Credit Card Shuffle Discussion area

[Deleted User]

allanglennon wrote: »

they are all maxed. Will they still offer me a balance transfer rate or do you need to have available credit on them?

They might OFFER you a transfer deal, but if they're maxed, the maximum balance transfer you'll be able to do to any of them is £0.00.

You'd need a fourth card with an offer, to be able to transfer one of your existing balances to it. Your current cards add up to £7400, so you'd need a new provider to give you about an £8000 limit to be able to move them all to one card, and honestly, if Virgin are only letting you have a £500 limit, that's unlikely.

Have a look at http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cards/balance-transfer-credit-cards and pick a transfer card that looks good for you, apply, and transfer the card with the highest interest rate to it.

If you get rejected, remember that you can clear your existing debt quicker by focusing your repayments on the one with the highest rate. Make minimum payments to the rest, and throw all your spare cash at the most expensive one. Then, when you've got more breathing space on the limits, re-evaluate transferring in, say, 6 months or a year.

Green_Wiz

sorry if in the wrong place but seems closest, I read martin's guide and just applied for a tesco credit card. I earn c.£2k pcm in a paye job but it quoted me an apr of 21.9% !!
Anyone know how I can get this rate down?

jillyjacks

can anyone answer this question for me please?? I have £2000 debt on my virgin card and 400 debt on my m&s card, the m&s card have offered me 9 months interest free on balance transfers and virgin currently have interest free balance transfers until april next year. My question is can I transfer the £2000 to the M&S card now, then in few months transfer it back to virgin(to take advantage of their deal in case it comes to an end)

JamesK10

jillyjacks wrote: »

can anyone answer this question for me please?? I have £2000 debt on my virgin card and 400 debt on my m&s card, the m&s card have offered me 9 months interest free on balance transfers and virgin currently have interest free balance transfers until april next year. My question is can I transfer the £2000 to the M&S card now, then in few months transfer it back to virgin(to take advantage of their deal in case it comes to an end)

Theoretically there's nothing wrong with that. Most companies' T and Cs only forbid transfers from one of their own cards, as long as MBNA doesn't run M&S's credit card as well as Virgin's, then you should be fine with that plan.

If I get hit by the Virgin rate hike in September then that's when I'd start getting rid of cards, all depends who ends up buying MBNA's card division.

katiek68

I have 2 Barclaycards (1 was Egg) and they've an interest rate of around 26%. Both are up to their limit and the chances of getting a balance transfer card is nil. This is probably a stupid question but does anyone think that a phonecall to Barclaycard asking for a more reasonable interest rate if I reduce credit limit to zero is a waste of time?

jackjack1984

Hi I have recently shuffled my credit cards so all of my debt is on 2 cards both with 0% offers until sept 2012. The 2 cards which previously held the balance are now at £0.

Do you think I should keep the old card accounts open until the 0% offers end and see if the companies will offer me a better deal to move the debt back or close the cards in order to improve my credit rating, allowing me to apply for new balance transfer cards??

Really can't figure out which option is best, any advice welcome!!
Thanks

Emmrmil

I have a c/c with virgin whcih has high APR and i owe approx £8k on it. i ve got a barclaycard with £0 balance - I thought about transerring balance as they are offering 0% but will only let me transfer £4950 - would this be better - share the debt over the two? Minimum payments are killing me and I cant envisage paying it off...plus been turned down for loans so no go that way
thanks

blitzboy

emmrmil wrote: »

I have a c/c with virgin whcih has high APR and i owe approx £8k on it. i ve got a barclaycard with £0 balance - I thought about transerring balance as they are offering 0% but will only let me transfer £4950 - would this be better - share the debt over the two? Minimum payments are killing me and I cant envisage paying it off...plus been turned down for loans so no go that way
thanks

Yes!

Im not sure what the APR you have on your Virgin card is, or how long the 0% offer is for, but an example below of £4900 for 12 months:

Current APR of 19.9% = Annual interest of £975.10
Promotional 0% = Annual interest £0 (Balance Transfer fee of £147)
Saving over 12 months = £828.10

Obviously this example hasnt taken into account decreasing balance after payments are made etc and i've guessed the b/t fee as 3% but think its slightly lower in reality. But as rough figures, it gives you an example of the size of the savings to be made:)

Flashart80

HI all

I was hoping someone could answer this for me. A lot of the advice I have read revolves around making the biggest payments you can to the card with the highest balance and that charges the highest APR. Makes total sense.

My situation is this. I have a Halifax credit card with £7.8k outstanding at an APR of 15.9%. The payments for this every month is calculated at 1% of the balance, +£5.

I also have a Capital 1 card with £7225 @ 8.9% APR *however* the payments on this card are charged at 3% of the balance, + £5.

The interest being applied to the Halifax is around £100 a month, which is pretty shocking. The interest applied to the Capital 1 is around £50 a month. But the minimum payments to the Capital 1 are around double that of the Halifax, at around £210 a month due to the extra 2% required as a minimum.

This does mean that the balance on the Capital 1 card reduces quicker. It's a lifetime of the balance APR, and balance transfers are charged at the same 8.9% APR + 3%. However this also means I have less cash to divert to Halifax.

The way I see it there are 2 scenarios:

Scenario 1 - Pay off as much as possible of the Capital 1 card. This means paying minimum on the Halifax. The balance of the Cap1 card reduces that much quicker, meaning I have more cash, more quickly to pay more of it off (like the snowball effect). Once the card is more or less clear, move the Halifax balance over.

Scenario 2 - Make minimum payments on the Capital1 card (which are around £210 a month though this does reduce) and divert as much as I can towards the Halifax. The Halifax balance will reduce, but perhaps at a slower rate.

The question I have really is, which scenario is best? For info, the Capital 1 has about £400 further credit I could use, the Halifax credit limit is £9350.

Thanks for any help!

docb

Hello All
I currently have a virgin card and a barclaycard, Virgin with 4k (limit 14k), and a barclaycard with 4.5k (limit 7k)
the Virgin has been off its 0% for 3 months now, the barclaycard is to come off its 0% in July.
As they have both offered me a 0% for 6 months on transfers, i was planning on shifting the 4.5k from BC to Virgin, then balance transfer 4k from Virgin the BC.
would this work? i am guessing as the offset rules pay off the interest element first, that the second transfer of 4k from Virgin to BC will leave the 4.5k of transfer at 0% on the virgin?
Do i need to leave a time lapse between the 2 transfers, or could they be done on the same day?

thanks in advance

Doc