You can get a business card even if you just have a hobby. For example if your name is Joe Smith and you sell items online, or if you have any other side business and want a credit card to better keep track of business expenditures you can open a business credit card for “Joe Smith” as the business. You don’t need to file any messy government paperwork to be allowed to do that. Just be sure to select “Sole Proprietorship” as the business type and just use your social security number in the Tax Identification Number field.
If you have business paperwork you can apply under your business name. Otherwise, it’s critical to just write your own name as the business name if you are just applying for your own small business as a Sole Proprietorship that doesn’t have any business paperwork. You can then send in bills in your own name for verification.
- Chase Ink Business Cash Card
- Intro APR on purchases: 0% APR for 12 months
- Annual fee: None.
- Foreign transaction fees: 3%
- Welcome bonus: Earn 50K bonus points for spending $3,000 in 3 months (Marketed as $500 cash back, but you’ll actually get 50K points that can be used for cash back or as points.)
- What’s great about the card: Earns Ultimate Rewards points that can be cashed out or transferred to a premium Ultimate Rewards card where the points will be worth significantly more. Earn 5 points per dollar on internet, telecom, cell phones, and from office supply stores, including gift cards to hundreds of stores sold by office supply stores. Earn 2 points per dollar on gas and dining. Earn 5 points per dollar on Lyft through 3/31/22.
- Chase Ink Business Unlimited Card
- Intro APR on purchases: 0% APR for 12 months
- Annual fee: None.
- Foreign transaction fees: 3%
- Welcome bonus: Earn 50K bonus points for spending $3,000 in 3 months (Marketed as $500 cash back, but you’ll actually get 50K points that can be used for cash back or as points.)
- What’s great about the card: Earns Ultimate Rewards points that can be cashed out or transferred to a premium Ultimate Rewards card where the points will be worth significantly more. Earn 1.5 points per dollar everywhere. Earn 5 points per dollar on Lyft through 3/31/22.
- The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express
- Intro APR on purchases: 0% APR for 12 months
- Intro APR on balance transfers: 0% APR for 12 months. 3% intro balance transfer fee, with a minimum of $5.
- Annual fee: None.
- Foreign transaction fees: 2.7%
- What’s great about the card: Earns 2 Membership Rewards points per dollar everywhere that can be transferred to airline/hotel miles or used together with an AMEX Business Gold or AMEX Business Platinum card for a 25% or 35% of rebate on paid air travel.
- American Express® Blue Business Cash Card
- Intro APR on purchases: 0% APR for 12 months
- Intro APR on balance transfers: 0% APR for 12 months. 3% intro balance transfer fee, with a minimum of $5.
- Annual fee: None.
- Foreign transaction fees: 2.7%
- What’s great about the card: Earns 2% cash back everywhere.
- Click here for more 0% APR cards.
Consumer cards with 0% APR offers:
- Citi Rewards+ Card
- Intro APR on purchases: 0% APR for 15 months
- Intro APR on balance transfers: 0% APR for 15 months. 3% intro balance transfer fee when you transfer a balance during the first 4 months your account is open, with a minimum of $5.
- Annual fee: None.
- Foreign transaction fees: 3%
- Welcome bonus: Earn 15K bonus points for spending $1,000 in 3 months.
- What’s great about the card: Earns ThankYou points that can be used for gift cards or transferred to a premium ThankYou card where the points can be transferred into airline miles. This card automatically rounds up rewards earned on every purchase to the nearest 10 points, meaning you earn 10 points on a $0.50 Amazon balance reload. Earn 2 points on $6K in annual spending at supermarkets. Get a 10% points rebate when you redeem points, up to a 10K points rebate per year. If you also have a Citi Premier Card you can transfer points into miles or get a 25% added value for paid airfare, plus get a 10% points rebate on transferred or redeemed miles.
- Citi Double Cash Card
- Intro APR on balance transfers: 0% APR for 18 months. 3% intro balance transfer fee when you transfer a balance during the first 4 months your account is open, with a minimum of $5.
- Annual fee: None.
- Foreign transaction fees: 3%
- What’s great about the card: Earns 2% cash back everywhere that can be converted into 2 ThankYou points. If you also have a Citi Premier Card you can transfer points into miles or get a 25% added value for paid airfare.
- Citi Simplicity Card
- Intro APR on purchases: 0% APR for 12 months
- Intro APR on balance transfers: 0% APR for 21 months. 5% intro balance transfer fee when you transfer a balance during the first 4 months your account is open, with a minimum of $5.
- Annual fee: None.
- Foreign transaction fees: 3%
- What’s great about the card: No late fees.
- Chase Slate Card
- Intro APR on purchases: 0% APR for 15 months
- Intro APR on balance transfers: 0% APR for 15 months for transfers within 60 days of account opening.
- Annual fee: None.
- Foreign transaction fees: 3%
- What’s great about the card: No balance transfer fees for 60 days.
