When you say phantom fee are you talking about the % transfer fee charged? A few years ago almost all the card companies capped these fees at $50 or $100 so if you had a large zero percentage transfer balance offer it was a good deal. Now not only are the transfer fees not capped but I have seen them as high as 4%. It was not until the recent US Air offer that I see the transfer fee is was down to 1% with no cap but my offer was for well over a year at 0%.