Balance transfer offer

jangor_2

I have a balance with my present credit card of £2300 at quite a high interest rate. I have recently received a 0% (3% handling fee) offer from the credit card company to transfer funds from the credit card into my current account until August 2009. Could I transfer £2300 from my credit card to my current account, pay off the balance I now owe and then pay off the remaining £2300 by August 2009 with the 0% interest? I hope this is clear.

Thankyou.

NickX

jangor wrote: »

Could I transfer £2300 from my credit card to my current account, pay off the balance I now owe and then pay off the remaining £2300 by August 2009 with the 0% interest?

You can only transfer the funds direct to your Bank Account if the card has SBT (Super Balance Transfer) facility.

Is it administered by MBNA (e.g. Virgin), or Egg, or is it the Post Office Card ?

If you answer YES above then it does have SBT facility.

However, you don't need an SBT in this case, you can just transfer the funds from your new card direct to your old card, thereby paying off the debt without going through your Current Account.

Arfhurdaly

On the same topic.

How do i solve this?

I have a loan with a high interest rate 21% which i want to pay off. However, i was offered a good rate of 8.9% on balance transfer from my credit card company. I also have a credit card with the loan company too.

However, the credit card company will only accept "balance transfers" so they wont just pay it into my bank ac.

So how do i take advantage of this offer?

Arfhurdaly

NickX

You need an Egg Money card (not to be confused with standard Egg Card).

Egg Money can be put into positive balance by transferring a fictional debt from Egg Money to your new card.

So your new card ends up with the debt at 0% and Egg Money is in credit to an equivalent amount (less Balance Transfer fee).

You can then transfer the funds direct from Egg Money to your Bank Account from where you can settle your loan. Egg Money do not charge for this transfer, but be careful not to go into debt on Egg Money otherwise you will be charged interest.

If you don't have Egg Money do you have any friends or family members that do and will allow you to use their card as a mule - maybe buy them a beer :beer: for doing you a favour.

Eydon

NickX wrote: »

However, you don't need an SBT in this case, you can just transfer the funds from your new card direct to your old card, thereby paying off the debt without going through your Current Account.

Nick,
I may be wrong, but I think the OP is saying that his current card company are offering him the opportunity to do a SBT at 0%, so what he wants to know is, can he BT £2300 into his current account, and then use that money to pay off the current £2300 that is at the high rate - effectively shifting his current debt from x% to 0% on the same card.

If this is the case then I guess it will depend on whether your card issuer uses payments to pay off the higher interest debts first or not. I suspect that what will happen is that when you pay the £2300 back to your card it will be used to clear the 0% debt first, so your current debt will still be in place, and you'll have incurred the BT handling fee for nothing.

Worth checking with your card issuer which debts get paid off first.

NickX

Eydon wrote: »

Nick,
I may be wrong, but I think the OP is saying that his current card company are offering him the opportunity to do a SBT at 0%, so what he wants to know is, can he BT £2300 into his current account, and then use that money to pay off the current £2300 that is at the high rate - effectively shifting his current debt from x% to 0% on the same card.

Right ok, I've read the post again and its definitely an SBT offer, so he CAN transfer the funds to his Current Account.

But I read it that the total debt on the old card was £2300, not just £2300 at the high rate, so it didn't matter whether he BT'd or SBT'd, either way he would move the debt onto a 0% card.

OP, is the total balance on your old car £2300, or is there more than this ?

ToMoCo

Be careful here. Is the offer from the same card that the £2300 debt is on?

Eydon

The way I read it is that there is only one card: -

• it currently has a debt of £2300 at x%.
• This same card has offered him the chance to SBT at 0%.
• He would then SBT £2300 into his current account, so he now has £2300 at x%, £2300 at 0% (plus handling fee) and £2300 in the bank.
• He then uses the £2300 in his current account as a payment to the card.
• If the card issuer uses payments towards debts with highest interest first then he's quids in - he'll be left with £2300 at 0% plus the handling fee.
• But these type of issuers are few and far between, so I suspect the £2300 payment back to the card would be used to clear the 0% balance first leaving him with £2300 at x% plus the handling fee.

Hopefully the OP can clarify.

NickX

Eydon, I think your right. Well Done.

Its not what I was expecting, we are so used to people transferring debts from one card to another, infact I've never seen this suggested before.

The crucial thing here is the "allocation of payments" when the £2300 is paid back to the Card Company. It needs to pay the highest rate debt first for this plan to work. I know Nationwide do this, however this is not an SBT card.

Unfortunately I cannot think of an SBT card which would have this order of payments, so I'm very doubtful this will work.

jangor, we need to know which card this is, and whether you have any other cards ?

jangor_2

Thankyou for all your responses. I did actually wonder whether the new amount borrowed would be paid off first rather than the original debt with the high interest. My balance on the card at present is £2300. I have a card with MBNA and an Egg card.

glen70

i have just received a virgin cc and have 2600 overdraft with tsb i have to decide wether to transfer it to my card?if so what would be the monthly minimum?