Cash Advance Checks
Some credit cards that offer 0% balance transfers also come with the perk of 0% cash advance checks. The general idea with these is that you may use the checks as a manual balance transfer, meaning that you can write the check to a credit card company where you have a high balance and keep the account open. In many cases, if you do a standard balance transfer transaction, the account that you transferred the balance from will be closed. If you use a cash advance check, you may leave the card open. The typical fee associated with a cash advance check for this particular transaction is 3% of the total.

The other option with a cash advance check is that you may write the check out to yourself and deposit it directly into your bank account and use it as cash. If you have a bank account with Bank of America and you deposit a cash advance check into your account from a Bank of America credit card, the funds are usually available the next business day. However, just as with balance transfers, a 3% charge for the total amount will be charged in addition to the amount you write the check for. If you opt to perform this, it is important to be aware of the fee as the end-result may turn out to be disastrous. For example, let's say that you have a credit limit on your Bank of America credit card of $5000. If you write a cash advance check for $4900, the resulting balance on your Bank of America card will be $5047 because you will be charged 3% which will be $147. In this scenario, you will have exceeded your available credit limit and may result in numerous fees AND loss of the 0% term for the cash advance check. Additionally, the go-to rate for cash advances is usually higher than the variable purchase rate, so you may end up paying more in interest than you would have otherwise.