Credit card balance transfer, need some help

weebubbles

Hi, I have been sent a letter from Sainsburys credit card which included 4 credit card cheques. It states that if I use these cheques for a balance transfer I will pay 5.49% for the life of the balance.

I owe £4300 on this card and my credit limit is £4350. I have contacted them but they wont increase my limit, which is fair enough and probably better for me that they didn't.

I also have an HSBC card and owe nothing on this,my limit is £3500.

My question is - can I phone HSBC and transfer £3500 from sainsburys onto HSBC, then use a Sainsburys cheque to pay HSBC the £3500 and then the £3500 would be owed to sainsburys but at 5.49% rather than the 17.9% they are charging just now? Would this work. I have phoned HSBC and they will do a balance transfer from Sainsburys.

YorkshireBoy

It will work but you'll be left with £800 or so locked in at 17.9% on the Sainsburys card.

Would HSBC increase your limit to accomodate the full £4,300 from Sainsburys? Then you could move all of it back to Sainsburys at the lower rate.

Also, don't forget to factor in any applicable BT/cheque fees...from both organisations.

NeilFawcett

Basically yes except you will get charged a balance transfer fee (usually 3% of the amount or similar) and will need to take that into account within your total.

Also some credit cards don't allow you to transfer right up to the credit limit.

Also make sure you allow plenty of time for the first transfer to go through before you send off the cheque to transfer it back.

weebubbles

I dont know if they will increase it as I am a relatively new customer with HSBC, the only thing I could think of would be applying for a new card with another company and transferring the £800 onto that and then sending the new company a sainsburys cheque therefore I would be charged 5.49% for the whole £4300

Does anyone know where I can enter the amount owed and the interest to see the different in interest per month. I will continue with the amount I pay sainsburys but obvously as I would pay less interest I would pay the balance off quicker.

Moggles_2

weebubbles wrote: »

Does anyone know where I can enter the amount owed and the interest to see the difference in interest per month. I will continue with the amount I pay Sainsburys, but obviously as I would pay less interest I would pay the balance off quicker.

Why not plug some numbers into Martin's Credit Card Calculator on the main site? You can then estimate the time it would take to clear the debt at current rates and see the effect of lower rates

http://www.whatsthecost.com/creditcard.aspx