Received a 0% offer in the mail last week. Two offers in one. Both 0% but the longer payback had a "phantom" transaction fee. The paperwork on the front of the transfer checks said $0 transaction fee for both offers. The flip side said the longer payback had a 3% fee. I called CS and they reiterated the fee regardless of what the mailing said.

Any advice on how or if I should pursue this? The longer payback was for almost 18 months. The longer payback would be a great deal

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%.

I am referring to the transaction fee. The reason I used the phrase phantom fee is because of the wording on the front of the offer and the contradictory wording on the reverse side that spells out the fee.

I am not sure whether it is worth fighting for the 0% on the front of the offer

Just to make sure:

You're not going to use this card for any purchases during the whole time this 0% is in effect, right?

Keep in mind you should never mix BTs and purchases on the same card (at the same time), because the only way you get no interest charge on purchases is if you pay off the whole card (not just the purchases) in full every month. That's impossible if you're trying to keep a BT going.

And any purchases will incur the high (regular) interest rate, not the BT rate. So if you make a purchase while you have the BT open, you'll immediately get dinged at a high interest rate (on the purchase), and it'll start from the day of purchase (because you're carrying a BT on the same card).

And perhaps the same with the annual fee (if you get charged one while the BT is in effect)? That one I'm not sure about (I've never dared take out a BT on a card with an annual fee that would come up while the BT was in effect).

Excellent and important comment from sdsearch^^^ Make sure you have zero balance on your credit card account before doing a zero% transfer and put the card in your drawer.