Credit Card Intro APRs

[destrekor]

Just kind of want to confirm something here...

Say you have a 6 month 0% Intro APR on purchases. If you rack up a balance during those 6 months, but make no more purchases after the introductory period, does that balance remain under the 0% APR?

And then all new purchases get lumped into a "second balance" of sorts, and that one has the regular APR applied.

And then payments made to the account are generally first applied to the balance with the lowest APR, yes? Obviously a good decision, business-wise, as that allows the higher-APR balance to rack up a higher interest charge, all that way until the lower-APR balance is paid off.

Just want to make sure this is how all credit companies work - that is how USAA approached credit cards with a 0% Intro APR.

 

[esquared]

Just kind of want to confirm something here...

Say you have a 6 month 0% Intro APR on purchases. If you rack up a balance during those 6 months, but make no more purchases after the introductory period, does that balance remain under the 0% APR?

And then all new purchases get lumped into a "second balance" of sorts, and that one has the regular APR applied.

And then payments made to the account are generally first applied to the balance with the lowest APR, yes? Obviously a good decision, business-wise, as that allows the higher-APR balance to rack up a higher interest charge, all that way until the lower-APR balance is paid off.

Just want to make sure this is how all credit companies work - that is how USAA approached credit cards with a 0% Intro APR.

Say you have a 6 month 0% Intro APR on purchases. If you rack up a balance during those 6 months, but make no more purchases after the introductory period, does that balance remain under the 0% APR?

No, that 0% ends at the 6 month time frame and whatever balance you may have will fall under the %APR that is stated in your agreement.

And then all new purchases get lumped into a "second balance" of sorts, and that one has the regular APR applied.

All purchases after 6 months will be at the "regular" APR as would any balances left over from the introductory 0% for 6 months. They would be "lumped" together.

Zero% APR on purchases doesn't mean 0% APR until you get it paid off. Sorry, doesn't work that way.

And then payments made to the account are generally first applied to the balance with the lowest APR, yes?

No. That's the way it used to work. The new regulations on credit cards are now set that the highest balances are paid off first, or at least portions of them.

But in your case there wouldn't be second tier for balances, since any remaining balance after the 6 months would be converted to a balance with your regular APR.

 

[destrekor]

No, that 0% ends at the 6 month time frame and whatever balance you may have will fall under the %APR that is stated in your agreement.



All purchases after 6 months will be at the "regular" APR as would any balances left over from the introductory 0% for 6 months. They would be "lumped" together.

Zero% APR on purchases doesn't mean 0% APR until you get it paid off. Sorry, doesn't work that way.


No. That's the way it used to work. The new regulations on credit cards are now set that the highest balances are paid off first, or at least portions of them.

But in your case there wouldn't be second tier for balances, since any remaining balance after the 6 months would be converted to a balance with your regular APR.

Damn, well it worked that way with my USAA card.

I still have a 0% APR balance, long after the introductory period ended.

Guess that goes to show, whatever USAA offers, you might as well not even try to look for that anywhere else.

 

[rcpratt]

Any balance you have at the end of the introductory period ends will be subject to the non-introductory APR after the introductory period ends.

Either way, don't spend money you don't have.