The End of 0%? Reining in 'Credit Card Roulette'

Oct. 7, 2009— -- About a year ago, Buffalo, N.Y., native John Gallivan did what a lot of Americans with mounting credit card debts are inclined to do -- he switched cards and transferred his balance, taking advantage of an introductory offer from another card company dangling zero percent interest for one year.

"Of course, I just realized that the new rate had kicked in," the 43-year-old Erie County sheriff's deputy said. "Now the APR is 15.9 percent. Time to look into another balance transfer offer."

Legions of consumers have spent the past decade "credit shopping" -- shifting often ever-larger balances to new cards to defer debt payments and avoid huge interest fees. Now, such "shoppers," many of whom have deferred their debts purely to stay afloat in a teetering economy, could soon find it harder and more expensive to transfer balances.

With a host of new legislatively mandated protections for credit card holders under the Credit Card Act of 2009 set for February 2010, the banking industry is already curbing "zero percent interest" introductory rates, and, in some cases, hiking one-time balance transfer fees.

"The credit card roulette game has been around for a long time and many Americans have played it -- but the game is changing dramatically," says Bill Hardekopf, CEO of LowCards.com, an aggregator of credit card information geared toward consumers.

Hardekopf and other industry experts are noticing that one-time balance transfer fees, which used to be 1 to 2 percent, and in more recent years have been at around 3 percent, are going up: Bank of America has upped its one-time balance transfer fee from 3 to 4 percent while Chase has moved, in some cases, to 5 percent.

In addition, offers of zero percent rates for up to one year have in most cases over the past year been reduced to just six months.

Ben Woolsey, director of marketing and consumer research at Austin, Texas-based CreditCards.com, a Web site that compares credit cards, urges consumers to closely read the terms and conditions. "Issuers don't intentionally bait and switch, but they are allowed to advertise their best rate and use terms like 'as low as' and other caveats, so when you apply, always be careful -- the devil is in the details."