15 Month Balance Transfer Cards

Compass Plus Conducts Product Performance Tests On IBM System p™

Compass Plus' TranzWare online is an efficient and fault-tolerant to the switching, routing and authorization parametric electronic payments. The system was tested in a stress scenario treatment containing a database of 100 million customers, accounts and maps, respectively, and simulate up to 60,000 terminals, including devices and ATM outlets. Payment terminals made purchases and ATM transactions, 85 percent were cash withdrawals and 15 percent were balance inquiry.

All terminals functioned continuously in full emulation mode with limit checks, commission calculations and performance of full authorization in stand-in mode and authentication of cardholders, among other parameters. The ATMs were monitored by the system in full online mode. During the tests, TranzWare Online achieved 1,050 business transactions per second (TPS), with a peak of 8,000 logical TPS. TranzWare Online demonstrated 100 percent stability during the hour and a half of peak load.

TranzWare CMS provides financial institutions with automated management of the issuance and circulation of payment cards, as well as bank and merchant acquiring. The testing, which simulated six months worth of live transaction data and associated batch procedures, demonstrated that TranzWare CMS is capable of running all end-of-month procedures in less than eight hours on a statement day, and no more than six hours on a standard day, for 20 million active credit cards. The maximum volume of transactions in the Oracle database exceeded 5,000 TPS. The system was tested using a variety of data sets, such as overdue and non-overdue accounts, as well as active and blocked cards.

“Reliability, security and maximum return on investment are among the most essential requirements in banking and payment technology,” said Doug Varble, North American vice president of Compass Plus. “Being one of few companies in the world to put our products through these stringent tests is evidence that Compass Plus is dedicated to providing our customers with solutions to keep their institutions running and fulfilling customers needs around the clock.”

The IBM System p™ mainframe system provides scalable performance with easy-to-grow modular systems and flexible workload optimization ensuring cost-effective infrastructure.

February 2011 Balance Transfer Credit Card Report

For the first time in over six months, the average balance transfer offers 0% and the average balance transfer fees have remained unchanged from the previous month. Due to the expiry of two limited-time offers from Discover Mars this month, with January, may be the best month in 2011 for consumers looking to take advantage of 0% APR offer transfer balance.

As in January, the best deals on balance transfer in February promotions are limited time to explore.The first offers a card with no balance transfer fee, offers an interest rate of 0% for 12 months on balance transfers and purchases. This is probably the best deal for consumers, such as lack of a savings balance transfer fee increases from $ 30 to $ 50 for every $ 1 000 transferred. On a balance transfer $ 4000, this translates into an additional $ 120 - $ 200 savings on top of what can be saved with an interest rate of 0%.

The offer the longest balance transfer in February has also discovered and lasts 24 months. However, this card is not free balance transfer 5%. The second longest offer, a 0% APR for 18 months available on the Citi Platinum Select Card , comes with a lower 3% fee.  On a $4,000 balance transfer, opting for the Citi card saves consumers $80 in fees upfront, making that card a better option for those who know they can repay the bulk of their outstanding credit card debt in 18 to 21 months. However, consumers who will need two years or more are likely better off choosing the Discover offer, as they can likely save more in interest than they will spend on the upfront balance transfer fee.

For complete details on these offers, please see the 0% APR balance transfer section of SmartBalanceTransfers.com where you can learn more and apply.