One of the ways to save on your credit card interest payment is to transfer your balance to a credit card offering a 0% APR teaser deal. This is a viable strategy debt reduction strategy if used carefully. But recently, issuers like Bank of America have removed the cap on the balance transfer fee. And guess what?

Citibank has just in the banwagen big time. Once again, they are changing their balance transfer fee policy quietly and secretly. As recent as 29th June, these four cards remained the only citi cards with no balance transfer fee for the introductory balance transfer offer. Well, I’m going to let the cat out of the bag here. Here are the latest changes (all for the worst).

Cit® Diamond Preferred® Card - In the past, they had the 0% APR deal for 12 months and no balance transfer fee. Last month, they gave themselves room to wriggle by having the choice of giving consumers either a 6 or 12 month deal depending on your credit. They then removed the cap for balance transfer fee, but kept their no balance transfer fee policy for the introductory period. Now, they have just dropped the latest bombshell. There is no a balance transfer fee and there is no cap on the BT fee!

This gets the ultimate thumbs down from me. I no longer recommend this card for balance transfers. In fact, I no longer recommend this card.

Citi® Upromise® Card - Once again, this card used to have no balance transfer fee for their 12 month 0% APR deal. They have now imposed a balance transfer fee. But unlike the previous card, they capped the balance transfer fee to $75.

Citi® Drivers Edge® Options Platinum Select® Card - Technically, this card has no balance transfer fee for their 0% 12 month balance transfer (according to their terms and conditions). However, the fine prints of their application page states that there actually is a balance transfer fee. Given Citi Card constant tweaking of their balance transfer fees, I’m simply not sure about this card any more.

Citi® Home Rebate Platinum Select® MasterCard® - This remains the only citicard today with no balance transfer fee for the 12 month 0% APR deal. But how long can this last? Update : 25th February 2008 - This card now charges a BT fee for the introductory offer.

Citi®Professional^SM Cash Card - This is now the only citicard that offers a 0% BT deal for 12 months and waives the balance transfer fee for the introductory offer. In fact, right now, this is the only card in the market with such a deal. Grab it while it last! Latest Update 5/2008 - Not only is there a balance transfer fee now, there is also no cap on it!

Bottom Line - I do not recommend anyt citi card if you want to get a 0% balance transfer deal. Instead I would recommend the following 3 cards (the few left that actually have the decency to put a cap on the balance transfer fee versus every other card on the market).

Advanta Platinum BusinessCard with Rewards - Probably the best credit card today for balance transfers - 15 months at 0%. It is technically a business credit card but you can still apply for it if you have no business. Simply replace EIN with your SSN and the Business Name for your name in the application and you will be treated as a sole proprietor.

Discover® More(SM) Card - Another alternative is the Discover® More(SM) Card which offers a 0% APR for 12 months.

Chase Platinum Visa® Card - Chase offers a 0% deal for up to 12 months. If your credit isn’t up to scratch, you will probably get less than 12 months.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 10th, 2007 at 4:36 am and is filed under Citicards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.