Cards With No Fees For Balance Transfers

Are 5% Savings Accounts from Prepaid Card Companies Good Deals?

Savers might not think about prepaid debit card companies as a place for their savings. But with advertised 5.00% savings accounts, it might make you want to take a look. NetSpend is one company that has long advertised a 5.00% APY on its savings account, and I just came across Mango which is advertising a 5.10% APY. Is it possible that these can be good deals for savers? In my preliminary review of these, I think there are too many potential gotchas.

My first review of NetSpend was in February 2010. As I described in that post, NetSpend has been offering this 5% APY since 2008. Most savers have probably never heard about NetSpend. This Austin Statesman article has a good overview of the company:

NetSpend doesn't have many details on this savings account on its website . There are some details in the small print at the bottom of their front page. It states that the savings account are issued by Inter National Bank (for INB Prepaid Cardholders) and by MetaBank (for MetaBank Prepaid Cardholders). Both of these banks are FDIC members. Here are the account details as described in the small print:

The two important things to note in the small print are that there's an unspecified cap on the balance and card transactions fees could reduce the interest. More reviews of the fees were done in this 2010 Fatwallet thread.

A balance cap is a major issue that can make a high yield of little value. Unlike Netspend, Mango is more open on its balance cap. Here's what it states in the small print:

Based on the small print, I don't think these prepaid card savings accounts are the good deals like what many readers received from Citibank and its 4.07% 18-month CD that was part of the secured credit card program . Several readers were able to open one or more of these CDs with $25K in each CD. However, as you can see in this Citi 4% Secured CD thread, there were many concerns about quickly receiving the money at maturity. Most of Citibank customer service representatives had little experience with this CD and often gave different answers to questions. According to one reader, "8 out of 10 people I had contact with could NOT answer my simple questions." Just like that Citibank CD deal, you may be able to profit from these prepaid card savings accounts. However, just like that CD deal, don't expect it to be a hassle-free experience. It's very likely that the extra interest that you earn won't make up for the extra hassles and worries.

Credit Cards Balance – Reports Revealed Increase In Average ...

With the expiration of a limited time offer no balance transfer fee discover, the average balance transfer fee has increased slightly in March. Despite this change, Mars has proved to be a good month to consumers seeking long-term 0% balance transfer deal as a number of credit cards have increased the duration of their 0% APR transfer offers Balance, said in his SmartBalanceTransfers.com New Balance transfer credit card report for March 2011.

Average balance transfer fees in March rose 3.36% to 3.47%, while the average length of 0% APR cards, balance transfer credit interviewed in March also increased slightly to 11.64 months. The main determinants of these changes have been the end of Discover offers no transfer fee balance and extension of introductory rates on both versions of a dividend of Citibank Card.

Discover Although no offer transfer fee balance end Feb. 28, the company chose to continue their 24 month 0 balance transfer card - an extremely popular offering is six months longer than any other currently available market.Citibank offers three different cards zero percent balance transfer 18 months. Although six months shorter than Discover offers, these cards offer a benefit to some consumers, such as Discover is currently bearing the costs of balance of 5% on the transfer of its 24 month offer, while Citi is responsible for fee 3% balance transfer.

With the free card, a $ 5,000 balance transfer commits $ 250 transfer fee. The same transfer is only $ 150 with Citibank cards.Therefore, consumers who can pay most of their outstanding debt in 18 months or less can save more by choosing the short transfer balance 18 months and pay a smaller fee transfer.

Overall, March was another good month for consumers looking for balance transfers, but not as good as in January or February because of the absence of the Holy Grail of all credit cards - 0% fees April no card credit balance transfer. However, even if paying a fee balance transfer is again a need, additional months provided by the 18 - and 24-month deals more than compensate for the cost of the initial transfer of balance.