Refinance using a Credit Card Offer?

Lately I’ve been toying with the idea of paying off my auto loan with one of those checks from a credit card company boasting a 3.9% rate for the life of the balance.

My current auto loan rate is 5.35%. Not great, but not that bad either. Total balance right now is just over $8k. I don’t have a payment due until 2008 though I’m still overpaying what my regular statement would require each month.

Currently, I get dinged for around $1.20 in interest each day on that loan. That sucks.

Using the promo check, and for simplicity sake ignoring the transaction fee I’m sure is in the fine print, I’d get hit for around $0.89 per day.

Over the span of a year, and, again, for simplicity sake, assuming the balance never dropped, that’d work out to a $113 savings (or 31 cents per day).

Not having the paperwork in front of me, the transaction fee attached to the convenience check is probably $99 — if not 3% which is a staggering $243 — no matter how you slice it, it’s not worth the hassle and I’d likely ending up paying more, even with the lower rate.

Wacky how that works.