Is this a good 'lifetime' deal?

gemima

Hello,

I am new to this board and I could really do with some advice please?

We are just about keeping our heads above water but our credit cards have started to mount up (despite our best endeavours). Neither of us like spending on cards but it just seems to have spiralled a bit.

We owe approx £3000 to Virgin. Initially this was taken out to do a balance transfer at 0% for 16 months and we didn't read the small print and transferred another smaller amount later on and consequently we are now paying interest. This finishes in February. We also have a Tesco Credit card which we just used to put our food/fuel bills on every month but this seems to have mounted up and now we can't pay the balance every month (we owe about £1800) which we have been doing for the last 3 years. I dread to think what the interest is on this but its not on a special rate or anything.

Anyway I have had a barclaycard platinum for years and years which I have not used for years and years and I went to close it today and was offered a lifetime balance transfer from other credit cards at 6.9% with a 2.5% handling fee. If we did this then we will never EVER put money on a credit card again but I am not sure if its the best deal out there. We have a good credit history, own home (mortgaged) and have never defaulted but don't want to have a long list of credit applications against our name and my husband is the only worker at the moment. Our mortgage fixed deal comes to an end in June 2010 so we want to be careful and try and get our debts sorted by then.

Can anyone help with this - would we be daft to switch our debts over to Barclaycard rather than apply yet again for another credit card with a better offer? It annoys me a bit because Barclaycard are offering new customers 6.3% with no transfer fee!!

Thanks in advance.

exel1966

There are numerous 0% cards available (SEE HERE) which providing you have a decent credit history should be available to you. Obtain one and transfer all your current debt over providing you get a suitable credit limit. NEVER use that card again !

The Barclaycard offer is not a particularly good deal with the fee attached so use it as a last resort only.

Once, that's done you need to look (despite your best endeavours) at the root cause of spending more than you have or can afford

nickmack

gemima wrote: »

Can anyone help with this - would we be daft to switch our debts over to Barclaycard rather than apply yet again for another credit card with a better offer? It annoys me a bit because Barclaycard are offering new customers 6.3% with no transfer fee!!

The 6.3% No fee is a decent offer if you're unable to pay off the balance within the 16 or so months of the longest 0% deal.

It's not quite so attractive at 6.9% + 2.5% fee, but if you're going to struggle to get another card and/or sufficient limit to cover your outstanding borrowing, it's better than paying standard rate. Would probably be worth a punt at getting a long term 0% though, as you should still have the Barclays option.