Best Credit card for Balance transfer for low earner

tsmiller62

Hi all,

My partner and I have been stoozing for years now. However, he was made redundant earlier in the year and has just taken a job to get some money in. Sadly this only pays £11K a year and it is a weekly paid job. His BT comes up soon and he has only been in the job a week!

Does anyone know of any cards that might take him?

WE knew one day the bubble would burst but we don't want to have to withdraw ISA cash to pay it off.

He is currently with Capital One and before that Mint so could not get those.

Any ideas?

Many thanks

YorkshireBoy

How much is the balance, and what rate is the ISA paying?

In other words, can you make a (worthwhile) profit out of BTing and paying a fee?

tsmiller62

It is about the same so I do not really make a profilt or loss. However I do not want to lose the tax free wrapper as I will not get it back in the future. Also that is reserve cash for when it gets really hairy.

TFD_2

tsmiller62 wrote: »

It is about the same so I do not really make a profilt or loss. However I do not want to lose the tax free wrapper as I will not get it back in the future. Also that is reserve cash for when it gets really hairy.

How is it reserve cash when it's just offsetting a 0% credit card balance?

tsmiller62

If we get a 13 month 0% we will save money in that time. This way if the money is there if anything major crops up we can use the reserve. If we pay off the credit card and something happens in 2 months time we will not have the spare cash to pay for it, also hopefully in 12 motnhs time he will be back to earning a decent salary and then we won;t worry about getting the next 0% BT.

YorkshireBoy

He's on (not much more than?) minimum wage and only been in the job a week. These two elements will mark him down considerably on the credit scoring.

That said, there are some cards requiring only £8Kish incomes (notably HSBC and the Post Office).

What about yourself? Could you not take his debt on? How about his own bank...do they have a suitable product?

You didn't say how much the debt was, because if it's 'significant' this whole thread may be pointless and you'll finish up having to drawdown the ISA(s) due to his 'circumstances'.

tsmiller62

Hi Yorkshireboy thanks for you time. The baslance is £5k. I know we will not get anywhere near that but even 2K will help.

Sadly my 0% is up in January and I doubt I will get anywhere near the limit on my current card so we will have to pay some of that off too so I cannot take his debt.

Just paying the price I suppose. He used to have a Virgin card but that was only closed in Aug 08. Do you know if they will consider another applciation or are they sticking to the 18 months?

Moggles_2

tsmiller62 wrote: »

He used to have a Virgin card but that was only closed in Aug 08. Do you know if they will consider another application or are they sticking to the 18 months?

No experience of re-applying to Virgin, but from feedback here he should be okay.

Alternatively, 13 months at 0% is currently available to new customers from Halifax on balance transfers made in the first 90 days. There's a 3% BT fee.
IME(and from feedback here), credit limits are generous and the minimum monthly payment is just 1% of the balance shifted

http://www.halifax.co.uk/creditcards/pluscard136.aspifaxith

YorkshireBoy

tsmiller62 wrote: »

He used to have a Virgin card but that was only closed in Aug 08. Do you know if they will consider another applciation or are they sticking to the 18 months?

I'd be happy to re-apply after 14 months, yes. I'd probably be more happy to maybe try a different MBNA product (a couple more offer 13 months), just in case there are 'policy rules' in place now.

In your/his situation, and assuming you're not bothered about a short-term hit on your credit rating, maybe a 'scattergun' approach would be better? ie, apply for 2-3 cards in the hope of securing the full £5K.

tsmiller62

Many thanks to all who replied.

We bit the bullet last night and applied again for a Virgin card. Accepted straight away! Not quite the limit we wanted but better than expected!!!!

Only trouble is now that as it was all done online we wasted a free month! Its 6 weeks until the 0% is up and by post it takes ages to even find out if you were accepted and what limit. Within 30 seconds we were accepted and given the credit limit!!!!

Again thanks to all for your advice.

kindofaverage

tsmiller62 wrote: »

Many thanks to all who replied.

We bit the bullet last night and applied again for a Virgin card. Accepted straight away! Not quite the limit we wanted but better than expected!!!!

Only trouble is now that as it was all done online we wasted a free month! Its 6 weeks until the 0% is up and by post it takes ages to even find out if you were accepted and what limit. Within 30 seconds we were accepted and given the credit limit!!!!

Again thanks to all for your advice.

hi - can I ask how much they give you as a credit limit - ?