Balance transfer credit cards are specially designed to attract new customer's from competitor credit cards by offering a hiatus on the interest charged for a specified period to make the transfer attractive. It should be noted that most credit cards now charge a small percentage of the total balance transferred or a fixed fee to inititiate the transfer. Options range from 0% intereest for periods of up to 15 months in some cases or even a highly reduced rate for the life of the transferred balance.