American Express Balance Transfer Update

It has now been almost two months since I commented about my American Express balance transfer woes, so I thought that I would provide an update.

Free Money Is Good.
After getting the balance transfer finalized, I have had the money sitting in my ING Direct account. As stated earlier, I know that I should switch from ING Direct to HSBCDirect or EmigrantDirect. But for the time being, I have the funds from American Express deposited at ING Direct and earning me a little money every month.

While it isn’t enough to make me rich, it is nice to be in a position to leverage the credit card company to earn me a few hundred dollars per year. Using the 0% balance transfer offers to earn free money does require that you pay close attention to details but it really cannot be much easier.

Paying It Back.
This time around, I have taken a slightly different approach to how I am paying it back as well. In the past, I would transfer enough out of ING to cover the minimum payment every month. The downside to this is that the amount earning interest is decreasing from month to month, thus limiting the overall financial gain. Rather than use that approach again, I have opted to cut a few luxuries from my monthly spending and make the payment out of my fun money.

You may be asking why I would want to do this, so let me tell you. When the expiration of the offer comes due, I will have had the full amount of the transfer sitting in ING and earning me interest. In addition, since I have been paying the minimum every month out of my fun money, I will actually end up with extra funds left in the savings when I transfer out the final amount for the payoff.

Things are progressing along quite nicely with the American Express balance transfer, although my wife wants me to just pay it back and stop playing the 0% balance transfer game. She doesn’t have the patience to play the game and reap the rewards of free money, nor does she really understand why I like to do it so much. Maybe I will compromise and pay it off a little earlier than scheduled as it might be nice to spend the summer using that fun money instead of sending it to American Express.

Be Featured Here.
Have you played the 0% balance transfer game? Have you ever slipped up and cost yourself money? Let me know your story and if you would like to be featured in a post about the pros & cons of using the credit card companies to earn money.