Massive balance transfer muddle. Help!

sillyme

Hoping for some simple advice - if you can spare the time

Situation as follows.

Am trying to pay off my debts in the most simple and cost effective way possible but am confused as to what to do and have limited options...

I have (decreasing!) debt on three credit cards

Barclaycard - £300 at 20%
GM Card - £1500 at 16.9%
Capital 1 - £1150 at 15%

I have been told I can transfer a balance onto my Barclaycard at 6.9% for the life of the balance - sounds a good deal to me, given my current rates of interest.

There is a 2.5% transfer charge and my current balance of £300 will remain at 20%. I believe also - from reading this site - that any payments I make will go to pay off the low interest rate first, and not the high rate, so the £300 at 20% will just sit there festering and growing.....

SO:

Should I transfer the balances of the GMCard and the Capital 1 card onto the BCard and take advantage of the 6.9% for life balance?

Or is this stupid because the £300 would remain at 20%, and the 2.5% fee would be bigger than the interest I would be paying if I stayed as is?

Massively confused. My tiny brain isn't computing the figures......

System

Can you BT the Barclaycard balance to one of the other cards and then BT what you can back on to the Barclaycard?. This should make everything on the Barclaycard 6.9% then

Simon_Preston

Whatever you do, make sure that £300 on the Barclay card is paid off first. Either by transferring it off to another card or by stumping up the £300 to clear it. Phone up your other card providers and see if they will do a transfer for you. Then once its moved over to to the other card shift it all back onto the Barclay card.

Don't put anything on it until you know the balance is 0.

Bismarck

if you can, make sure the barclaycard balance is absolutely clear so you have a statement saying 0.00 before you transfer anything onto it as there is the risk of a residual amount staying there attracting the 20% interest....when I've done this I have been concerned that the y could slash my limit as soon as the payment was cleared but they were so greedy to have my money that this has never happened.

Word of warning : don't spend on the card AT ALL - I know you know this but watch out for any regular recurring payment that you've agreed to...

anyway...spot on from the above posters...

CLAPTON

nothing can be worked out without knowing how much in total you can pay per month

marsden_pete

also what is the limit on your cards? once your have cleared a card make sure you cancel it as well that way you cant spend on it again.
im in a simular situation and have cut my debt free date by 6 months by moving cards around its a nice feeling.

i also use quidco and make sure that pays into another account the is only used for quidco payments and then use that to pay off extra on my credit cards.

sillyme

Thanks - never heard of QuidCo? What is this?

My available credit card limits are low really so I'm restricted in what I can do with the £300 at 20% on the BCard

I have a limit of £5000 on the BCard - so no problem transferring my existing GMCard and C1 card balances on to there to get the 6% rate.

In terms of transferring the £300 at 20% off the BCard temporarily:
On the Capital 1 - I have £167 credit available
On the GMCard - I have £235 credit available

So I could transfer the £300 across the two cards (GM and C1) but I'd be paying admin fees for this I guess so it mightn't be worth it.

I could feasibly pay off £100 of the BCard now in cash?

This is SO confusing

Thank you so so much for your advice. Very much appreciated.

clearing_out_my_pockets

I echo what Clapton says... How much can you pay off all three in total each month? If you can make the minimum payments to the two larger balances (which attract the lower APRs) you can concentrate on clearing the barclaycard balance. Once that is clear you can then transfer the other balances over. I really wouldn't transfer anything with a balance left on there.

sillyme

clearing_out_my_pockets wrote: »

I echo what Clapton says... How much can you pay off all three in total each month? If you can make the minimum payments to the two larger balances (which attract the lower APRs) you can concentrate on clearing the barclaycard balance. Once that is clear you can then transfer the other balances over. I really wouldn't transfer anything with a balance left on there.

Thank you for your reply.

I can pay more than the minimum on all but the problem is I'm being told the 6.5% for life offer will expire at the end of Jan so have a small amount of time to act!

clearing_out_my_pockets

Ah. In which case, I should stop giving advice and let someone else with more knowledge take over (I'm relatively new to the credit card shuffle...)

sillyme

Thanks anyway

HELP! Anyone?