Last updated: 30 July, 2026
BalanceTransfers.com was founded by Michael Yanda, a software developer with more than 20 years of experience working with financial data, including publishing and maintaining credit card rates, fees, and offer terms directly with major card issuers.
That experience shapes how we review balance transfer offers. Rather than relying on information from other comparison websites, we verify every rate, fee, promotional period, and key offer term against the issuer’s official disclosures. This page explains our review process, how we evaluate cards, how often we verify our information, and how we make money.
What we cover
We do not cover every balance transfer offer available in the United States, and we do not try to. Our aim is thorough coverage of the offers most people are realistically choosing between, which in practice means cards from large national issuers including Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, U.S. Bank, American Express and Discover.
A card may be missing from our comparisons for several reasons. It may not offer a balance transfer promotion at all. It may be a regional or credit union product available to a limited group. It may have been discontinued or closed to new applicants. Or we may simply not have reviewed it yet.
We do not exclude cards for being unavailable through an affiliate program, and we do not include cards solely because they are.
Where our information comes from
Every rate, fee, promotional period and deadline we publish is taken from the issuer’s own terms and conditions or its application disclosure, which is the document governed by federal disclosure rules.
We do not source terms from other comparison sites. This matters more than it sounds. While researching this site we found widely read publications listing promotional periods that were wrong by six months or more, and in one case a review that had a different issuer’s benefits and APR range mixed into it. Errors propagate quickly when sites copy each other.
Where an issuer’s published terms are ambiguous, or where the offer varies by application channel, we say so on the page rather than picking the more attractive number.
What we evaluate
Balance transfer cards are not general purpose credit cards and we do not score them as though they were. A card that earns excellent rewards is close to irrelevant if you are carrying debt you are trying to clear. We weigh the following, roughly in this order.
Length of the promotional period. The number of months you have at 0% on transferred balances, counted from account opening. We note when an issuer measures this in billing cycles rather than months, because your first cycle can be short.
The balance transfer fee. Usually 3% to 5% of the amount transferred. On a large balance this is often the single biggest cost of the transaction, and a two point difference can outweigh several months of extra runway. We note when a lower introductory fee expires after a set window.
The transfer deadline. The period after opening the account in which the transfer must be completed to qualify for the promotional rate. This ranges from 60 to 120 days and is the most commonly missed condition on any of these cards.
The go-to APR. The rate that applies to whatever balance remains when the promotion ends. Anyone who might not finish on time should weigh this heavily, and most comparisons treat it as an afterthought.
Penalty terms. Whether a late payment ends the promotional rate, triggers a penalty APR, or only incurs a fee. This varies significantly between issuers and can be the most expensive term on the card.
Purchase APR treatment. Whether the 0% period covers purchases as well as transfers, and for how long.
Fees and restrictions. Annual fee, foreign transaction fee, and the universal rule that no issuer allows a balance to be transferred between two of its own cards.
Rewards and benefits. Considered last, and treated as a tiebreaker rather than a selling point. We flag when a rewards structure creates an incentive to spend on a card you are trying to pay off.
How we order our comparisons
Our default sort is by length of the promotional period, longest first, and we state the sort order on the page. Where we recommend a card for a particular situation, we say what that situation is and why the card fits it.
Compensation does not determine our rankings, our ratings, or which card we recommend for a given circumstance.
How often we check
Terms in this category change frequently and without notice. Every page carries the date its terms were last verified against issuer disclosures.
We re-verify published offers at least quarterly, and after any issuer announcement that affects a card we cover. If a page’s verification date is old, treat the figures on it as a starting point and confirm current terms on the issuer’s site before you apply.
We would rather show you an honest date than a stale claim of accuracy.
How we make money
When you follow a link from this site to an issuer and open an account, we may be paid a commission. That is how the site is funded, and it does not cost you anything.
This creates an obvious conflict of interest, so here is what we do about it. Compensation may affect which cards we have available to link to, and it may affect placement in advertising units that are labeled as such. It does not affect our evaluations, our published terms, our rankings, or our willingness to tell you that a balance transfer is the wrong move for your situation. Our calculator will tell you not to transfer when the fee exceeds the interest you would avoid, and it does that with no exception for cards we are paid to promote.
We do not cover every card in the market, and some cards we write about are not ones we can earn from.
Corrections
If a rate, fee or promotional period on this site does not match what the issuer shows you, tell us at support@balancetransfers.com and include the page and the card. We will check it against the issuer’s current disclosure and correct it.
Where a correction changes something material, we update the verification date and note what changed rather than editing silently.
Who writes this
Michael Yanda researches and writes the card evaluations on this site. He has worked with dozens of banks over the past 20 years – some directly, and has covered promotions such as balance transfer offers, term and rate data and card comparisons.
We are not a bank, a lender or a financial adviser, and nothing here is personalized financial advice. We publish terms and analysis to help you compare offers. The decision, and the application, is yours.