A man sitting at his kitchen table with a calculator and bills.
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The best way to pay off credit card debt for a lot of people is a 0% intro APR balance transfer credit card.
If you’re carrying $15,000 at 22% APR, you could pay more than $4,000 in interest over the next 18 to 21 months.
Move that same balance to a 0% intro APR card, and every dollar you pay during the promotional window goes toward the principal instead of interest.
What the math looks like in real life
Let’s say you transfer $12,000 to a card offering 21 months of 0% intro APR.
That means you pay about $572 per month and the balance is gone before interest ever kicks in.
Yes, there’s usually a 3% to 5% balance transfer fee. On $12,000, that’s roughly…