Another point of note I've seen floating around: if you plan on having alts, the paid transfer will allow you to move up to 8(?) characters to Balmung at once for the cost of one transfer, provided they're all on the same server. This could be helpful if you've got more than one character concept you'd like to try out.
"I don't want to be known as the guy that just goes up and slaps badonkadonks"