Is it worth balance transferring?

rosiedee

Hi Guys,
Just wanted a bit of advice. All of my debt at present is on 0% or LOB interest, bar one, the dreaded MBNA at 19.9%!! My balance on MBNA is £2500ish. I have an Egg card with a credit limit of £6900 current balance at £4600 at 5.9% life of balance. This month is my anniversary month on Egg and they are offering 0% balance transfer until Jan 09. Would it be worth me transferring the bulk of the MBNA balance to Egg? I have just finished paying off a loan freeing up about £300 a month which I fully intend to throw at the debts. My thinking is that MBNA are always bombarding me with BT deals and that I could transfer the debt back to them in January at a lower rate, albeit only a short term reduced rate, but it would mean more of my payments would be going towards paying off the debt rather than paying interest. In total I have about £400 per month to throw at this combined debt.
Any advice gratefully received.

OliveOyl_2

Can you be sure how the new balance on the Egg card will run?

eg your payments will they be applied:
firstly to the £4,600 @ 5.9% LOB and then to £2,500 @ 0% until Jan 09?
Come Jan 09 you would have:
£2,500 @ 5.9% LOB and £2,500 @ 23% :eek:

But if at that point you could transfer the entire balance to 0% and then pay it off that would work.

Can I recommend Martins rate reminder tool? He sends a text when your rate is due to expire, giving you time to set up the BT. It would be awful to pay more interest than you need to
And I presume you are not spending on these cards?

savingholmes

OliveOyl wrote: »

Can you be sure how the new balance on the Egg card will run?

eg your payments will they be applied:
firstly to the £4,600 @ 5.9% LOB and then to £2,500 @ 0% until Jan 09?
Come Jan 09 you would have:
£2,500 @ 5.9% LOB and £2,500 @ 23% :eek:

But if at that point you could transfer the entire balance to 0% and then pay it off that would work.

Can I recommend Martins rate reminder tool? He sends a text when your rate is due to expire, giving you time to set up the BT. It would be awful to pay more interest than you need to
And I presume you are not spending on these cards?

I agree with the above - I would transfer to 0% if you can as you will defintely save significantly. Can you transfer to a brand new card avoiding the problems of the different rates and possibly get a transfer for longer?

rosiedee

Thanks for the replies. Unfortunately I have recently applied for a couple of 0% deals and been declined. Guess I'll just have to grit my teeth and work on paying of the MBNA balance ASAP!!

OliveOyl_2

Did you not get a birthday offer from Egg??

Your situation may change in the next 6 months. I was refused a 0% deal a year ago, but as I've cleared (and closed) cards, a year on ALL my non-loan debt is at 0%.

Good luck anyway with reducing the debt.