The Best Credit Card for Paying off Serious Credit Card Debt (2024)

A balance transfer credit card that gives a window to pay off your credit card balance interest-free can be a great way to get out of debt. But what if you need more time to pay off what you owe?

Most cards dramatically increase your interest rate as soon as the promotional offer ends. The upshot is that, if you can’t pay off all of what you owe during that period, you’ll need a card not just with an attractive introductory rate—but with a low regular rate too. If that’s your situation, the Navy Federal Credit Union card offers a great solution.

The card lacks one key benefit most top balance-transfer cards boast about. There is no 0% introductory offer. Instead, you pay 0.99% APR for the first 12 months. But for many borrowers, who can’t expect to pay off their debts any time soon, this card has some advantages that more than make up for it: a 0% balance transfer fee and a regular APR that’s one of the lowest on the market.

We ran the math and we think that, for many long-term borrowers this card will actually offer a cheaper route out of debt than competitors that offer flashier 0% APR windows. It’s why we named Navy Federal Credit Union the best balance-transfer card for long-term financing.

There are some things to know about this card. Navy Federal is a credit union, and you must join to sign up for its credit cards. Still, membership is open to those who have an affiliation with the U.S. armed forces or the Department of Defense.

You also qualify for membership if you are an immediate family member of someone with an affiliation. Navy Federal Credit Union has a broad definition of immediate family; the credit union considers grandparents, parents, spouses, siblings, grandchildren, children (including adopted and stepchildren) and household members to be immediate family.

Still, if you don’t qualify for Navy Federal Credit Union membership, there are plenty of other options. More on those below.

How this card helps you get out of debt

To find the best balance transfer credit cards, we assumed your aim was to pay off a significant amount of credit card debt—for simplicity we picked $5,000—as quickly and cheaply as possible. We also considered other card benefits like points or miles, but we regarded these as a secondary concern, since cost of credit card debt typically swamps the value of any rewards you might earn.

Our balance-transfer picks tended to have long introductory 0% APR offers—with the most generous around 18 months—allowing you to retire your debt during that time interest free, paying only a balance transfer fee. But in order to pay down a $5,000 debt in just a year and a half, you would need to commit more than $285 a month, even without worrying about interest.

What if you could only afford $100 a month? In that case you would only be able to pay off $1,800 at the end of an 18-month interest-free period, and you would be stuck facing your credit card’s standard interest rate. In that scenario, we found the Navy Federal card has the advantage against other balance transfer credit cards, even our top picks.

If you make $100 payments each month on a $5,000 initial balance transferred to the Navy Federal card, you can pay off your entire balance within 60 months and only pay around $900 in interest, based on the card’s 10.4% APR interest rate, which was current when ran our calculations to evaluate balance-transfer cards in January.

By contrast, making the same payments on a standard credit card with an 18% APR—typical for many credit cards—you would pay more than $4,300 in interest. And it would take almost eight years to pay off the same debt. Even compared to the other credit cards on our list of the best balance transfer cards, you’ll still save a few hundred dollars in interest and fees with the Navy Federal card.

Of course, how much you will save in interest depends on the size of the balance you transfer and how much you can dedicate to paying it off. The more you can dedicate to your payment each month, the less you’ll end up paying in interest. Even paying an extra $10 a month can save you almost $150 in interest over the life of your balance transfer.

Card details you might miss

While Buy Side from WSJ judges balance transfer credit cards primarily on their promotional period, balance transfer fees and ongoing interest rates, some cards can be useful even after their promotional 0% APR periods.

• Access your credit score is included with all Navy Federal credit cards
• No ATM/Cash Advance fees when a cash advance is made at a Navy Federal branch or ATM
• No foreign transaction fee

Who benefits most from the navy federal platinum card?

The Navy Federal Platinum card works best for people who need to finance balances and don’t have the resources to pay them down in a relatively short period of time, such as less than two years. If you need additional time to pay off your credit card balances, transferring a balance to the Navy Federal Platinum card could mean you will pay less in interest and fees than you would with many other balance transfer cards.

If you do have the wherewithal to pay off your balances more quickly, consider the Bank of America Unlimited Cash Rewards card. This card is the WSJ Buy Side pick for Best Overall Balance Transfer Card. It offers an 18-month 0% APR period, longer than the Navy Federal Card, but charges a 3% balance transfer fee.

Navy Federal Credit Union membership is only available to people with a qualifying military affiliation, plus their immediate family. If you don’t qualify for Navy Federal membership but need a card to finance a balance over the long term, look at the Wings Visa Platinum card.

The Wings Visa Platinum has a competitive regular APR and a promotional 0% APR on balance transfers for 12 months. The card is our pick for the Best Balance Transfer Card with No Balance Transfer Fees and is a great next-best choice for long-term financing.

Our balance transfer credit card methodology

To pick Buy Side from WSJ’s Best Balance Transfer Credit Card, we looked for no-annual-fee credit cards offering balance transfers for new customers with 0% APR promotions.

We preferred credit cards with longer balance transfer promotional periods and lower balance transfer initiation fees. Because most consumers will use a credit card while paying down debt, we favored cards that offered 0% APRs on both interest and purchases during their promotional period.

All other things equal, we selected cards that are useful after the promotional balance transfer period because they offer rewards or other benefits.