To transfer or not?

trickster

Hi looking for some help here

I currently have about £5900 on Halifax One and am paying 4.9%. I don't spend on this card.

I also have £1900 on Capital One at 15.9% which I don't spend on.

Halifax have offered me a rate of 6.95% to transfer this. Capital One, won't budge.

I pay the minimum (or a few quid over) on both as I have other credit and commitments which limits me.

Is it worth doing the transfer? Or stay as I am and try paying a bit more off my Capital One card.

Any help would be very appreciated.

canny_yorkshireman_2

there are some other cards with low life of balence transfer rates have you tried any of those cards see martins site for the best available deals if not I would take up the halifax as the intrest rate is more favourable than 15.9% which is quiet high

trickster

True, but not sure if having the more expensive debt (6.9) accruing interest while I'm paying off the initial 4.9% interest makes sense. At least with staying as I am then I am at least paying that portion off.

Am I making sense?

magentadreamer

By staying you're paying interest at 15.9%, even if Halifax was to only take money off the 4.9% debt -which they don't I'm sure most CC's have a long list of how they devide up payments in the T&C's - you'll just pay less off the 6.9% I think - you'd still be quids in. I'd suggest you transfered -throw all the old cap one money at the card plus what you'd pay off normally on the Halifax 4.9% balance.

trickster

No, I'm sure in Martins guides he states that the cheapest debt ALWAYS gets paid off first.

Yes, here it is:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1107182516,76509,

Quote ' Thus the expensive debts are trapped on the card, speedily accruing interest, and there’s no way to repay them until the entire cheap balance transfer debt is repaid.'

magentadreamer

That is true but I'd argue that 6.9% is hellva lot better than 15.9%

trickster

It is, but is 6.9 better if I don't get round to for a couple of years, or 15.9% while I am paying some off?

magentadreamer

How long are you aiming to have the Cap one card cleared by? And could you afford to carry on paying the same amount for a longer term till all CC debts are cleared?

trickster

In an ideal world, I would like to get my Cap one cleared within a year (max). I could probably keep paying the same amount after it is cleared to my other debts

magentadreamer

Try using the snowball caluculator to see how much say 15.9% over a year would be on the Cap one Debt then how much it would be at 6.9% over say 2 or 3 years that might help you a bit to decide.

trickster

good idea. I'll let you know what I decide. Thanks for you help.