Sign up for our daily newsletterEmail addressSign upI would like to subscribe to The Points Guy newsletters and special email promotions. The Points Guy will not share or sell your email. See privacy policy.Credit cards are an amazing way to rack up free miles and points very quickly, but you can also get burned if you don’t manage your finances appropriately. The APRs on most mileage earning credit and charge cards are usually very high and if you are carrying a balance, the interest you pay can easily negate the value of any points earned.As much as I preach about not carrying balances, I also realize that it’s easier said than done. Out of college I carried a balance for several years as I struggled to get my finances under control (and adjust to paying insane NYC rent and cost of living). I remember always seeing credit cards that offered “No interest on balance transfers,” but in the fine print it almost always stated there was a fee for balance transfers - like 3% or more of the total amount of the balance.Although card that have these promotions aren’t for the experienced mileage collector who is looking to pad their account balances, they should be an option for anyone looking to make a smart financial decision to work on paying off existing balances since that’s a huge part of your credit score. Chase has Blueprint, which is a program designed to help you understand your finances create an action plan to pay off your balance.
