Half Price Plastic Personal Loan Discussion

kaz

HI Martin,
the tip is good..but just wondering, as an existing capital one card holder ..is it possible to cancel the existing card and apply for a new one in order to benefit from the 3.9% balance transfer for life?
kaz

Margaret_Millne

HI Martin,
the tip is good..but just wondering, as an existing capital one card holder ..is it possible to cancel the existing card and apply for a new one in order to benefit from the 3.9% balance transfer for life?
kaz

Hi

I am also an existing Capital One card holder, with a 6.9% life of balance deal, which I - before getting to know this site - mistakenly made purchases and shock horror a cash advance on. I have just used the Egg 0% deal to pay this off. Once the account shows as clear I am going to phone Capital One and ask them to match the 3.9% for life. Why not do the same, suggesting you might cancel the card if they can't do it - you don't have to actually cancel the card

If they won't I will just keep the card for now to utilise for bouncing balances back and forth to get the best deal. I made rather too many applications in the last 12 months and so am waiting for these to drop of my Credit File before applying for any more.

Once I have lost these searches from my file I will be trying for another very low deal.

kaz

Hi,
it sounds like a good idea ..but i was hoping to cancel the card and hopefully to get a higher limit on the new one...

kaz

Margaret_Millne

Ask them to increase your credit limit at the same time.  I think they are more likely to do this than give you a higher limit on a new one.

My experience with most of these offers is they give you a relatively low limit during the first 6 months, when you can do the transfers to qualify, then whop the limit up after this to encourage you to spend, which you should (how many "never evers" Martin?) do.

If they refuse you can always cancel the card and re-apply, but I think they still consider you a customer for several months after cancelling, and you are usually not able to apply for any of their new offers during this time.

kaz

my limit on actually on my other card..do you know where i could get one with a limit of a least £5000..which i would use to spend and get the balance transferred to capital..
kaz

Margaret_Millne

I don't think I have ever received a card with a starting limit so high - most tend to increase the limit regularly, often when you are very close to your existing limit, to encourage further spending.

Actually HSBC offered me a Gold Card with a £5500 limit when I opened an account in my sole name, but hubby and I have had several personal and business accounts with them for several years.

I now have three cards with limits above £5000, and hubby has a further 4, but these have been built up over several years.

I hasten to say they are not all maxed.

M4tyj

Hi....Could anyone recommend the best card for a transfer of a loan? are there only certain cards that do this?

Cheers...

Middle_Earth

M4,

Egg, MBNA and Alliance & Leicester all let you transfer money to pay off overdrafts and loans etc. Egg might me your best bet as I think they run a 6 months interest free period, but I could be wrong.

Good Luck

System

i've been reading the discussion and it all makes sense and sounds pretty good. could someone help me with some figures though. i have a 25year flexible advance loan of £5000 with nationwide (whom i also have a mortgage with, but am moments away from shopping around).... i pay 5.14% and this rate fluctuates with nationwides mortgage rate, at present i pay just shy of £30 amonth. my main concern with this is it is a fluctuating rate and maybe not a good one at that.
but at present i still need to treat it as a long term loan as i cant afford to pay much different to what i do at the moment.
Can any of these (half price plastic) loan scenarios help me to achieve similar payments per month but perhaps incurring less interest along the way, or do these loans only work for a debt that can be cleared quicker than i can afford?
i know my obvious option is looking for better mortgage elsewhere and consolidating this loan with the new mortgage which would at present get me about 4% interest (depending on the deal) , and continue to shop around every 6-12months.
but this has the pitfall of following the mortgage rate for the next 20 odd years.
in short (sorry to ramble!! :-[) im looking for the cheapest long term option on £5000, but it must be penalty free for early repayment as if i can pay it off quicker in the future i will. ??

zcaprd7

Generally the "plastic loans" are very short term.

One has to be able to make a 2-3% of total amount borrowed payment each month (as a minimum).

This is roughly equivalent to a 3 year loan i.e. paying of 3% every month (as long as the payment was fixed each month - with a card, that 3% keeps getting smaller the more you pay off which means the debt lasts for ages).

SO to begin with your mimimum payments are v high relative to a long term loan.