The credit card I use gives me air travel miles for every dollar I spend using it. I usually pay off the balance every month, but I have to put a rather large amount on it this month that I won’t be able to pay off any time soon. The interest rate is 15.97%.
I’m thinking of transferring this balance to another CC. One with 0% APR for 15 months with a 3% balance transfer fee. I should be able to pay off this balance in a few short months.
The question I have is what will the original CC company do with the miles I already earned due to this large purchase. Will they take my miles away because I transferred the debt to another CC?
Yes, I know I should just call the miles CC company and ask, but I’m thinking that if I know the answer, I might be able to say or do something to get around losing the miles when I do talk to them.
It will obviously depend on your card company and they can put whatever they want in their T&C (within reason). But I’d be very surprised if they took away the miles. The miles are earned when you make a purchase, not because you keep a balance.
Not a direct answer, but why not get the second card and make the large purchase on it? Then cancel it if you don’t need the card for anything further.
While I don’t know the specific answer in this case, I would point out that the credit card company has already made money on this transaction in charges to the merchant. They don’t need you to be paying interest on it in order to make money. It’s the same for them as if you just paid off your balance.
I think you misunderstand what a “balance transfer” is.
A “balance transfer” is just fancy marketing talk for making you a loan and using the loan to pay off a credit card. All the second credit card does is make you a loan in the amount you tell them you have on the first credit card. Then they send the amount of the loan to the first credit credit card company as a payment on your account. It’s no different than if you asked your uncle for some cash and then sent it to the credit card company to pay off your account.
There’s nothing magical about a balance transfer. The banks don’t actually transfer your account between them. You just take out a loan from a second bank and use the loan proceeds to pay off the first bank. The balance transfer does not close your account at the first bank. All that the first bank knows is that it received some money to pay off your account.
If your first bank doesn’t take your miles away from you for making a payment on your account(highly improbable), it won’t take miles away for what the second bank calls a “balance transfer.”
My Southwest CC will keep my miles from expiring as long as the card is “active”. I’ve forgotten exactly what the definition of active is but it was pretty reasonable. YMMV.
Transfer the balance but don’t cancel the card. Carry on using it as you did before, clearing the balance every moth, and be sure to pay down the new card within the free period or you get hit with high charges.
My daughter bought a car like this - the miles gave her a nice weekend in Jersey, Channel Islands.