0% interest for a long period.

CYPER

I need help for a friend of mine, who is really struggling at the moment. She can’t work, because of a disability and her only option is to receive incapacity and housing benefits. But due to personal matters she can’t receive them at the place, where she lives now, so she has to move to a new place for which she does not have enough money. We looked through these 0% balance transfer credit cards as an option, but I’m not quite sure which one to recommend or maybe there are more options available.
Currently she has 3 credit cards – Egg (Visa), Virgin Money (Nastercard) and Natwest (Visa) + overdraft on the current account. Total money owed = £3300 if it matters in any way.
So please guys can you recommend a solution, because she is in a really bad situation at the moment. Her monthly income just got less to like £200 and her only escape is these benefits, so moving to a new place is first priority. Then she could start to pay these debts slowly.
I believe a 0% balance transfer credit card is the best option, but I’m not sure if she can transfer the money to her current account. Are there any catches or small prints? I mean can you just move the money and pay them like in 12 months without any interest? That will be perfect.

Any recommendations?

Thank you so much.

clio

I,m afraid to say i doubt very much she would get an 0% card, if she was to get a card it may be a high apr. does she have any cards at the minute??

CYPER

clio wrote: »

I,m afraid to say i doubt very much she would get an 0% card, if she was to get a card it may be a high apr. does she have any cards at the minute??

Why wouldn't she get such a card? She hasn't missed any payments, so her credit file is in good condition.
I believe I wrote what cards she has at the moment :rolleyes:

Please guys give any ideas. Thank you again.

GeorgeUK

Just because payments are made on time does not mean you will have a good credit score. Banks also look at income against outstanding debt, which credit reference agencies don't take into account which is why we don't put much weight in these scores.

If she has not had many credit checks (3 in a 6 month period is usually ok) then she can definately try to get another card, but you will also need to take into consideration the minimum monthly payments. If the payments on the new card is higher, then she may struggle to keep meeting these payments and if she misses a payment then she could lose the 0% and be put onto the normal rate.

As for getting the money into her current account, only a few creditcards allow this. We call this a "super balance transfer".
She could try for a MBNA Platinum Plus card - which is very similar to the virgin money card (£25 min payment from 2nd-14th months)
http://www.stoozing.com/sbt.php

There shouldn't be any conflict with the virgin card also being a MBNA card as long as she doesn't try to BT between the two.

dhassen

Like clio says , I doubt that your friend would get any card now other than a sub-prime high rate one, let alone a good 0% card....... this is due to her income..... (or lack of it)

Good luck though

CYPER

Thank you one more time. I believe her credit scoring is good, because her current credit cards are for £3-4K each taken at least a year ago, so I believe she hasn't had any credit checks for the past 6 months at least.

Let me then ask a straight question. So with this one - MBNA Platinum Plus if she applies are there only 2 outcomes? I mean she either gets it with whatever amount they give her or or she just gets rejected. No other option like give her the card but with less BT months or some other disadvantages.

And the big question is if she gets the card is it that simple like transfer the money to her current account, pay the transfer fee and don't pay anything else. Then just after let's say 14 month return the money and still pays nothing. Any hidden catches?

P.S - Her income was sort of good 2-3 months ago.

YorkshireBoy

CYPER wrote: »

Why wouldn't she get such a card?

Well, to put it bluntly, she can't afford one!

She owes £3,300 and only 'earns' £2,400 per year.

If she gets another card (sufficient to BT the lot) she will still owe £3,300, but have the potential to go out and spend up to £6,600...and no credit card company is going to take a chance on that happening.

She hasn't missed any payments, so her credit file is in good condition.

All her credit file is saying is she has been making payments on time. The main issue here is affordability, ie the ability to service not only the debt...but also the potential debt she could rack up again on her other cards once the BT's have cleared the debt on those.

That said, all is not lost. There may be some scope to shuffle the debt around on the cards she already has. If you provide a breakdown of her current cards and their respective credit limits, balances, and APR's (including the overdraft) then I'm sure you'll get some suggestions.

clio

I missed seeing them cards mentioned, I do read posts properly sometimes:)

clio

So Cypher whats the outcome of this post did your friend manage to apply for CC??

CYPER

clio wrote: »

So Cypher whats the outcome of this post did your friend manage to apply for CC??

Not yet - there are some other things to take care of first.

Thank you everyone for again