Cash value calculations of miles and points were based on face value of Economy Class Ticket for a Domestic Flight between West and East Coast. All values were not seasonally adjusted.
The Most Rewarding Balance Transfers for Travelers
Do you have a balance you’d like to transfer, but you’d like to get rewarded for doing it? After all, transferring balances is a hassle. You’ve got to fill out forms, whether online or on paper, or make a long boring phone call, reciting all your personal information from your social security number to the address of your credit card issuer. Who even knows the address of their credit card issuer? (Hint: it’s often written in tiny print on the back of your card.) Then you have to wait for the transfer to go through, and keep making payment on your card until it does. Even when you know you’re going to save money on interest, it can feel not worth the bother. Not to mention the balance transfer fees!
Credit-Land.com wants you to get something back for all that time spent on the phone or online – a reward that will make it worthwhile to transfer your balances, and that might even be worth more than any balance transfer fee you pay. The cards we outline here all give you travel rewards in addition to offering a zero-APR introductory period on balance transfers. Read on to find out how rewarding it can be to transfer a balance.
TOP Travel Credit Cards for Balance Transfer Rewards
Virgin America Visa® Signature Card |
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Making a balance transfer to the Virgin America Visa card within the first 30 days can give you a rewards balance of up to 15,000 points. For making the transfer, you’ll get 10,000 points, and on top of that, you’ll get one point per dollar transferred, up to $5,000. So if you transfer $5,000, you’ll get the maximum – 15,000 points just for opening the account and transferring the balance. |
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The US Airways Premier World MasterCard® |
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This card from US Airways gives frequent flyers up to 10,000 bonus miles for transferring a balance during the first 90 days after opening an account. What can you do with 10,000 bonus miles from US Airways? For Premier World card holders, reward travel starts at just 20,000 miles, so you’ll be halfway to a free flight just for transferring the balance. Use your card just one time and get another 30,000 miles – now you’ll have enough to redeem an award ticket. |
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The Premier Miles & More World MasterCard® |
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Expert Rating:
The Premier Miles & More World MasterCard® gives you the opportunity to get free flights at Lufthansa and integrated airline partners like Lufthansa Private Jet, Luxair, Austrian Airlines Group, SWISS, Croatia Airlines, and many more. Opening an account and using it first time will bring you 20,000 award miles, and 30,000 award miles for spending $5,000 on purchases within the first three months. |
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Important Points to Remember
Balance transfers can take up to four weeks to post to your account, so it’s important to always continue making on-time payments to the card you’re transferring a balance from until the transfer is processed.
If you are transferring multiple balances to a new card, you’ll pay a separate balance transfer fee for each one, but you’ll only be rewarded once. Depending on your creditworthiness and ability to open multiple new accounts, you’ll reap the most rewards when you transfer each balance to its own new card. Just be careful that you don’t end up with too many hard inquiries on your credit report and no new cards to show for them – only do this if you’re pretty sure you will be approved.
Be aware of annual fees, especially if you open more than one new card so that you can get more rewards. Many cards waive their annual fee the first year, but once that first anniversary is past, you don’t want to get stuck with multiple fees. Make a note of the annual fee for each card you apply for.
Some of these credit cards come in another version, with a lower annual fee, or no annual fee. These offer lesser rewards than the ones that carry an annual fee, so for the person looking for maximum rewards, the annual fee card is the one that gives the biggest return. If you’d rather not pay an annual fee, you can apply for the other version and get a smaller reward bonus.
Raking In the Rewards
Remember to think big when you’re looking at these rewards cards. Many of them allow you to redeem points for more things than airline miles or hotel stays – though for the traveler, these will be the best values. In most cases, the sky’s the limit, because point accumulation is unlimited and points never expire. Use the card more, and you’ll earn more points, but just by transferring a balance, you’ll already be ahead of the game with a ready-to-redeem rewards balance.
