Canada’s New Best Balance Transfer Offer: 0% for 18 Months

There's a new best balance transfer offer in Canada. The BMO Preferred Rate Mastercard goes far beyond what anyone in Canada is offering – 0% for the first 18 months, with a 2% transfer fee.

Very few cards even offer 0%, and no one is offering anything longer than a year. And while this card does have a $29 annual fee, it's waived for the first year.

New BMO Preferred Rate Mastercard balance transfer offer

This balance transfer offer is like nothing we've ever really seen in Canada. Very few issuers even offer 0% offers. And the rare ones that do, don't extend the low rate beyond a year.

You can now get 18 months of interest savings on any credit card debt you may have. To put that in context, say you have $5,000 in debt, and you could pay $300 per month towards paying it off.

If your interest rate is 21.99%, it would take you 20 months to pay it off, and you've paid roughly $1,021 in interest.

If you take up BMO on their offer, you'll first have to pay a 2% fee to transfer the amount – $100. But your debt gets paid in 17 months. You've basically saved yourself $900 in interest when you account for the fact that you will have had to pay 1 annual fee of $29.

You can compare your own specific scenario using our interest calculator.

Key balance transfer rules

There are a few rules to be aware of when it comes to balance transfer offers.

The first one: you can't transfer credit card balances with credit cards from the same bank. For this offer, if your debt is on a BMO credit card, you can't use this offer.

This rule also applies to subsidiaries as well. For example, if you have debt on your TD card, you can't transfer it to MBNA, since MBNA is owned by TD Bank. Same deal for Tangerine and Scotiabank. BMO doesn't have a subsidiary bank, so as long as your debt isn't with BMO directly, you can take advantage of this offer.

The next rule: Once you make your transfer, do not use your card until your debt is paid. If you continue to make purchases, all your payments typically go towards the balance with the lower rate, and you'll still be paying high interest on your new purchases.

Finally: Check when you have to make your balance transfer. Some cards give you a couple of months, others require you to make the transfer when you apply.

With BMO, the balance transfer rate is in effect for the full 18 months – make a transfer whenever you like within that period to get the lower rate.

Other top balance transfer offers

Credit card debt with BMO? There are still plenty of other top offers. Here's how the BMO Preferred Rate Mastercard offer compares to other offers from different banks.

Read more about Canada's best balance transfer offers.

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