Interest free periods on balance transfers

beatbeat

Hi, We all know there is an interest free period on most credit cards for purchases but does anyone know of a card that offers an interest free period for balance transfers? I know both of my cards start charging interest straight away even when I pay off in full at statement time.

Reaper

You've got to be joking. There are hardly any that don't.


EDIT: Hmmm - maybe you meant excluding introductory periods??! If so yes there are still some e.g. Nationwide

elless

???we've just been caught out by the partnership (John Lewis) card - 0% on balance transfers for 6 months, they claimed, but the reality is that even though we pay off our purchases in full each month, leaving the balance transfer intact, their terms and conditions say that the first proportion of the payment is towards the balance transfer, leaving the equivalent proportion accruing interest .........
So unless you pay off your full balance each month you accrue interest. So where does the 6 month interest free come into play....?
The Bank of Scotland had a similar scheme some years ago - to me, it's just dishonest.

Reaper

You will find almost every credit card pays off the cheapest money first. For this reason you should keep one card just for purchases and others just for balance transfers.

Read the articles on the main site here or at https://www.stoozing.com, and always read the summary box provided when you take out a credit card.

MarkyMarkD

It's not dishonest - it's part of the product terms and conditions which you signed up to.

I would call it "crafty marketing" rather than dishonest - the lenders' intent is that you will do exactly as you have done, so the interest free credit won't cost them as much as it might first appear.

But as long as you don't use your card for purchases until the interest free TRANSFERS period has expired, you won't get charged anything at all - hence why it's not actually dishonest.

The advice above is sound - if you want to move money around interest free, over the medium to long term, it's worth reading up on how best to do it.

beatbeat

The point to my question was that I was looking to shunt balances between cards and thus avoid having to make a payment over christmas and before my payrise but it seems like all issuers charge interest on transfers immediately. Is this the case everywhere?

Milarky

The point to my question was that I was looking to shunt balances between cards and thus avoid having to make a payment over christmas and before my payrise but it seems like all issuers charge interest on transfers immediately.  Is this the case everywhere?

See the old thread: "IFP Balance Transferers" .

Currently I use Nationwide and cahoot for this [I happened to have both cards already] but the list is very small indeed.

There is also Liverpool Victoria I understand, but Halifax has since pulled its IFP bt card and RBS affinity cards have pulled theirs. It's just a matter of time before the remaining cards which offer this feature drop it, I feel. So for now I am just taking advantage.

Walletwatch

Although understandable, it is a pity that these are a diminishing lot. This would have meant life-time stoozing opportunities, without having to malign your credit history with new applications to avail of 0% periods.

Of course, another angle to it is that there is no reason why too much shuttling of debit balances around should not be misconstrued as money laundering.