I will agree with you that you will save significant amount of money paying a 3% balance transfer and paying it off before the 15 month intro rate is up. i caution people about taking out any credit if they have current debts at 24%. I understand there was a misunderstanding and you had not intention of having this high of an interest rate, you probably fell into a trap from the ring store/ finanacing company. let me tell you the credit card companies have many of these same traps, maybe not as bad as this one but the reson they offer these big bonuses for signup is they understand how to set traps for one who does not pay attention to details, and they count on peoples lifes being busy so they wont take action right away and they can continue to collect from you.

i am not hear to judge your situation but rather to try to help so that you dont spend more in interest from these cards than the benefits of the miles.

I undertand having your money working for you while you pay zero interst, in fact a few years ago you could get a 5% on saving account via washington mutual, charge up a bunch of mint coins tranfer the account ballance to zero interest credit card and deposit into a 5% earning account. i would be hard pressed to ever earn a rate near 24%.

Before you do this transfer, i would contact the ring store and find out if they have a prepayment penelty on the current plan you are under. i would not put it past them especially if they are currently charging you 24%. I would also verify if they will accept a credti card to payoff the balance. I know the store would have accepted a credit card for the purchase but this is no longer a purchase it is now paying off of a loan. they may charge the credit card as a cash advance, then you will earn no AA miles and get no credit towards the 3000 spend and will be charged a high interest rate from citi.
sometimes digging out of a hole can casue you to be in a bigger hole

Why are there only two options? Earlier you indicated that you were considering paying off the balance in the next month or two, that would be option #3.

The amount of money you "save" is really of no importance. What you need to determine is the opportunity cost of the cash today vs 15 months from now. If it's just going to sit in the bank, there is no way you'll earn enough interest to cover the 3% BT fee. Since you're paying it off in a year investing the cash would be quite risky (same reason why retirees reduce exposure to stock market). Also consider that if you can't pay cash today, but you can pay it in 2 months you will have incurred $240 of interest. If the BT lets you get out from under the interest at least 1.5 months early you break even on the BT fee. Although if you put it on your CC you'll get at least 30 days of float.

Other things to consider, check to make sure that payments to the store will count as purchases and not cash advances (since you're technically paying off a debt). Is it possible to return the ring? If you're not planning on proposing for a few months you could buy it at a later date and save the interest in the interim period. I also wouldn't be surprised if they become a little more flexible with the prospect of losing a sale.

Last thing, if your credit is good enough to churn CCs, why would store financing reject you for 0%? It is my impression they are much more liberal with their credit as it is tied to making a sale. Seems kind of odd.

Ring stores, furniture stores and used car dealers make a large amount of their money on their financing "we can finance anyone" so even with great credit they can charge what they want to and place early payment clauses and late payment clauses into the deal to maximize profits.

Wow, I learned something new today...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoozing

But if you're going to offer 0% financing as the OP indicates, one would think that those with the best credit would be the ones receiving the 0%. I'm not disagreeing that their financing is a terrible deal unless you're on a promo, but if no one qualifies for it, what good does it do? The bait and switch on financing seems very destructive to prospective deals.

Maybe OP can share why they refused him the 0% financing and why they didn't disclose it to him when he made the purchase.

Bait and switch can work very well in the "once in a lifetime" type of purchases. and an engagement ring is supposed to be exactly that. they are not really looking for repeat customers.

Good point. Actually, I have a feeling that you can't use a credit card to pay off a jewelry store credit balance.

Any pics of the ring?:p

Haha wow this thread has really taken an interesting turn. I've been gone for a little over 2 hours and have a million questions to answer :D I'll do my best to answer them all in one post, and I thank you guys for sticking with me!

First of all, sorry for getting a little defensive previously, it's just that I work in the finance industry and tend to take offense if someone assumes I am irresponsible with my money. Thanks for continuing to comment and I appreciate the concern. That is a good thought about the prepayment penalty. I don't think there is one, but I will definitely look into it. As far as accepting a credit card for payment, I do know that this is allowed. This was one of the benefits that they mentioned to me when I bought the ring. I could get the 0% interest through them (so I thought) and pay each month with my American Express and get points. I have made several payments this way so I know that is ok, and doesn't come through as a cash advance.

There aren't only 2 options, I was just playing devil's advocate for the sake of my original question about doing the balance transfer. I am now considering putting the balance on the 2 Citi cards and then paying them off within the billing cycle, thanks to Skibum pointing out that option.

The money won't just be sitting in the bank. I'm sure I am going to get called out for saying this, but I'm involved in an investment venture that averages a 35% return/year. I have not been involved long term, but it has been solid for the past few years. To answer the questions I know are coming, no it is not a Ponzi scheme, and the reason I am not rich and thus care about CC churning is b/c I don't have enough excess capital at the moment to make this a large stream of revenue.

See above re: counting as purchases and not cash advances. As far as returning the ring, I don't think my fiancee would be too keen on that ;).

For the question that you all seem most interested in, why I was rejected for 0%... I wasn't exactly rejected for it. When I bought the ring, the store clerks made it seem like it was just something they were offering, no qualifying criteria. I assumed that I had the 0% for the first few months, as that's what I was told off the bat, and I was making the payments early in the store each month, so never got a statement (don't ask me why). Then one month I was busier than usual so I didn't get to make the payment early and received a statement. This was when I realized I was being charged the ridiculous interest rate. When I called the number on the statement, I was told that the store clerk must have been mistaken and that in order to have qualified for the 0%, I would have had to put down X amount, when I actually only put down Y amount. So it isn't that I didn't qualify credit-wise, it's that I wasn't told how much I needed to put down in order to qualify.

See above re: using the credit card.

I could post a pic if you are really wanna see :D Can't read sarcasm on here lol

Sorry, my response was to a comment above that is out of place when read in its location now. Carry on.

deleted