Will I always be able to get a zero-interest credit card?
(Note this question presupposes that my credit score will always be high enough to qualify for a 0% interest card).
I've taken to using the introductory 0% interest rates on credit cards to my advantage - finding them to be a nice place to park large purchases, especially those made with shops and service-providers that don't normally offer financing themselves. The 0% period is usually 12 months, but some are 15 or 21 months.
For the past 3 years I've obtained a number of 0% interest cards from different banks, especially store-cards like Amazon, Macys, Lovesac, and Apple (an Apple-branded card from BarclayCardUS). Amazon and Lovesac are both rebranded Synchrony cards, and Macys is "DSNB" - their own in-house financing company. I also have 0% Citi card which has a generous 21 month period.
You might notice that these are all from different banks - supposing I get a Bank-of-America 0% card this year, and a WellsFargo card the following year - after a few more years I will have a card from every major bank in the US.
I'm assuming I can continue to do this provided a new 0% credit card offer comes along at least once a year, but eventually I'll need a second 0% card from a bank I already have one from.
...will banks eventually stop issuing 0% cards to me because I already have one, even if it's a different card range (e.g. Citi Simplicity vs Citi Diamond Preferred)?
(Note that I do pay at least the minimum payment every month and always pay-off the balance entirely at least a month before the 0% period ends).
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After looking at the comments, and your replies it seems that your mind is made up: "You will always be able to obtain 0% credit, and nothing bad will ever happen".
Credit cards that offer 0% on balance transfers are very rare. Most have a transfer fee of some kind, which acts like an interest rate. This is a change that probably happened 10 years ago without much fanfare. From this you can draw a lesson: what changes will come in the future?
This site and others a full of "tales of woe" where people were playing musical chairs with credit, and when the music stopped, there was no chairs in sight. Job loss, medical expenses, unexpected taxes, natural disasters can all effect one's ability to make payments on time and happen. Once payments start being missed or are late, things tend to avalanche from there. It has happened to me, and loved ones. The pain and suffering is not worth it. Get out of debt.
You claim that you are investing the money instead of paying on the debt, and you are making the delta between your prevailing investment rate 7%. Did you include the balance transfer fee in your calculations?
First off your investments could lose money. While 2015 was mostly flat, we have not had a correction in a long time. Some say we are long overdue.
Secondly, how much money are we really talking about here? Say there is not a balance transfer fee, you could be guaranteed 7%, and you are floating K. Congratulations in this mythical scenario you just made 0.
If 0 changes your life dramatically perhaps it is time for a second job. This way you can earn that every two weeks (working part time) rather than every year. Now that will really change your life. By applying this amount of mental energy to make 0, what opportunities are you missing?
Pay off the debt, you will be much better off in the long run.
No. There is no guarantee that credit card issuing banks will always use 0% introductory rates to entice anyone.
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