Making the Most of Chase Slate to Deal With Debt

If you’re paying huge finance charges on credit card balances and need breathing room to execute a get-out-of-debt plan, you’d be hard-pressed to do better than transferring balances to the Chase Slate^®.

The Chase Slate^® is one of the few major credit cards that for a limited period doesn’t charge balance transfer fees. It also has a lengthy introductory 0% interest period.

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With that one-two punch, the Chase Slate^® essentially lets you carry a balance for free while you develop a strategy to pay it off. However, it’s only good for transfers from non-Chase cards, and you can’t transfer more than $15,000.

The Chase Slate^® has no sign-up bonus or spending rewards, but its annual fee is $0, so the upside is all about what you don’t pay, not what the card pays you.

So, if you have the Chase Slate^® or are thinking about getting it, be sure to optimize the use of its headline features and reap other goodies the card has to offer. Here’s how to get the most out of your Chase Slate^®.

Make free balance transfers

Balance transfer fees charged by most credit cards are typically 3% to 5% of the amount transferred. On a $10,000 transfer, that would cost you $300 to $500. The Chase Slate^®, however, has a $0 introductory balance transfer fee for the first 60 days and offers a 0% Intro APR for 15 months on purchases and balance transfers, and then the ongoing APR of 13.24%-23.24% Variable.

Once you pass the 60-day mark, balance transfers incur a fee of 5% of the amount transferred, or $5, whichever is greater. So make transfers soon after opening the account. The dollar amount of transfers cannot exceed your credit limit or $15,000, whichever is lower.

It’s relatively painless to add this card to your wallet, as it charges a $0 annual fee and is available to applicants with average credit.

Create a debt-freedom plan

Use the time afforded by the free balance transfer and 0% introductory APR to develop a debt-elimination plan, figuring out ways to save money in your household budget to reduce the card balance before interest kicks in. You shouldn’t be using this card just to “surf” by repeatedly shifting balances to new cards without reducing them.

Chase offers help to develop a debt-free strategy with Blueprint, an online program that allows you to create a personalized plan for paying off your debt. It’s available free to Chase Slate^® cardholders. You can monitor your progress online and via statements, while tracking spending trends with the Track It tool.

Find your FICO for free

Keep track of your creditworthiness with access to your FICO credit score — the data used by most lenders. FICO scores, for which some vendors charge a fee, are provided free every month to Chase Slate^® cardholders. Chase provides FICO scores based on information from Experian, one of three major credit bureaus in the United States. In addition, the Chase Credit Dashboard allows you to view the factors influencing your score.

Use temporary free money (if you must)

The Chase Slate^® also offers a lengthy interest-free period for purchases, which is ideal for times of big expenses and little cash. However, adding new charges you can’t immediately pay off will increase your liability and slow your progress toward becoming debt-free.

Note the side benefits

While the Chase Slate^® doesn’t have the points, miles or cash-back benefits of rewards cards, it does include an array of perks, including price, purchase and extended warranty protections. Price protection reimburses you the price difference when you buy an item that goes on sale within 90 days of purchase, limited to $500 per item and a maximum of $2,500 per year. Purchase protection reimburses you when your new items are damaged or stolen, limited to $500 per item and $50,000 per account in the first 120 days. The extended warranty adds an additional year to qualifying manufacturers’ warranties of up to three years.

The  Chase Slate^® isn’t right for everybody. It’s a poor choice for people who pay their balances in full every month. But it’s a useful tool for those struggling with debt and needing a breather from crippling finance charges — especially if they use all the perks that the card offers.

Gregory Karp is a staff writer at NerdWallet, a personal finance website. Email: gkarp@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @spendingsmart.