Are 0% APR Balance Transfers A Good Business Financing Move?

Business owners - or rather business start ups - have frequently resorted to credit cards when traditional financing was unavailable or slow in coming. Once the business could qualify for a loan, then the credit card balances were refinanced and eliminated with lower interest.

Right now there are alot of 0% APR card opportunities so people looking to start businesses wonder about the wisdom of 0% APR balance transfers as a funding mechanism. This is an odd ball approach to 9% APR balance transfers because normally they’re taken to pay down one card as you switch to another and using the period of 0% interest to pay down the previous balance. That’s the theory anyway. As long as it’s one of those no fee balance transfers,that could be a really good deal if you’re going to have to be paying down cards anyway.

Sometimes however, you may be able to use 0% APR balance transfers as business funding mechanisms. The only reason I say that is because I inquired of my credit card company one time and the operator told me I could request the check to be sent to me and use it for whatever I wanted. I bought a used car that way once! I’m not saying that was the smartest financial move but it was the move I had available at that time. Many people trying to get a business off the ground find themselves confronting similar options.

So as long as you’re talking about genuine no fee balance transfers, they may be a tool that - used with discretion - may help advance your business if you do your homework up front. While there are some good options for those no fee balance transfers, you’ll have to provide the discretion yourself.