Balance Transfer Calculator

How this result is built

Compare staying on a card with transferring the balance, including the fee and the promo window.

A balance transfer adds a fee to the balance and then charges the promotional rate for a limited number of months. After that, the later APR applies to whatever is left. The useful question is whether the interest you avoid is larger than the fee, given the payment you will make.

What the opening example is for

The stay line uses the later APR from the start, with no fee. If you cannot pay the transferred balance down before the promotion ends, the comparison can flip.

The walkthrough below uses the numbers already sitting in Balance Transfer Calculator. Press Calculate and the headline should match this page. Then put your own figures in. The math does not run until you press the button, and Clear hides the result.

What each field is doing

The “Balance” line on Balance Transfer Calculator starts at $5,000.00. The other fields stay put while you change this one. That is the clean way to see what this line is doing inside the result.

Balance Transfer Calculator treats “Transfer fee” as its own entry, and the form opens with 3%. If the label is a rate, type the annual figure the contract uses. If it is money, type the amount that will actually move, not a rounded hope.

Before you replace it, “Promotional months” reads 15 on Balance Transfer Calculator. Leave that figure only when it matches the statement, the quote, or the plan you are testing. Press Calculate after the edit so the chart and the schedule move with it.

The remaining fields

Look at “Promotional APR” first if you are checking Balance Transfer Calculator: the filled value is 0%. A round example is useful for learning the page. It is a poor substitute for the number on your own paperwork, so replace it and run the form again.

The “APR after the promotion, and if you stay” line on Balance Transfer Calculator starts at 22%. The other fields stay put while you change this one. That is the clean way to see what this line is doing inside the result.

Balance Transfer Calculator treats “Monthly payment” as its own entry, and the form opens with $250.00. If the label is a rate, type the annual figure the contract uses. If it is money, type the amount that will actually move, not a rounded hope.

The opening result, line by line

Press Calculate on the opening form and Payoff after the transfer is 1 year 9 months. That is the number the rest of this section is talking about.

Transfer fee is $150.00 when you run the opening figures on Balance Transfer Calculator. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

On this opening pass, interest after transfer is $90.78. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

How those lines were produced

Balance Transfer Calculator reports that interest if you stay is $1,285.71. That line is part of the same calculation as the headline. It is not a second balance you can spend on top of the result. Change one input and press Calculate if you want to see whether this line moves.

The fee is added to the transferred balance. The promotional rate lasts for the months you enter, then the later APR applies.

A second pass changes only “Balance”, from $5,000.00 to $5,500.00. Payoff after the transfer moves from 1 year 9 months to 2 years. Nothing else on the form was edited, so the gap between those two results is the effect of that one field on Balance Transfer Calculator. If the gap is tiny, this page is not very sensitive to that entry. If the gap is large, get that entry from a document before you plan around the result.

What this page will not claim

Balance Transfer Calculator applies the balance, the rate, and the payment you type. A lender’s payoff letter can include a fee or a daily interest convention this form does not see. Use the letter when you are sending the final check.

Balance Transfer Calculator stops at its own formula. When the next question is different, open Credit Card Payoff Calculator (Months and interest from the payment you can send.); Credit Card Calculator (The payment that actually ends the balance.); Debt Consolidation Calculator (A lower payment can still cost more interest.). Do not add those results to this one as if they were the same kind of dollar.

Check the result before you use it

Start on Balance Transfer Calculator by reading the labels, not the headline. The opening labels are Balance ($5,000.00), Transfer fee (3%), Promotional months (15), Promotional APR (0%), APR after the promotion, and if you stay (22%), Monthly payment ($250.00). If a label is not the fact you have, the result cannot turn into that fact later. The illustration on the form lands on 1 year 9 months. When you press Calculate and see that same figure, the button and this explanation are using one formula.

Change one field at a time. Write down the headline, edit a single line, and press Calculate again. A large jump means that line carries the result. A line that does not move is a line the formula ignores, which is a reason to confirm you opened the right page. Balance Transfer Calculator is built for one job: Fee, promotional months, then the later APR. The description on the page says the same thing in a sentence: Compare staying on a card with transferring the balance, including the fee and the promo window.

When the paperwork disagrees

Then hold the headline next to a source outside the site. That source might be a loan estimate, an account statement, a pay stub, or the public limit named in the methodology. A few cents of difference on a long schedule is ordinary rounding. A different rate, a fee you never typed, or a tax the form does not ask for is not rounding. Correct the input. Do not average the page with the paperwork.

When the outside source still disagrees, Balance Transfer Calculator has reached the edge of what it will claim. It will not phone a lender, pull a county record, or apply a credit you left blank. Send the calculator name, every input, and the result you expected through the contact page if you think the formula itself is wrong. Until that is settled, read 1 year 9 months as the output of the fields above and nothing else.

FAQs