FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Any 0% balance transfer card with signup mile bonus?
Old May 1, 2009 | 8:55 am
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sdsearch
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Originally Posted by veggie_lover
A friend of mine asked me this. Seems he has accumulated debt on several high interest cards. I know the solution is for him to stop incurring debt, but he doesn't listen. He wants some band-aid solution. Is there any card offering 0% for a while and also gives some bonus airline miles for signing up?
Barclays (Juniper) is still giving miles (or hotel points) for balance transfers. Start at:

http://www.aboutbarclaycardus.com/cards.php#travel

and look at cards linked to programs you might be interested in. AirTran and Frontier are two of the ones I clicked on which both mention bonus miles for a balance transfer and the possiblitiy of a 0% balance transfer.

However: Be aware that 0% balance transfer is only worth it if you can stick to its terms perfectly, and pay it all off (by transferring somewhere else, if need be) before it expires. Otherwise, if you keep a balance past the end of the 0% period, or are ever late by one day once, you may be worse off than if you hadn't done the 0% in the first place! (Banks make money off of 0% balance transfers because the subset of customers who don't do it right subsidizie it for those of us who follow the rules and never pay a penny more than we expected.)

Also, 0% only works if you never use the card for any purchases while you have the balance transfer active. But you may have to do a purchase to get the first bonus! In that case, buy something for as little money as possible (I mean $1 or less, if you can) so that the interest on that (which will not be 0%, and will not stop accumulating until your 0% is paid off) doesn't add up to much even over the course of a year.
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