Is it possible to save money by transferring....

i don't know if you can manage something like that, to transfer from higher interest to lower interest and come out on top of that.

i have read that "consolidating" your debts into one sum can do more harm than good. i do not know why, however.

It can help BUT you need to actually pay stuff off, and not use it as an excuse to just buy more stuff (I'm not going after you personally, this is just an observation).

5% (throwing out totally meaningless ##s here, just to give you an idea) on $1,000 debt is $50/yr (yes, the interest compounds, we'll ignore that for the moment).
15% interest on that same $1,000 debt is $150. But if you keep spending, and go up to $3,000 in debt, then 5% interest is $150. So you can easily get yourself back into the same hole if you spend more.

Credit card debt is some of the worst debt on the planet. It's high interest and a lot of folks really dig themselves deep holes because the monthly payoff isn't that much, so they stretch it out. Forever. But the reality is that for the $40 blouse or $70 dinner or whatever, they're paying $100 and $120, respectively, in interest. Or more. Plus having a lousy credit score impacts other areas of life, such as being unable to get a good loan or any loan when you really need one. The cycle repeats and feeds on itself.

If you have a retirement plan, you can sometimes borrow off that. That can be one way to go that is somewhat cheaper and the interest is paid straight back to you. Another idea is a low-interest bank loan, assuming you can get one. Yet another idea is a second mortgage or a refi but you would be putting up your home (this is assuming you own a house or condo). Transferring credit balances is okay and it is one solution, but what has to be kept in mind is that it's not the end of the debt just to transfer the balances. The balances have to be paid.

You also need to read the terms of the offers VERY carefully. Sometimes the "Teaser" rate that they offer increases in a few months so you may only pay 3% ofor 6 months and then it can jump up to 24%.

You also need to look in the terms for any transfer fees. One of the cards I have includes offers every month to transfer other cras at low rates. There is a one time "$50 + 3% of the transfer amount fee" hidden in the fine print though. They tack thay fee onto whatever amount you transfer so you end up paying interest on that amount too.

So you have to find all of the conditions and then do the math and see if transferring is a benefit to you or not. There is no one-size-fits-all answer.

I think chai has mentioned that she successfully does this regularly. I'll try to find that discussion and post a link.

This is chai's post I was thinking of...
http://www.able2know.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=2762704#2762704