Credit Card Shuffling/BT Deals

polly30

I have 4 credit cards, Sainsburys, Egg, Barclaycard and Virgin with debt totalling 8k. My balance transfer deals on all cards are coming to an end this month and so I have called all Virgin and Barclaycard (I have remaining funds left with these providers) and asked what Balance Transfer deals they can offer and have been turned down by both despite speaking to their retentions departments. They have advised I could only transfer on the normal rates or try again in a few months.

I tried for a Post Office Card and MBA card and was declined by both despite checking my credit rating with Equifax which is showing as “Good”. Im trying to pay as much of my cards as possible but im now concerned at the amount of interest im going to be charged.

Can anyone give me advice on what to do here, should I take a bank loan to consolidate or try for a new card in a few months? In the meantime should I transfer as much of my debt to one card as I can and close down a couple of the cards in the hope this will make me more attractive to alternative providers?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Miss_J

Can't help you in terms of advice but just wanted to say I've had a similar thing happen to me. I have 14K of debt to pay back since graduating last year and had all mine on 0% deals. All have come to an end, except Barclaycard which I have a lifetime balance deal. My providers will only let me transfer a balance at the standard 15.9% APR rate. I recently spoke to the Halifax about a loan to consolidate these debts and they told me that they can't offer me anything until I get my debts down. Makes sense I suppose, but will take me longer to pay back at the higher rates, one of which is 20.9% APR, was initially 28.9% but I managed to convince them to reduce the APR. I think it's one of those "sign of the times" things at the moment.

td_007

polly30 wrote: »

Can anyone give me advice on what to do here, should I take a bank loan to consolidate or try for a new card in a few months? In the meantime should I transfer as much of my debt to one card as I can and close down a couple of the cards in the hope this will make me more attractive to alternative providers?

You could explore openig a current a/c that provides 0% overdraft - eg A&L gives one for 12 months for Premier Direct a/cs. That will give you some leeway.