Juggling the cards?

VSweeney

Currently I have 3 credit cards, with it being a New Year it's high time I looked into clearing these and making my way to being debt free.

My questions here are :

Is there a limit to the number of credit cards you can have?
What would be the best way to transfer these balances? I can't imagine one card would hold all three balances. So should I look at three good deals?

Any help or hints would be much appreciated.

Cheers!

anniecave

There's a guide on this website I think...

I would go onto a website like moneysupermarket and answer the questions based on your credit risk so you can see what sort of cards will be likely to accept you..

consider whether you'd be better off going for a life of balance card rather than 0% with a fee

then first of all go for one .. if you get accepted, transfer as much as possible etc

then wait a couple of months (or six weeks at least) before apply for another.

If you make too many applications in a short space of time it can damage your credit rating.

And you need to work at paying those debts off as quickly as possible. Pay off the highest interest rates first.

oh and sometimes once you have cleared one card the provider sometimes then sends you offers offering you low balance transfer rates on this card in the hope of getting you back ...

anniecave

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cards/cut-credit-card-interest

anniecave

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cards/balance-transfer-credit-cards

oh and watch out who the cards are provided by .. mbna own loads and they won't let you transfer balances within the same group eg mbna to mbna

NickX

anniecave wrote: »

oh and watch out who the cards are provided by .. mbna own loads and they won't let you transfer balances within the same group eg mbna to mbna

But as documented on this site you can get around this problem by using the Super Balance Transfer (SBT) facility offered by MBNA cards.

You simply request a "Money Transfer" to your Bank Account from the new MBNA card and once in receipt of the funds you can settle the old MBNA card from there. No Problemo :beer:

VSweeney

Thanks a lot for your hints and tips