I had consumer debt (credit card debt), student loans, and a car loan. All of them charging me interest. I managed to shave years from my pay off date and save thousands in interest by utilizing this credit card hack.

I opened a Discover card with 0% interest for 14 months. I then transferred my lowest balance over to this card. I was able to pay it off before the 14 months expired. I then received a 0% offer from them for 22 months! I paid off my car loan with that offer. Then, once that loan was paid down far enough to allow room for the remaining balance of my inflated interest private student loan I did a balance transfer directly into my account and used the funds to pay off the student loan.

YES. You can pay your student loan or car loan with your credit card! I was able to remove all interest from these debts and pay them off so much faster because of it. You simply do a direct transfer into your bank account and then put the money where you wish it to go.

These transactions have 3% balance transfer fees. I always did the math on this. Was it better to transfer or have interest for the estimated time it would take me to pay off the debt? It always made sense to do the balance transfer for me.

Now that I am debt free I still utilize this feature to buy a little time. If I don’t have funds immediately available for a need I can make the purchase on my mileage card to earn points and then wait a few weeks utilizing the 30 day grace period and, do a balance transfer at one of the following rates:

0% interest with 3% fee
or
5.99% interest with 0% fee.

If I will pay off in a month or two I will often do the 5.99% because it will be less than the transfer fee.

That’s not only an interest/fee saver, but also a way to travel hack! If you want to use your mileage card but are terrified you’ll end up with a 24.99% interest rate because you couldn’t pay it off by the end of the month you can alleviate your stress because should that ever happen – we hope it never does, but life, you know – you have a back up!

If you’d like to read more about the Discover card that I love check out my referral link.

Not only is it the great offer of 0% interest for 14 months (or more!) you also receive a $50 bonus after your first purchase. Get a tank of gas for free, and save thousands on interest. Pretty win-win to me!