0% cash advance? Virgin charging me a fee to balance transfer away! Stupid mistake!

Bexm

Hello!

I need advice.. think I've made a mistake with credit cards..
Back in january we really needed a new car as ours completely conked out..

I had a credit card from virgin which offered 0% cash advances to my current account until may (then switching to something like 17.9%).. We only needed £4600 so after much research on here I decided to to do a cash transfer to my bank with the intention to switching to the Abbey Zero round about now..

Anyway, as you all know the abbey zero card was discontinued, and I found out when it was too late, so I went on a massive search for low fee 0% balance transfers..

Found a 1.7% one from Barclays.. so well chuffed with my self I applied and got it yesterday..

so.. (I'm sure you can tell what's coming next) someone mentioned they had heard that MBNA (my virgin card) charge a fee to balance transfer away from them.. so I called them to check.. and they do.. 2%!

So now I'm stuck with a 3.7% fee to move my balance.. which ok it not as much as the normal credit card APR but still more than I wanted to pay!

Plus now have 3 credit cards to my name..! (up until september last yr I had none)

I expect to have this balance paid off by September.. so am looking for options..

1 does anyone know of any other 0% cash advance cards..?
2.. can anyone think of any other way of doing it?


Please help!
I feel like I've made a stupid mistake and should never have bought the fliipin car that way!

Bex

Rafter

Bex,

Don't beat yourself up - you are still getting cheap financing compared to a normal loan. Not heard of that new MBNA trick - very crafty.

You need another 'super balance transfer' type card that will allow you to transfer your new limit to MBNA, without them seeing it as a transfer.

Not sure if anyone other than MBNA does this anymore, but might be worth checking out Egg or Egg money - they certainly used to.

You could try asking Barclaycard to see if they will do it, but they might treat it as a cash advance and therefore you won't get the promotional rate.

Don't rush to pay the balance off by September if you are paying 0% on your Barclaycard. Better to leave the money in a high interest savings account and then pay off at the end of your 0% period.

Good luck

R.

Bexm

Thanks for the info..

I just feel like a prat for using a credit card and possibly not reading the small print?

Apparently the "super balance transfers" are by mbna only.. and as my virgin one is that then its not going to work.

Thought my plan was too good to be true!

Bexm

I have just had a lightbulb moment...!!!

Am I allowed to have another mbna card and do a cach transfer from that to my account? and then pay off with that????

Eydon

Yes you are. You'd need to Super Balance Transfer to your current account from the new card and then use the cash to pay off the old card.

Having said that, this all depends on whether MBNA will give you another card and if they do, if the credit limit will be high enough. When you apply they will look at the total credit limit you have on all MBNA issued cards when determining the credit limit they'd give you on the new card - so you might not get a high enough limit to do what you need.

Worth a try though.

Also, bear in mind that any new MBNA card would charge you around 3% to do your new Super Balance Trasnfer, so it won't be much cheaper than the 3.7% route you already have (and will be another search on your credit file - if that bothers you).

nzseries1

You can, and MBNA will let you have two cards, but quite often the credit limit on the second card will be lower because you already have a card with them.

iwanprice

Hi,

Could you please explain this to me like you were speeking to an idiot (although I am far from one) as I would like to clarify a few points.

If I wanted to buy a car for e.g £4000 privately and needed to pay for it with cash. I would like to get a credit card and pay 0% APR. I would aim to pay off the balance within a year or two but possibly pay it off in a lump sum asap.

I have no credit cards at the moment, I bank with HSBC.

Can someone give me a possibly step by step guide on the route to go down which I can then investigate.

A big thanks in advance.

Iwan

missile

To avoid balance transfer fee away from CC#1, you could try to get an overdraft, pay off CC #1 then balance transfer overdraft to CC #2

Obviously your credit rating would have to be good enough to qualify for the overdraft.

Degenerate

Bexm wrote: »

so.. (I'm sure you can tell what's coming next) someone mentioned they had heard that MBNA (my virgin card) charge a fee to balance transfer away from them.. so I called them to check.. and they do.. 2%!

Please elaborate on this. You don't need MBNA to do a "balance transfer away", balance transfers go through the normal payment system and only need to be actioned by the card issuer of the new card (Barclaycard in your case). No credit card I have ever heard of charges a fee to be paid off, and I'm pretty sure it would be against the Consumer Credit Act.

Bexm

Degenerate wrote: »

Please elaborate on this. You don't need MBNA to do a "balance transfer away", balance transfers go through the normal payment system and only need to be actioned by the card issuer of the new card (Barclaycard in your case). No credit card I have ever heard of charges a fee to be paid off, and I'm pretty sure it would be against the Consumer Credit Act.

Well apparently they do..! I don't know how.. someone told me.. so I asked them!

My hubbys an accountant and his boss emailed something round about MBNA doing it.. so I called them..

Bexm

iwanprice wrote: »

Hi,

Could you please explain this to me like you were speeking to an idiot (although I am far from one) as I would like to clarify a few points.

If I wanted to buy a car for e.g £4000 privately and needed to pay for it with cash. I would like to get a credit card and pay 0% APR. I would aim to pay off the balance within a year or two but possibly pay it off in a lump sum asap.

I have no credit cards at the moment, I bank with HSBC.

Can someone give me a possibly step by step guide on the route to go down which I can then investigate.

A big thanks in advance.

Iwan

Hi iwanprice

Here's what I did if it helps..

I got a Virgin Atlantic credit card (my first ever one, only got it for the airmiles as was going on honeymoon!)..

Anyway, this card offered a 0% until May on cash transfer to my account. They charged 2% of the amount I wanted to transfer with a maximum fee of £50 (which was great).

So what you need to do,

Sign up for an MBNA CC, BT are offering one at the moment with 12 months 0% on cash transfers.

Once you have got the card and find how much credit they will give you (and hopefully it will be enough) call them and ask them to transfer it to your current account.

it will take about a week and then you will have the cash..

Now as long as you don't use your card for anything else you will pay no interest on the amount for the 12months..

There are some very important things to note though;

1 DO NOT under any circumstances use the card for anything else, because you will pay interest on that until the whole balance is cleared..

I made this mistake.. I had £18 balance left on the credit card when I did the money transfer, and altho this was on the card before I did the transfer it will not get paid off until the whole balance has cleared, this means I am paying about 30p interest amonth on the £18!!

The reason for this is the lowest interest rate stuff gets paid off first regardless of order of spend!

2 if you don't pay the minimum amount ON TIME each month it will revert to normal interest.

Check out the super balance transfers on this site.. it explains it too.!

Hope this helps..

Bex