Hello Friends:

I recently got a balance transfer of 20,000$ for one year from chase with a 75$ transaction fee and 0% APR.
What would one do with?
here are my options - please advise:

a) Put in Savings account
Put in CD's
c) Invest in stock market - risky - market is Ok ok and might be worth the risk.
d) do nothing
e)...
f)...

Mod's please delete if inappropriate.

Thanks

avoid c and d for sure
since the money is 0% for a year I would think a 1 yr cd may be the best

Because this is 'borrowed' money I would not recommend anything risky -

a 20k CD @ 3.5% for 1yr ~ $700
goes up to $800 if @ 4%

Wachovia recently had a 1 year CD for 5% - may want to check their rates.

wackyducky, wheel, IamAddicted - Thanks for all the inputs!
I agree this is borrowed money - and might not be worth taking too much risk.
CD's might be the way to go.

However the interest earned looks very meager but it is still free money.. and I should not complain

Put it all on black.

j/k

Savings acct or CD would be the way to go.

If you do the CDs thing, make sure you leave enough out of the CDs to cover the monthly payments.

You can have a look at my recent 0% APR spree (still ongoing) where I did what you're suggesting, on a much larger scale. I put the money into a combination of CD's and Countrywide High Yield Savings (currently: 3.65%)

Yes. Chase minimum monthly payments are between 2.5-4% of the balance, so this will be approximately $350-400 (or more) per month on a $20,000 balance. Also keep in mind that (with Chase especially) it's wise not to exceed 90% of your credit limit on one card.

Yup- Have to factor the monthly payment of 400$2. The 0% APR spree link is fantastic
Thanks to all for the valuable suggestions and things to watch out for..

although the stock market is volatile right now, check companies that give high cash dividends. one of them is ferrelgas. it gives 9% cash dividends quarterly, IIRC. that's higher than any bank can offer for CD rates. ferrelgas price per share do not also fluctuate drastically like other stocks.

as always, I believe in spreading your assets no matter how tempting it is to put them all in a higher yielding investment program. I don't believe in using OPM (other people's money/borrowing money) to build wealth, either.