<prompt> Human: I have a Chase Slate credit card- had it since college and it is my oldest line of credit. After having kids, my husband and I decided I should stop working and stay home. This is how we incurred 20,000 of credit debt. Over the past few years of getting our budget together we have stopped charging my Chase and took advantage of a one year, 0 apr promotional transfer from a credit card with 15.99 apr. We have been paying down this card while paying off our AMEX each month, which gives us points on purchases -our Chase card does not offer any incentives.Looking at my statements I found myself wondering why my minimum payment and monthly interest was not going down. I was paying somewhere between 300 to 800 a month, my interest charged should go down by more than a few cents each month. I called to get the scoop. When I make a payment, the minimum payment amount is put towards the promotional balance, everything over the minimum payment goes towards my interest bearing balance. In THIER words: They are helping me by applying the minimum payment amount towards the promotional balance- with no interest- so that when it does incur interest it wont be such a big amount. When I asked if I could change that, and put my entire payment, minus the interest, of course, towards my interest bearing balance, the answer was no. Because they were helping me.The Facts: Interest bearing balance at 11.99 - 5,661.59Promotional balance at 0 - 7,119.96Minimum payment - 182.00So beware if you are doing a promotional transfer- read the fine print. They dont want you to pay off your interest bearing balance first, because youre and idiot if you do!  <response>: That is why it is so critical to never have an existing balance on a card when you take advantage of zero interest or balance transfers. 