Can I Borrow Your Brains Please?

southernscouser

Hi guys, got a bit of a dilema and was wondering whether I could get some advice.

I have just been accepted for the HSBC 0% for 9 months card but the credit limit is only £2,250. The problem is I have got £4,400 on my Amazon card which starts charging interest @12.9% as of next Tuesday! :doh:

I am going to apply for another card but don't know whether to go for another 0% or get a low life of balance card?

I did apply for the Nectara nd BA Amex (?) cards about 6 months ago and was rejected but my file is alot better since then! Have reduced credit limits by by about £15,000 and closed 3 old accounts, and removed someone from my file!

Do you think if I did re-apply the outcome might be different?

Basically what I'm asking is, 0% card or low life of balance card?

Have tried my other cards but they can't offer me anything!

Heres what I have outstanding!

Egg (Limit - £500) £174.60
Capital One (Limit - £8,000) £6,948.12
Morgan Stanley (Limit - £2,700) 5.9% for life £2,263.52
Tesco (Limit - £600) 7.9% for life £512.79
Amazon (Limit £5,300) 0% - 21st March ‘06 - 12.9% £4,401.13

lipidicman

So I hope you are planning on keeping that HSBC card and moving £2,250 to it. Then it wont matter if the new card you get also has a lower limit - you can spread the debt. See Martin's article (Don't 'screw them') on this at http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1121180622,51973,

southernscouser

lipidicman wrote:

So I hope you are planning on keeping that HSBC card and moving £2,250 to it. Then it wont matter if the new card you get also has a lower limit - you can spread the debt. See Martin's article (Don't 'screw them') on this at http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1121180622,51973,

Thanks lipidicman. I'm definately keeping the card. Just wondering what people think the best card would be to get for the rest of the Amazon balance?

King_Of_Fools

I am assuming you have not got the available cash to pay off the rest of the debt on the Amazon card if you are considering a LoB card.

There are very few 0% cards that do not charge a 2% transfer fee (or higher), nowadays so you need to take this into consideration.

southernscouser

King_Of_Fools wrote:

I am assuming you have not got the available cash to pay off the rest of the debt on the Amazon card if you are considering a LoB card.

There are very few 0% cards that do not charge a 2% transfer fee (or higher), nowadays so you need to take this into consideration.

I certainly haven't got the cash! Have you seen my sig? :eek: :rotfl:

I'm swaying towards the low life of balance because I know where I am with that! All this interest free period ups the stress levels. At least that way I'll not get any nasty surprises in 6 or 9 months!

King_Of_Fools

southernscouser wrote:

I certainly haven't got the cash! Have you seen my sig? :eek: :rotfl:

I'm swaying towards the low life of balance because I know where I am with that! All this interest free period ups the stress levels. At least that way I'll not get any nasty surprises in 6 or 9 months!

Well you have to remember that 0% for 6 months with a 2% fee is equivalent to about 4% LoB for 6 months. So a LoB at 4.9% would start to be better very quickly after the 6 months are up.

AMILLIONDOLLARS

Why not phone HSBC and ask for a larger limit. explain that you want to transfer the entire £4,400 to them. if you don't ask you dont get.

Good luck!!

southernscouser

AMILLIONDOLLARS wrote:

Why not phone HSBC and ask for a larger limit. explain that you want to transfer the entire £4,400 to them. if you don't ask you dont get.

Good luck!!

You know what? Your right! Even if they only increase it by £1,000 it's an improvement! Will definately try that when the card arrives and I do my balance transfer! Thanks AMILLIONDOLLARS. :beer:

CIMA_LOVER

can you please tell us if there increase it, im trying to increase my limit, but with no luck

sly_dog_jonah

southernscouser wrote:

You know what? Your right! Even if they only increase it by £1,000 it's an improvement! Will definately try that when the card arrives and I do my balance transfer! Thanks AMILLIONDOLLARS. :beer:

That's definately a good plan! When I took out an HSBC gold about a year ago they gave an initially poor limit, but they increased it on production of a Nationwide Credit Card statement which verified the credit limit I had available on that. The HSBC credit limit jumped from <£1000 to £3400 (they matched it) Stress to them that you are closing the old card and they will almost certainly match the limit.

Another tactic you could try in future is reducing your limits on your other cards so as to reduce your overall available credit (your payments will reduce the balances considerably below the limits over time). This 'wasted' credit could impact your ability to get more cheap credit elsewhere to replace expiring offers. On the flipside though your outstanding credit as a percentage of available limit will increase, but the affect of this on your credit score will depend on the lender.