When exploring the benefits of balance transfer cards, maybe they sounded appealing to you. If you’re considering applying for a credit card with a special balance transfer offer, you need to look beyond those general benefits to determine whether or not balance transfer cards are really right for you.

In order to do that, ask yourself the following questions:

Do you have any existing credit card debt?

The entire point of a balance transfer is to move an existing balance from one card to another in order to save money on interest. If you don’t have any existing credit card balances that you’re trying to pay off, then a balance transfer card won’t help you much.

How much credit card debt do you have on your current credit card?

If you owe a very small amount of money on your current credit card, a new balance transfer card might not be right for you. The new card might charge a balance transfer fee that defeats the purpose of trying to save money (you’d save if it were a large balance, but not as much when compared to a very small one). Balance transfer credit cards can also have minimum balance transfer amounts — $500 for example.

At the same time, if you owe a lot of money on your existing credit cards, you might find that you can’t transfer the full balance to a new card. In that case you then have two (if not more) credit cards to worry about paying each month.

What is your current credit card’s interest rate?

If your existing balance is on a very high interest credit card, it could make a lot of sense to move it to a balance transfer card. If your current credit card is a low interest card though, you should be more careful.

Yes, you can still save money with an introductory balance transfer offer. Just make sure it won’t revert to something even higher than you’re paying now if you don’t pay it off in full after that introductory period. At that point, you might miss your original low interest credit card.

How long will you need to pay off your existing credit card balance?

Balance transfer offers can range from 3-month introductory offers to low rates for the life of your balance transfer, such as with the Suncorp Platinum credit card. Most involve those short-term introductory rates — anywhere between 3 months and a year. If you know up front that you’ll be able to pay off your balance in full during that period, applying for a balance transfer credit card could be well worth your while.

As with any type of credit card, don’t forget to compare both the pros and cons when figuring out if it’s the right type of credit card for your unique needs.