How can I reduce my interest

indierocker85 · 6 October 2015 at 1:49PM

Hi guys

I am in a bit of a pickle really.

I have two cards which I am eager to clear, they are

Capital One Classic - £1525 owing, on a £2000 limit 30%APR
Barclaycard Platinum - £1700 owing, on a £2100 limit - 7.9% APR

Now instinctively, I am wanting to do a balance transfer from the Capital One card, to the Barclaycard, and obviously save interest. However when I log in to my online account, the transfers section says "no offers available". I have tried ringing in the past, to no avail, they have just said there are no offers on the account. When I have tried applying for 0% balance transfer cards I have been refjected. My gut is telling me to simply withdraw cash on the Barclaycard, which is 15.9% APR, and pay that off the Capital One Balance. However, I am aware this isn't good for your credit file.

Any suggestions?

[Deleted User] · 6 October 2015 at 1:54PM

Can you not just do a BT anyway? You shouldn't need a specific offer available, if you just want to BT it to the normal rate.

However, I don't have a Barclaycard, so perhaps they work differently.

MEM62 · 6 October 2015 at 1:55PM

Hmmm.... tough to see which way to go.

If you reduced your Barclaycard balance by some way you may well get a balance transfer offer - I get them pretty much every time the balance is cleared. But, of course, general wisdom would suggest that you work on your Capital One balance first because that has a far higher interest rate.

First make a budget and see of you can find some extra cash to throw at the two cards. In your case I would prioritise the Capital One card and get that balance down first.

indierocker85 · 6 October 2015 at 2:04PM

I just tried phoning Barclaycard, it was a very short call, the general response is they only allow transfers up to 90% of the credit limit. So basically, this meant I could have only transferred £190, which they can't do today, as there are no offers on the account. So still in the same predicament really.

Cycrow · 6 October 2015 at 2:45PM

There is another way of transferring money between cards.

You could try putting your normal spending onto the card (assuming you dont already)
Then the money you save you use to pay off the other card.

The problem is you dont have alot of room on the barclaycard to make much difference

indierocker85 · 6 October 2015 at 2:51PM

Cycrow wrote: »

There is another way of transferring money between cards.

You could try putting your normal spending onto the card (assuming you dont already)
Then the money you save you use to pay off the other card.

The problem is you dont have alot of room on the barclaycard to make much difference

So I would pay for day to day things on the Barclaycard, then pay off the money I would have ordinarily spent in this manner, to pay off the capitalone card?

Cycrow · 6 October 2015 at 2:55PM

indierocker85 wrote: »

So I would pay for day to day things on the Barclaycard, then pay off the money I would have ordinarily spent in this manner, to pay off the capitalone card?

Thats correct yeah.

obviously how much this will help would depend on what you usually buy and how you usually pay for it, and it may take a few months rather than all in one go, but it'll eventually reduce the amount on the capital one card, and therefore the amount of interest you pay

rolls99 · 6 October 2015 at 3:36PM

Also look at what payments you are making to both cards.

You should - unless you have no option, be paying more than the minimum.

So, for instance, if you are paying Barclaycard, £50 over the minimum payment, don't.

Take, say, £45 of this and put it to Cap One; DON'T however pay less than the minimum on either card!

Those figures are just arbitrary but at the moment you want to be paying as much as possible to the Cap one card, even if this means paying a bit less to BC

How can I reduce my interest

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