Originally Posted by
David-A
So for your £150 fee you are getting 7500 Avios. That is 2p each, you can buy them direct from BA for less!
[This is totally ignoring the issue of interest rate. If you do intend to borrow on a credit card, which is generally a bad place to borrow, obviously that borrowing should be living on a card with the best (lowest) interest rate. I'm sure you could find a better card than this to park it on, and the money you would save you could then use to buy more Avios if you wanted!]
N.b. personally I put a 1p max value on an Avios point. And you should not be buying them for anything more than .7 max I'd say. [Possibly even less if you can't get that value out of them.]
EDITED TO ADD: Welcome to FT. Note there are probably better cards than the Tesco one to park borrowing on, but if you do apply for the tesco one, make sure you do a referral - both you and the person who refers you get 1000 Tesco points (=> 2400 Avios). Happy to refer you.
But if the object is to park some borrowing, do check the best card for it, you can save far more than the 'value' of the perks by doing so.
The cost all depends on the opportunity cost of the £5000 I am 'parking'. If I am using that to top up my ISA on 4% pa, then I'm recovering 2% over the 6 months, which is £100 so I'm out £50 net for 7500 Avios, plus I get to use this year's ISA allowance in full, which can't ever be got back. It may not be the best balance transfer deal out there at 3% for 6 months - you can get 20 months interest free from Barclaycard for the same fee at the moment if you really want to! It all depends on what you are looking for...
BA website says I can get 8000 Avios (plus bonus ATM) for £143. Not that different, although I agree that it makes £150 for 7500 Avios sound like a sucker deal!
BTW, I'm a maths teacher and also a grown up, so no financial advice, thanks.