Last reviewed 2026-09-02

About this site

Balance Transfer Calculator is a single-purpose tool at balancetransfercalculator.com. It answers one question with arithmetic: given real balances, real APRs and the real terms of a transfer offer, does moving the debt leave someone better off than paying the same amount without moving it? The site launched in September 2026 and is run independently.

Most balance transfer pages are built to sell a card. The calculator is a warm-up act and the answer is always some version of yes. That is a bad way to treat someone who is stressed about debt. This site is built the other way round: the tool comes first, the verdict says "not worth it" whenever the numbers say so, and there is nothing to click through to at the end.

What the calculator does differently

Four things separate it from the calculators that rank above it today.

• An honest baseline. The comparison is not transfer versus minimum payments. It is transfer versus paying the same monthly amount on the existing cards. That separates the effect of paying more from the effect of transferring, which is where most published calculators quietly overstate the benefit.
• Three break-even outputs. The break-even transfer fee percentage, the month the transfer moves ahead, and the monthly payment at which the verdict flips. One number rarely settles a decision. These three show how much room there is before the answer changes.
• Disclosed compounding. Interest is charged monthly on the opening balance at APR divided by 12, with a daily periodic option that runs 1% to 2% higher over a year. The choice is stated on the methodology page rather than left for anyone to guess at.
• Cited defaults. Every prefilled number carries a source and a retrieval date: the average APR from the Federal Reserve G.19 series, fee ranges from the LendingTree fee study and the CFPB Consumer Credit Card Market Report. Payment allocation follows 12 CFR 1026.53, which sends anything above the minimum to the highest-APR balance.

How the numbers are produced and reviewed

The maths lives in one small calculation engine with unit tests, published in the site's public repository. The same code produces the headline verdict, the month-by-month schedules and the charts, so the three can never disagree with each other. The engine's outputs are checked against issuer cardmember agreements and against CFPB market data, and the methodology page prints every formula the engine uses, including the ones that make the answer less flattering.

Written pages follow the sourcing and correction rules on the editorial policy page. In short: primary sources with retrieval dates, no card names next to rates or fees, quarterly review of the default figures, and a dated note on the page whenever a correction is made.

What this site will not do

• No personalised advice. Results are arithmetic on the inputs given. They are not a recommendation, and nothing here accounts for an individual's credit profile, income stability or what else is going on in their finances.
• No commission-driven card lists. There will be no "best balance transfer cards" ranking whose order is set by what pays most. If offers ever appear, the criteria behind any ordering will be published and the calculator's arithmetic will stay untouched by them.
• No approval-odds claims. Nothing on this site will say pre-approved, guaranteed or instant approval.
• No accounts and no data collection. There is nothing to sign up for. Calculator inputs stay in the page URL and are never sent anywhere.

At launch there are no affiliate relationships and no advertising of any kind. The advertiser disclosure explains what would change if that ever stops being true.

Who writes this

[Author name and credentials to be added]

Until that line is filled in, pages carry the site itself as publisher rather than a named byline. Naming a person who does not exist would be the exact kind of trust signal this site is trying not to fake.

Reporting an error

Errors in the arithmetic are the most useful thing anyone can send. Email [email protected] with the shareable URL from the calculator, which carries every input, plus the figure that looks wrong and the figure expected instead. Confirmed calculation errors are fixed in the engine, covered by a test so they cannot come back, and noted with a date on the affected page. The contact page has the full details.