I have been holding a HDFC Bank Superia Credit card from last few years. About 2 yrs back I was chased by one of their executives for a "Balance Transfer(BT)" offer. I was told while the existing rate of interest on my credit card transactions is 3.49% per month the BT will help me reduce the interest burden by providing a rate of interest of 1.5% per month.
I fell into the trap of accepting this and converting my balance into a BT EMI option. While I have been paying a principal balance+ interest for the last over 2 yrs what I totally missed was the fact that whenever my other transaction balance got carried forward, the entire balance transfer EMI amount(principal+ interest) used to get treated as a transaction balance and get charged at 3.49% rate of interest. This meant I was paying interest TWICE on the same outstanding - once as a BT EMI and another time as a transaction amount. Had I continued to just pay the regular interest of 3.49%/month instead of this 3.49+ 1.5= 4.99% rate of interest per month.
Strangely no one ever explained me this dubious way of calculating interest till I figured it out myself. Wait . its not over Yet. In addition to this the BT EMI amount every month NEVER shows up in the monthly statement . which is again a clever strategy by the bank to avoid this from your attention.
HDFC has been bleeding customers under the guise of this beautiful option of "BALANCE TRANSFER EMI". Friends, this is real real dangerous day light robbery by a bank I have seen in my life. So please stay away from it!
Instead of getting cheated by this very Indian Desi bank its better to be with foreign banks like HSBC or Standard Chartered . They might be strict in the late fees but will not loot your money behind your back.