BOS CC Interest Increase = What Should I Do?

bleakhousebairn

I had an outstanding balance of £6,731 on my Bank of Scotland credit card. As I am trying to get my finances under control and not pay so much interest I applied for a Barclaycard Simplicity card with the interest rate at 6.8%. I received the card with a credit limit of £2970 and promptly transferred £2673 from my BoS Mastercard.

Now I have received a letter from BoS stating my interest rates are increasing, however I have the option of closing my account if I wish to stay on the existing rates but will not be able to use my card or re-open the account at a later date.

I will definitely not be using the BoS card for spending nor will I be using the Barclaycard for spending. Should I apply for a 0% card and hope I can transfer the balance remaining on my BoS card? My minimum monthly payment on my BoS card is £104 and I do not know yet what my minimum monthly payment will be on my new Barclaycard - I am hopeless at working out the percentages and payments!

Can anyone advise me please? I do not want to go ahead and apply for another card only to discover I cannot make the monthly payments on 2 cards (or possibly 3 if I still have a balance remaining with BoS).

never-in-doubt

bleakhousebairn wrote: »

I had an outstanding balance of £6,731 on my Bank of Scotland credit card. As I am trying to get my finances under control and not pay so much interest I applied for a Barclaycard Simplicity card with the interest rate at 6.8%. I received the card with a credit limit of £2970 and promptly transferred £2673 from my BoS Mastercard.

Now I have received a letter from BoS stating my interest rates are increasing, however I have the option of closing my account if I wish to stay on the existing rates but will not be able to use my card or re-open the account at a later date.

I will definitely not be using the BoS card for spending nor will I be using the Barclaycard for spending. Should I apply for a 0% card and hope I can transfer the balance remaining on my BoS card? My minimum monthly payment on my BoS card is £104 and I do not know yet what my minimum monthly payment will be on my new Barclaycard - I am hopeless at working out the percentages and payments!

Can anyone advise me please? I do not want to go ahead and apply for another card only to discover I cannot make the monthly payments on 2 cards (or possibly 3 if I still have a balance remaining with BoS).

Why not apply for one card, like Virgin or something, and transfer all balances over to it. Failing that, transfer the Barclaycard balance back to Halifax and then close the Halifax paying the low rate and keeping the £3k barclaycard as a reserve for when you need it. This way one card with one payment per month, as you were.

Obviously if you move the whole balance over to a 0% like Virgin then that's better....

bleakhousebairn

Thanks, I'll definitely apply for the Virgin card but there is no point transferring back to BoS as their rate of interest before the increase was 19.95% so I think I'm better sticking with the new Barclaycard rate of 6.8%. I do have until 10th May to decided whether to close the BoS account so hopefully by then I should know if I've been accepted for the Virgin card.

never-in-doubt

bleakhousebairn wrote: »

Thanks, I'll definitely apply for the Virgin card but there is no point transferring back to BoS as their rate of interest before the increase was 19.95% so I think I'm better sticking with the new Barclaycard rate of 6.8%. I do have until 10th May to decided whether to close the BoS account so hopefully by then I should know if I've been accepted for the Virgin card.

Hang on, dont just apply - click the link at the top of this page that says Credit Cards and look for a good 0% one.....

best of luck - if you apply elsewhere let us know the apr and limits please?

bleakhousebairn

No problem - will let you know the apr and limits once I decide who to go with.

Do you know how much the minimum monthly payment would be for my new Barclaycard at 6.8% on the £2,673 I transferred? My maths is rubbish and I worked it out at just over £181 and I don't think that's right - well, I hope it's not as much as that!

never-in-doubt

bleakhousebairn wrote: »

No problem - will let you know the apr and limits once I decide who to go with.

Do you know how much the minimum monthly payment would be for my new Barclaycard at 6.8% on the £2,673 I transferred? My maths is rubbish and I worked it out at just over £181 and I don't think that's right - well, I hope it's not as much as that!

Try this - http://www.whatsthecost.com/creditcard.aspx

CLAPTON

bleakhousebairn wrote: »

No problem - will let you know the apr and limits once I decide who to go with.

Do you know how much the minimum monthly payment would be for my new Barclaycard at 6.8% on the £2,673 I transferred? My maths is rubbish and I worked it out at just over £181 and I don't think that's right - well, I hope it's not as much as that!

6.8% of 2673 is indeed 181 but that isn't what you pay each month (that's the yearly interest)

you need to know what the minimum monthly payment is... its generally between 2 to 5% of the balance

bleakhousebairn

That's better! Just over £60 for the minimum monthly payment but I'll hopefully be paying £100 to try and clear it quicker. Wish I'd known about that link before - it certainly makes things a lot clearer for a mathematical numpty like me!
Many thanks never-in-doubt.

System

6.8% APR = 0.55% monthly interest rate.

Barclaycard Simplicity has a 2.25% minimum payment rate, so...

Your initial balance of £2673 + 0.55% interest = £2687.70 (assuming a full months interest)

2.25% of £2687.70 = £60.47

Once you pay this your new balance will be £2627.23, then on the following statement they will add another 0.55% interest and your minimum payment will be 2.25% of the resulting figure.

Hope I make sense!

Regards
UNDERGROUND

System

Damn! Spent so long typing you worked it out already!

UNDERGROUND

never-in-doubt

UNDERGROUND wrote: »

Damn! Spent so long typing you worked it out already!

UNDERGROUND

Nah mate - he used this link: http://www.whatsthecost.com/creditcard.aspx takes 10 seconds LOL