I've always looked on credit card "convenience checks" with suspicion.
It's a scam: they loan the mark money with predatory advertisements like "take that
vacation you could never afford", then charge them 19.9% interest to
pay the loan off.
First USA just sent me an offer to write a check for over $15,000
at 4% fixed APR for the life of the balance.
There are a few catches, but they
aren't terrible:
- 3% of the value of the check is charged as a fee, but it's capped
at $50.
- If I screw up a payment in any way, including if I "pay another
creditor late", I lose the good rate.
- Any payments I make on the card first go to this loan, and only
later go to pay off normal charges that bear a higher interest rate
I've never been in debt to a credit card company and don't have any
need to start now. Still, $15,000 at 4% with
no collateral and no payment term is a pretty good deal.