How do you get free money from credit card companies you might ask.  Why in the world would they be giving away free money?  They definitely aren't in it for the charity.  They do want to give you just enough rope to hang yourself so to speak though.   In general, this would only requires 10 minutes of your time each month.  The problem is just reminding yourself to do it every month. 

CAUTION: Do not read further if you are not good at managing multiple accounts , keeping track of paperwork, or do not pay your credit card bills on time as this could be hazadous to your credit score if you fail to keep up with this.

Now, for those of you are good at that sort of stuff, here's the 411.

Credit card companies generally lend you money/credit hoping that you would spend it and end up hopelessly in debt paying it back to them at some absurdly high interest rate (17% APR is not uncommon).

Credit card companies generally want you use balance transfers as a way to transfer your debt from another credit card to theirs while hoping that you will be paying the high interest on their card you just transferred it to after the introductory period expires.  Apparently, they do make a lot of money on this, otherwise they wouldn't still be offering this.  Though they are starting to wise up.

Some of the pros and cons of balance transferring (BT'ing) are the following.

    Pros:

• BT money to earn interest
• Card bonus signup offers
• Expand your line of credit with credit card companies

    Cons:

• Potential risk to credit score if you don't keep up on small monthly payments
• Small hit to credit score in the first few months due to inquiries and # of cards opened
• Spending 10 minutes every month on this
  

Depending on your credit history and household income, you could borrow about $200,000 in BT money and stash it in a 5%+ savings account and earn roughly (0.05 x $200,000) = $10,000 extra a year just doing 10 minutes worth of upkeep every month.  (Note: That is only a rough calculation, you will be paying back the principal every month until the BT expires and also taxes on that earned interest.)

How to Start:

1. First decide on which credit cards to sign up for.  There are some with 3% transaction fees with a $75 limit for the transaction fee, some with transaction fees and no limits (you do not want these), and some with no fees whatsoever (the best).  Make sure you read the fine print on all terms and conditions before you sign up.  It would be a good idea to save a copy on your PC for future reference as well.  A good tip to easily look for all the fees in the terms and conditions is to just do a find on the text "fee".  
2. Decide on a date/time to sign up for all the cards at once.  it is recommended to do it early on a Monday morning so that all the inquiries hit at nearly the same time.  Be sure to use http://www.cardoffers.com to get an extra $20-$40 for each approved application you sign up for.  It can easily mean an extra couple hundred dollars just by using their website to sign up for cards.
3. After you sign up for the cards, wait for the approvals to come in and note it down somewhere what your credit limit is and how much you plan on balance transferring.  I created an excel workbook to do this.  The next step will usually take at least another week or two for the cards to come in the mail.
4. Most of the time, card companies do not send any convenience checks in the mail with the card, so you will have to activate the card and ask them to send some BT checks at the same time.  Do not confuse cash advance checks with BT checks or it will cost you dearly.  While you are talking to the customer representative, ask them to make sure it's a no-fee BT check and when it will expire.  You will have to pay off the BT completely before it expires.  Also, re-consolidate any credit card limits to the new one so that you can BT as much as possible.
5. When the checks come in the mail (another week or so), you can deposit it.  I usually deposit it for approximately 50% of my credit limit so as to not ding my credit score greatly.  If you have no need to use your score within the next year at all, then by all means, max out your BT checks. 
   
6. Set up email alerts on your credit card payment websites and also your bank accounts to pay the credit card bills.  On a monthly basis, login and pay the principal (usually 2% of the total BT money borrowed).

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