Pay Down Your Mortgage Faster and Enjoy 0% Intro APR Credit Card Balance Transfer

For those of us born into a family of modest means, the decision to buy a home isn’t an easy one. First, there’s the burden of taking on long-term debt in the form of a mortgage. Then there’s the stress of accumulating enough cash to make a down payment. Then there’s moving expenses, furnishing the home, property taxes, insurance, utility bills – it all adds up to a serious financial strain. It’s no wonder, then, that many homeowners feel that paying one’s mortgage balance down to zero as fast as possible is the single most important financial goal one should have in life. Of course, the best way to get a mortgage balance down to zero faster is to work hard, live frugally and use cash to make extra mortgage payments on a regular basis. However, one should also consider using a credit card with a rewards program that passively transfers earned rewards dollars to the cardholder’s mortgage company, like the Citi® Home Rebate Platinum Select® MasterCard or the Bank of America Home Advantage World MasterCard® with WorldPoints® Rewards.

These two cards are destined to be popular with homeowners. As long as the cardholder can pay his or her entire balance in full at the end of each month, these cards can really help homeowners improve their mortgage situation and, by extension, their finances in general. By paying down a mortgage balance with extra payments, or in this case with accumulated rewards dollars, homeowners can:

• Build home equity faster. This is crucial in the current U.S. real estate environment. The more equity you have in your home, the less likely you are to run into problems if at some point you want to sell, refinance, or get a second mortgage (a home equity loan or a home equity line of credit.) A number of experts have recently predicted that the American real estate environment won't improve until 2009.
  
  
  
• Lower the total amount of interest that will be paid on the loan. If you take the example of a $250,000 mortgage with a 30 year term and a typical interest rate, the savings can be in the many thousands of dollars.
  
  
• Payoff a mortgage faster. This is optimal for anyone with a mortgage, but especially optimal for homeowners who plan on using the equity in their home to help fund retirement, or as a vehicle for passing on wealth to their offspring.
  
  

Currently, the fee for transferring credit card balances to the Bank of America Home Advantage MasterCard is 3%, with a minimum of $10 and no maximum. However, the card offers a 12 month, 0% Introductory Annual Percentage Rate (APR) on Balance Transfers and Cash Advance Checks.

With the Citi® Home Rebate card, you can transfer credit card balances at 0% Intro APR for 12 months, and, currently, you don't have to pay a balance transfer fee for the initial balance transfer.