- Chase Freedom Card
- Intro APR on purchases: 0% APR for 15 months
- Intro APR on balance transfers: 0% APR for 15 months. 3% intro balance transfer fee when you transfer a balance during the first 60 days your account is open, with a minimum of $5.
- Annual fee: None.
- Foreign transaction fees: 3%
- Welcome bonus: Earn 15K bonus points for spending $500 in 3 months (Marketed as $150, but you’ll actually get 15K points that can be used for $150 or as points.)
- What’s great about the card: Earns Ultimate Rewards points that can be cashed out or transferred to a premium Ultimate Rewards card where the points will be worth significantly more. Earn 5 points per dollar in rotating categories, like gas, groceries, dining, Paypal, and more. Earn 5 points per dollar on Lyft through 3/31/22.
- Chase Freedom Unlimited Card
- Intro APR on purchases: 0% APR for 15 months
- Intro APR on balance transfers: 0% APR for 15 months. 3% intro balance transfer fee when you transfer a balance during the first 60 days your account is open, with a minimum of $5.
- Annual fee: None.
- Foreign transaction fees: 3%
- Welcome bonus: Earn 15K bonus points for spending $500 in 3 months (Marketed as $150, but you’ll actually get 15K points that can be used for $150 or as points.)
- What’s great about the card: Earns Ultimate Rewards points that can be cashed out or transferred to a premium Ultimate Rewards card where the points will be worth significantly more. Earn 1.5 points per dollar everywhere. Earn 5 points per dollar on Lyft through 3/31/22.
- Click here for more 0% APR cards.
Do you utilize 0% APR offers from credit cards?
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21 Comments On "Reader Question: What Are The Best Credit Cards With 0% APR?"
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What about best no yearly fee cards?
+1
AMEX everyday – no BT fee plus a sign up bonus
Not a business card. Reports to credit
can you list non big bank (Chase, Citi, Cap One, AMEX) options.
You can go to your local gemach.
“This can be avoided by taking advantage of a 0% APR offer on a business card as business card balances won’t hurt your credit score.”
If you do it on a personal card and than pay it up, does your credit score go up as if it never happened? Or the history is still there?
IME it goes back up as soon as it’s paid off.
Correct.
Although:
https://www.dansdeals.com/more/dans-commentary/news-roundup/sunday-news-roundup-2-2-20-coronavirus-rip-kobe-something-smells-american-super-bowl-saturday-stuck-iran-15k-lie-flat-transcon/
Under older FICO models 2,4,5,8, & 9, the score jumps back up immediately once the Lender reports the lowered balance.
However, FICO is releasing a new model – FICO 10 in summer 2020. There will be a targeted version of 10, called FICO 10T, which will specifically look at 24month prior balances across all credit accounts and aggregate them to generate trended data.
Lenders may NOT be as slow to adopt this new FICO 10 model as they have with prior versions….most credit card issuers still currently use FICO 8 Bankcard which was released in 2009. Equifax will offer FICO 10T on summer 2020. Exp and TransU will follow late in 2020. Will Lenders upgrade to FICO 10T right away? If u look at the data around overinflated consumer scores, rising consumer debt, and a looming economy bubble burst that years overdue, then a case can easily be made for Lenders to jump on FICO 10.
Those of us that would always exploit 0% APR offers to float the debted money for checking and savings accounts can no longer expect to see our scores shoot up once the balance is reported as paid. Sadly, Credit Utilization will now have a history attached to it with FICO 10T, unlike with prior scoring models before FICO 10.
But Dan’s mention of business cards still is a safe haven since those are not reported. Chase Ink Cash and Unlimited are still excellent float options and offer a nice bonus as Dan goes over in the post. Just stay away from biz cards issued by Capital One, Discover, and TD Bank to stay under the biz radar.
Are you paying it up before or after the statement closes? If you are doing it before statement closes then the entire discussion of a 0% APR card isn’t really relevant. If it is after statement closes, then yes your credit score takes a hit for credit utilization on a consumer card even if you pay the full balance the day after statement closes with that balance.
Dan, how many Ink cards is it safe to apply for as a sole proprietor? i.e won’t raise any red flags with chase?
2nd that and does carrying a large balance over all cards combined, say 10k, impact the chance of a review?? thanks!
Dan?
Can I apply for both chase cards?
If I have 80 percent credit card usage.
With score of 660, should I apply for business credit card?
Which 0% APR cards do not pull Experian?
Dan you missed a big one here, I was in a situation where I needed to transfer a large debt and I looked into all these 0% offers. They are zero percent APR but they do charge a transfer fee of about 3% IIRC. The only two cards that I found at the time which were truly free were the Chase Slate and and Amex (I don’t remember which).
Very important to add this detail!
Is Chase Slate card still available?
Just to clarify. one can open up a business card without an actual business ?
Are there still any cards which offer 0% APR and no BT fee?