Moving a loan to a life of balance CC for cheaper rate.

firejuggler

I am new to the above so I am posting in the hope of gathering some advice from all the folk in the know on this board.

We currently have a main mortgage which is doing well. But with the same mortgage company we have a smaller account for £5000 (used for lots of home improvements), the balance is around £4.600 talking into account payments made less interest, this is on the Nationwides current variable rate at 6.49%, this was taken over the term of the Mortgage another 18 years.

We now want to pay this off quicker, and have it separate from the mortgage company.

I know a credit card company will not pay off loans but we do have a coop card which has cheques at 8%, we were thinking of paying this off using the cheque.

The next part of the plan is to move the loan debt to a life of balance transfer card where we can make varied payments without being penalised for doing so.

I can only find one life of balance card at present this is the Barclaycard Platinum Credit Card with a life of balance rate at 6.3% so a little saving to be had.

Does anyone have any advice on this or tips, or knowledge of better CC life of balance deals.

Many thanks

Jase

Moggles_2

The problem is the dearth of decent LOB offers at the mo. Currently, the chief contenders are Barclaycard, Capital One & Citi and all three operate a rate-for-risk policy. This means they reserve the right to issue the credit card they deem most suitable from their range. In the worst cases you can be sent a totally different & unsuitable card, leaving you with a wasted search on your credit file. Judging from posts to this board, this happens frequently, so it's important to consider first whether you’ve a realistic chance of being accepted.

There's a comprehensive list of life of balance deals here:

http://www.stoozing.com/lob.php

YorkshireBoy

Just to add to Moggles' post, you'll almost certainly pay a fee for the balance transfer to a LOB card. This will lift the APR in year 1 to circa 9.9% APR.

You'll also have to make 3% minimum payments each month which will, because your loan runs 'for ever', be more than the loan repayments now. Is that a problem?

And finally, if you miss a payment on the LOB card they'll remove the promotional rate and put you on circa 18.9% APR, ie nearly 3 times the rate you're paying now.

firejuggler

Many thanks for your help guys after looking around and talking to some people over the weekend I have opted for this decision.

Waiting until my main mortgage account fixed rate ends in Aug 2009, then look for a good mortgage deal and combine the 2 as I will be allowed to do this without penalty and the rate will be much better and less of a risk.

Also thanks for the warning about missing a payment and getting moved to the full interest rate ekkkk.

Many thanks