A reader contacted me recently and said while it is great that I am showing them how to get lots of miles with our Easy Quarter Million program , they had a $3000 balance that had been hanging around for too long making minimum payments! They wanted to get rid of this balance before they could really focus on getting miles for their dream vacation. They weren’t paying a horrible interest rate, 12.9%, but it could be a lot better! The $32 in interest that they were paying each month could be going to principal instead!
We have negotiated a special TWM link with Discover It for 0% for 18 months on balance transfers. You can’t get this offer by going directly to their site. This is the very best offer on the market right now for balance transfers.
Discover It also has no annual fee which is always important in addition to giving you a free FICO credit score every month right on your statement. This means you can watch your score go up as you pay down your balance! There is a 3% transfer fee, but that fee will be added to your balance and from that point on you will pay no interest for 18 months as long as you pay on time. This is great idea for anyone paying on a balance and the transfer will pay for itself quickly depending on your current interest rate. Here is a chart that shows you how quickly you will profit depending on how much your current interest rate is.
Current APR | Months before profit after transfer fee |
5% | 7.2 |
10% | 3.6 |
15% | 2.4 |
20% | 1.8 |
25% | 1.4 |
So for most people as long as you aren’t going to pay the whole balance in the next 3 months it make sense to go ahead and transfer the balance to a 0% card.
Discover It is also one of the more lenient cards when it comes to past credit history so it makes sense to apply even if your credit isn’t 100% perfect or is still somewhat new. The amount you save in interest can be a lot! Make sure to use my link to sign up by clicking here or on the banner above because the standard offer at the Discover site is only for 14 months instead of 18.
After you get the balance paid off, Discover It also has a great CashBack program that gives 5% cash back in rotating categories such as gas, home improvements, restaurants, and holiday shopping. Their ShopDiscover shopping portal is also one of the most generous with 5-20% cash back. I just used it today for a K-Mart purchase I made to get 10% cash back so it can really add up.
I hope this helps you get your balance paid down so you can focus on earning some miles!