I had this idea that I want to put out there. It’s not totally fleshed out and I realize that there are potentially some downsides but for the right people the upsides may outweigh the downsides. Also I may be completely misunderstanding something so feel free to (nicely) point that out. I’m always getting offers for credit cards with many months of 0% interest. If I know for sure that I have the money to pay of those credit cards every month, would it make sense to just pay the minimum monthly payment and take the rest of the money that would have gone to pay of the full amount for that month and put it in a high interest making account. Then when the 0% interest promotion is over, pay off the full amount and start again with another 0% interest card. Assuming that I was actually disciplined about this and really put aside the money and didn’t touch it until the credit card needed to be fully paid off, wouldn’t this be free money?

Yes. Depending how much much you spend this may or may not be worth the hassle, but it is definitely free money. Only real concern assuming you are disciplined and really have the money to pay off the card is that high credit usage will lower your credit score, but if you aren't buying a house in the next few months I see no issue with this.

I believe if you miss it by even a day you pay interest on the entire thing. Personally for me that wouldn't be worth the risk. Let's assume you spend $5k/mo on credit cards. If instead of paying it you got 3.5% in a HYSA. Assuming the promo is for 12 months you would have accrued about $1k (or $80/mo) in gains. If you miss paying by a day and the interest rate is 25% you'll owe $7.5k in interest Alternatively you could churn Chase Ink credit cards (they have no annual fee) and get $750 worth in points for every $6k you spend. That's a much better rate of return.

chase ink has 0% intro offers, best of both worlds

If you spend $50k, the $10k probably isn't doing much for you, and you're risking owing $75k. It's the same math, just a different scale.

You're saying you can do that with the ink cards again and again?

Another point is that you'll probably hit the max and eventually they'll stop raising the limit

Interesting that would change the calculus. Anyway I'm sure there is an infinite list of things that are better worth your time and energy. That doesn't take away in my mind from it being a valid idea. I wouldn't do it myself because it sounds too annoying to deal with and too stressful.

@clean-activity-38399 are you sure you’re correct about the payment in full if late? I believe it would just begin to accrue interest daily at the rate of apr/365, also it will only allow you to spend a certain amount on the card, 60k is very high for a chase ink although I guess anything is possible

@powerful-butcher-25898 I am innocent, but to answer your question. https://money.usnews.com/credit-cards/articles/what-is-deferred-interest-and-how-does-it-work#:~:text=Deferred%20interest%20is%20when%20your%20interest%20payments%20are%20essentially%20placed,on%20the%20original%20$5%2C000%20balance.

right, but these cards are 0% apr, not deferred interest. I see deferred interest most commonly with stores trying to sell you on large appliances etc, either with a built-in program or by signing you up for one of their store cards.

There's also a discussion here

Anyone interested in a bot to take care of this automatically? 😂