Note: This tip isn’t for everyone but I’ll try to give enough information to outline the risks and rewards.

Say you have a debt reduction plan.  Say you have something like No Credit Needed’s Debt Reduction Guide and are following it through.  Say you’re doing really well with it, you can keep track of things, your debt is going down, and things are getting a little more comfortable.

Say also that you get advertisements in the mail for 0% balance transfers.

Why not take one of your cards with a non-zero APR and transfer it to one that has 0% APR for a while?

Well, it can help, for sure,

• if you can maintain the payments on all of your cards, especially the 0% one
• if you can keep track of when the 0% period runs out and make adjustments to pay that one off quickly when the rate goes up
• if you read all of the fine print on the offer and understand it
• if you understand all of the fees that might be attached to the balance transfer
• if you don’t use it as license to spend more or slack off

It’s probably not a good idea if you are bad with details or if you have so little breathing room that you’re likely to miss a payment.  The default APR on these cards can be quite high … and your other cards’ APRs might go up as well.

So, use 0% balance transfers with care as you reduce your debt.

(Photo: Gaetan Lee)

• May flowers Carnival of Debt Reduction Here are some recent debt-reduction-related posts submitted to the Carnival: Free From Broke has a guest post from Life and my Finances on how he paid off $25,000 in debt in just 14 months.  Great job! Frugal in my Forties asks if it's right to settle debt for less than......
• Welcome to a windy and rainy Carnival of Debt Reduction We're in hurricane season, and early last week there were five named Atlantic storms on the map:  Gustav, Hanna, Ike, Josephine, and Karina.  Hanna is flying up the east coast of the United States as I'm putting this Carnival together. Thankfully Hanna wasn't much where I was on Saturday but......

• Consolidating Credit Card Debts With a New Card Consumers who are on the verge of getting in over their heads in credit card debt really need to rethink their current financial situation. Making it a priority to eliminate all credit card balances is the first step towards a more secure personal finance situation. Dedicating as much money as......
• Debt Consolidation Tips If you're swimming in a sea of debt and trying to figure out how to keep your head above the water, one of the easiest ways is to consolidate. However, the actual process of consolidation can be confusing and it is all too easy to make mistakes that will end......