There's been a lot of press lately about the demise of balance transfer credit cards. The reports of their death, to use an old quote, have been greatly exaggerated. Balance transfer credit cards have changed considerably, but they're far from gone and not likely to be going anywhere anytime soon. If you've been considering cutting your interest payments by transferring the balances on your high interest credit cards to one with a special balance transfer deal, here's what's going on in the world of balance transfer credit cards.

For years, credit card companies were able to build their business by enticing new customers from the ranks of those who'd never held plastic before. But with the numbers of credit cards in circulation rising and the average Brit carrying four different cards in his or her wallet, they've had to get competitive with each other. Thus was born the marketing tactic of offering 0% interest for any balance transferred from a competitor's credit card to a new card.

Those 0% balance transfer deals were greeted enthusiastically by the public – a bit more enthusiastically than the issuers of those cards expected. They missed a vital point in their calculations – customers who switch cards for a better rate of interest have already given up brand loyalty in the interest of getting the best deal. When the 0% interest ran out, they simply moved their remaining balances to another card. To counter that, the big credit card companies started modifying their offers with restrictions designed to keep people from jumping from card to card following the best rate