Which of these cards most likely to offer BT for existing customer?

Will_Do

Hi

I currently have three cards with similar amounts outstanding on each - Egg, Bank of Scotland mastercard and MBNA Platinum Plus. I've just had a savings plan mature which will allow me to pay off any one of the cards with a little bit left over. My ideal would be to pay off the one that would be most likely to offer me a decent balance transfer deal so that I can then move the balance from the remaining cards.

If usage makes a difference then both the MBNA and Egg cards were originally opened for a BT deal. The egg card has never been used for anything else whereas I have used (yes I know now) the MBNA card quite extensively. The BoS card I've had for years and use it fairly frequently. All cards get minimum paid by DD every month with ad-hoc lump sums fromtime to time.

Anyone care to suggest which is most likely to offer me a BT if I clear the current balance?

CannyJock

What are the APR, balances and credit limits on the cards? Might be something can be done to shuffle the debt even without an offer.

Personally I'd be tempted to look a new card where you would know what the 0% deal was before you started.

Have you called the existing cards to ask if they have any balance transfer deals? If they do, ask them to confirm how long they will make it available for.

Will_Do

CannyJock wrote: »

What are the APR, balances and credit limits on the cards? Might be something can be done to shuffle the debt even without an offer.

I will go for paying off the most expensive card (MBNA without a doubt) if it looks like the chances of any of the cards offering a BT are unlikely. My thinking was, and please correct me if I'm wrong, That if I get a BT then it makes sense to have paid off the card that gave me the BT as I would ultimately be transferring the most expensive debt over. Does that make sense?

CannyJock wrote: »

Personally I'd be tempted to look a new card where you would know what the 0% deal was before you started.

I'm considering that option, however it's not one I'm especially keen on for a number of reasons. Never say never though.

CannyJock wrote: »

Have you called the existing cards to ask if they have any balance transfer deals? If they do, ask them to confirm how long they will make it available for.

I can give that a try. Do you know if they would honour such an offer if I cleared the balance after the offer was made but before the transfer? My limited understanding is that they like using BTs to trap in higher rate debt. So whilst they might offer me one thinking I was prime for such a ruse could/would they change their minds when they saw that wasn't going to happen?

CannyJock

If you want to list the specific APR's, balances and credit limits we can put them through a few formula's to see about juggling.

Clearing the highest APR debt is normally the key thing - but you need to know what offers your existing cards will make.

When you have an existing balance on the card, normally a promotional balance transfer offer will be paid first because of the negative allocation of payment rules. So there's actually an incentive for them to make you a promotional offer while you have a balance hoping that you don't know any better, take the offer, continue with your payments, and they make more money from you.

The trick to making this work for you is to clear the balance first before taking them up on the BT offer, but having it confirmed that the BT offer is still in place