Your situation
Current card
The 0% offer
How to use this calculator
This calculator answers: Is this balance-transfer offer actually cheaper than staying put, once the fee and post-promo APR are counted?
Why this matters: Transfer fees and post-promo rates quietly decide whether a ‘0%’ offer saves you money or costs you more than staying put.
- Under “Current card” enter Balance ($), Current APR (%), and Monthly payment ($); under “The 0% offer” enter the 0% promo length (months), Transfer fee (%), and APR after the promo ends (%).
- Enter your numbers, then tap the “Analyze the transfer” button — editing an input clears the result so every calculation is fresh.
- Read “The verdict” with the side-by-side totals under “Stay on current card” vs “Transfer to 0%”. Try shortening the promo length to see the verdict flip.
Take it further: the Debt Payoff Dashboard Pro
Your payoff plan as a spreadsheet you keep. Pro adds: the full balance-transfer optimizer with fee and promo-APR modeling, plus extra-payment and lump-sum scenarios. One-time purchase, yours forever.
Get the Pro Dashboard — $9.99How the math works
- Staying put: your balance amortizes at your current APR with your monthly payment, month by month, until it's gone. Total interest is tallied.
- Transferring: the fee is added to the balance on day one (a 3% fee on $8,000 is $240 of new debt). You pay 0% during the promo, then anything left accrues at the post-promo APR.
- Net savings = interest avoided − fee. The transfer only wins if the interest you dodge is bigger than the fee you pay.
- Beating the clock: divide the transferred balance by the promo months. Pay at least that much monthly and you never meet the post-promo APR at all.
Keep the Balance Transfer plan in a spreadsheet
The free Debt Payoff Planner turns this payoff comparison into a month-by-month workbook: every balance, every payment, and the date the last one ends. It is delivered by email — the calculators on this page need no signup, but the spreadsheet does.
By signing up you'll get the planner plus occasional Figmetric emails. Unsubscribe anytime.
Frequently asked questions
When is a balance transfer worth it?
When the transfer fee is smaller than the interest you'd otherwise pay. As a rule of thumb: the bigger your balance, the higher your current APR, and the longer the 0% promo, the more likely it pays off. It almost never makes sense if you can clear the debt in two or three months anyway — the 3–5% fee would cost more than the interest you'd save.
What happens if I don't pay it off before the 0% period ends?
The remaining balance starts accruing interest at the card's regular APR. Some retail/store cards go further and charge deferred (retroactive) interest on the original balance back to day one — always check the terms before transferring to a store card.
What's a typical balance transfer fee?
3% of the transferred amount is the most common, with 5% on longer promo offers. A few cards offer 0% fee promotions, usually with shorter 0% windows. The fee is added to your balance on day one.
Will a balance transfer hurt my credit score?
Expect a small temporary dip from the hard inquiry and the new account lowering your average account age. But moving debt to a new card with a fresh limit often lowers your overall utilization ratio, which can help your score within a few months.
Can I transfer a balance between two cards from the same bank?
Usually not — most issuers prohibit balance transfers between their own cards. You'll need a card from a different bank.
Should I close my old card after transferring?
Many people keep it open with a zero balance, since that preserves credit history length and total available credit (which helps the utilization ratio). The critical part is that new spending stops on it.
How does the balance transfer calculator work?
Enter your balance, current APR, the transfer fee, and the 0% promo length. The calculator compares the fee against the interest you would pay at your current APR and tells you whether the transfer wins — and whether you can clear the balance inside the promo window.
What next?
- Could a bigger payment beat the transfer? — compare payoff strategies with no transfer fee at all.
- Juggling more than one 0% offer? — sequence every promo so nothing expires on you.
- Cards nearly clear? — decide whether extra cash should kill the remaining debt or start investing.
Related guides
- Credit Utilization Explained — per-card vs. overall utilization, and why under 30% is a ceiling, not a target.
- Balance Transfer Cards Explained — how 0% APR offers actually work, fees included.
- Juggling Multiple 0% APR Cards — how to run several promo rates without getting burned.
- Consolidate, Balance Transfer, or Avalanche? — the total-cost comparison: transfer vs. loan vs. brute force.
- How Long to Pay Off $10,000? — the payoff timeline at minimums, $300, and $500 a month.
- The Minimum-Payment Trap — why paying only the minimum stretches a balance across years of interest.
- How Credit Card Minimum Payments Are Calculated — the three formulas issuers actually use, and why the minimum shrinks as you pay.
- How Credit Card Interest Works — interest accrues daily at APR ÷ 365; how grace periods and average daily balances really work.
- The Minimum-Payment Trap in All 50 States — $6,600 at 22% APR at minimums, state by state: where the minimum eats the biggest share of a paycheck.
- Is a Balance Transfer Worth It? — the 3% fee math at $3K–$10K across 12–21 month promos, plus when transfers fail.
- Balance Transfer Fee Cost — what the 3–5% fee really costs against the interest it replaces, and when it loses.
Last updated: September 28, 2026