The other often overlooked factor of balance transfer offers with 0% interest is that most of them charge a transfer fee. The fee can range from 1% to 5% of the amount transferred. This fee can add up, depending on how much money you are transferring. There are some instances when the amount you pay for the balance transfer fee will result in more money paid than if you had just kept your balance on the card it was on and paid interest. To ensure you're actually getting a good deal, you'll want to play with the numbers and determine how much you'll spend for the life of the balance if you keep it on the card it's currently on, or if you move it to the new card with the 0% balance transfer offer, and don't forget to factor in a transfer fee if you have to pay one, and what the interest rate will be at the end of the promotional offer.

Interest free balance transfer offers are also only good as long as you make your payments on time. This is important to keep in mind if you sometimes have difficulty keeping up with your payments, because if you send one a few days late you can lose your 0% interest rate and start paying a much higher interest rate. In order to make balance transfer fees work for you financially, it's actually better to find a low interest balance transfer offer that is fixed for the length of the balance. If you can transfer a few thousand dollars from a credit card with 9% interest or higher, to a card with 1.99% or 3.99% fixed interest on the balance transfer for the life of that balance, you will save hundreds of dollars in interest and actually make out better than the 0% offers (provided you know you can't pay off the entire balance before the 0% offer ends).

Tis' the season for credit card offers! In particular, it seems that from November through February marks an increase in marketing from credit cards you already have- particularly if you haven't been using them in awhile. Credit card companies spend quite a bit of money on marketing to attract new customers-and it's always cheaper to keep customers they have rather than trying to find new customers. What you may find waiting for you in your mailbox is a balance transfer offer from one of the credit cards you already have. The very best balance transfer offers are in the form of checks that offer 0% interest, but there are a number of other offers you might receive with 3.99% interest or 6% interest and no balance transfer fees. All of these offers may actually offer you a good deal depending on what you decide to do with them.

For example, if you were to use a balance transfer check with 3.99% interest and a fee of 3% of your total amount to pay off a credit card or loan with 11% interest- as long as the dollar amount you borow from the balance transfer check is high enough, you're going to be saving enough money to make that a worthwhile fee to pay. You'll also be able to pay off the balance much sooner with the lower interest rate even by making the same amount of payments each month- since more of your payment goes to principal

What many people don't realize is that they can actually get a balance transfer check from one of these low or no interest offers, and deposit the check into their own, personal checking accounts. Once you've deposited the money, you can use it to pay off a variety of debts that you owe that are costing you more than 3.99% interest (or whatever the interest rate is on the balance transfer check offer you've received); and save quite a bit of money! There have been people who purchase cars using a balance transfer check offer. If you're lucky enough to receive an offer for 0% interest on the life of the balance transferred (with checks); you can buy and pay for a car without any cash up front and without paying any interest. How great is that?!

Those surveyed say they pay a total average of $14,628 for college. Both parents and students found great value in a college education, and were overwhelmingly willing to stretch financially to pay for it. However, there were some red flags to the survey, in which the current credit crunch could affect how people pay for college, and whether they will be able to afford it at all. For example, 58 percent of families end up ruling out a college based on its cost. Borrowing from home equity or from credit cards to pay for college was rare, according to the poll, but for those who use those means, they were heavily relied upon. With home values falling and credit card standards tightening, both of those sources of money are harder to come by. Parents and students, especially those in households earning less than $30,000 a year, reported high levels of anxiety over being able to pay for college.

But what if your rate is only a 1 or 2 percentage points higher than the national average and you're more interested in generating investment income during your retirement? Then you might want to keep your mortgage and invest the money. Keep in mind there are different types of investing -- variable and fixed. Variable investing is where you can't only make money, but you can lose money. Stocks, mutual funds, exchange traded funds (ETFs) are among different types of variable investments. With fixed investments, you receive a fixed rate of return and there is some type of assurance that you receive your money back after a period of time. Fixed investments include government bonds, bank CDs, and fixed rate annuities, among others.

Credit card companies on college campuses are as much a part of the new school year as the homecoming game. But what happens when you graduate and find yourself still carrying that low-limit, high interest student Discover Card or the MTV U Platinum plus Visa? Do you need an "adult" card or will the old one do just fine? Experts say it's best to keep the college accounts open -- even if you don't use them anymore. No matter whether your credit experience as a teenager was positive or negative, it's best to establish a credit history and even better to keep one or two cards open for a long time. Student credit cards are big business for companies. Nellie Mae recently reported that 56 percent of undergraduates get their first card at age 18 and 91 percent of students have at least one credit card by their final year.

Card issuers such as Chase have implemented plans to avoid situations like Bryant's. Chase's Plus 1 card gives students "karmic" incentives to do the right financial thing. For example, when a student pays on time, they get karma points which can be collected and used to get free t-shirts or other incentives. Bryant's Mastercard is cut in half and filed away in a manila folder marked "paid in full," while the American Express is hidden in a drawer. Both accounts are open but unused. And now that more than seven years has passed since her delinquent payments, her credit report looks as if she's responsibly owned credit cards since she was 17 with nary a late payment. If you cancel your student credit card after school, it could bring your credit score down.

Student cards tend to have high interest rates and low spending limits. Of the cards included in the weekly CreditCards.com survey, the average student credit card rate has been holding steady at just under 15 percent. Ben Linton, education program manager for Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Greater Atlanta, says he's found student card APRs that range from an introductory rate of 6 percent to 11 percent. A college graduate with a job and a good credit history might qualify for a better interest rate on a different card, Linton says. So, he says, if you are carrying a balance at a high rate of interest, then it's OK to transfer to a low-rate card as long as you read the fine print. Many cards charge a balance transfer fee that is, on average, about 3 percent of the total purchase.