Barclaycard Flexirate thingy

Liquid_Stool

hi Money Savers

I've just recieved what appears like a good offer and want to know if it REALLY is.

The blurb is and i quote "0% on balance transfers until it's paid in full - it's our way of saying thankyou for spending £25 or more a month on purchases." Apparently i can do this as often as i like upto 90% of my limit. There is also no transfer fee if i transfer a balance within 60 days of opening an account. A 2.5% handling fee applies after that.

I quote further " Purchases charged at your flexirate and will continue to incur interest while your balance transfers are being paid off. when we recieve your payment we'll reduce youre BT first. In months where you spend less than £25, the interest on your BT will be charged at your flexirate".

"pay 15% of your balance, you'll pay 7.9%pa"
"pay 10% of your balance, you'll pay 9.9% pa
2pay the minimum 5% of your balance and you'll payyour standard rate of 12.9% pa"


so, here comes the maths bit:

I have 3 cards, one i use only for BTs.

card 1 - £5000 balance i only use this for BTs, interest rate varies as i have transferred balances at different times, best rate is 4.5% for life, the other rate is 6.4% for life. My monthly minimum payment is about £85, £22 of which is interst, however i usually make a monnthly payment of £100.

card 2 - £400 balance, 15.9%:eek: apr, usually make double the monthly required minimum payment - only use this for purchases

card 3 - £1200 balance, only used for purchases 19.9%:eek: , usually pay only the minimum required (i know it's wrong:mad: )

So, i have a few questions

1/ obviously i'd be better off transferring all of theses cards to the Barclaycard platinum right?

2/ i know i have to spend £25 a month to keep this 0% deal, but suppose i dont make that £25 on purchases, and it reverts back to the "flexirate" for that statement month will it then revert back to 0% if i make £25 purchases the next month? do you see what i mean?

3/ I'd still get the average 56 days interest free on those purchases right? so assuming i transferred all of my balances to this new card, if when the statement came as long as i paid the £25 off in full that i'd spent on purchases, and i paid the required minimum on the balance transfers by the due date (if anyone could work that out, you'd be almost godlike:money: ) i should pay NO interest at all right?

Get yer thinking caps out cos i've tied myself in knots here trying to work this one out!! On the surface, it seems like a really good deal but as always the sting is in the small print!

Any help here would be great;)

Rafter

Liquid Stool,

Got yourself a complicated product there!

Tackling your points in reverse order....

3) You only get the 56 interest free on purchases if you have paid your last statement in full. So the current cards you are using for purchases you get no interest free days because you are paying only part of the balance off. This would be just the same with this barclaycard offer. As it says in their blurb the payment will come off your balance transfer first, not your purchases.

2) If it is like the old barclaycard offer, if you don't make the £25 payment it will revert to a higher rate, but as soon as you make £25 of purchases again you are back on track.

1) You certainly could save some money using this deal. Your 'card 3' in particular would be worth transferring and closing down with that interest rate. However, over time the £25 purchases will rack up and the savings will go down. Although if you can afford to pay 15% off each month after a while, a 7.9% isn't too bad.

Whatever you do you should switch to making minimum repayments on your 1&2 cards, and pay off as much as possible of your 3 card at the higher rate of interest. You should also try to stop making purchases on your cards if you don't seem to be able to get the balances down. To confirm you DO NOT get interest free days on purchases unless you pay the card in full each month.

Good luck.

R.

Liquid_Stool

Hey Rafter

so what you're saying is if i transferred everything to the new card and then paid off THE ENTIRE:eek: amount £6500 odd and then cleared any further amounts i put on the card, then i would pay no interest?

Am i better of to keep the existing deal i have with card 1 4.5-6.4% LOB or transfer evrything from everywhere to the new Barclaycard - what is gonna save me more money on a monthly basis?

I'm still not sure i get this thing though. technically i'm paying of £? on any balance transfers a month which is good right? and if i only spent the required £25 per statement month and paid that off as well, what's it gonna cost?

My current monthly MINIMUM required payment to all cards is £126, however i tend to overpay all of them by about £15 a month - except card 3. I know i should transfer cards 2 & 3 to card 1 but i'm waiting on a decent LOB rate, if i transferred tose cards to card 1 today i'd pay 20.9%:eek: - no thanks!

what do you think?

Rafter

The maximum balance transfer allowable under this deal is probably £5k

You will pay interest from month 2 unfortuately, because you will pay interest on the £25 minimum purchase amount.

You only have one account - you cannot decide how much gets paid off your 0% balance transfer and how much off your purchases.

Say you transfered cards 2+3's balances to barclaycard (card 1 is a good deal - I wouldn't suggest changing it)....

You would balance transfer £1800 at 0%

In month one you make purchases of £25 and make a minimum payment of £80. No interest is due.

In month two you make purchases of £25 and make a minimum payment of about £81. You pay interest on your purchases of about 50p.

Next month your interest goes up to 75p, then £1 and so on as your purchases balance increases. Your payment is only going against your 0% balance transfer amount remember.

After about 12 months the interest you are paying on your purchases will probably outweigh the savings you are making from your remaining 0% balance so you will need to find another card to transfer too.

In the meantime you will have saved about £100 in interest versus what you are paying on cards 2 & 3 at the moment hopefully though.

Keep trying to pay as much off as possible and don't add to the problem by using your cards for purchases if at all possible. Remember you are being charged from the moment you use your card. No interest free days for customers like you who don't pay their balance off in full.

R.

bunking_off

This thread discusses it (or at least its use for stoozing).

Basically, it's worth taking until the interest you're paying on the gradually increasing £25/month spend outstrips the saving you're making on the BT.

Liquid_Stool

so if i was able to get a deal with card 1, around 5% LOB would i be better sitcking with that and transferring cards 2 and 3 to that?

whilst i can see potential savings in this deal, i'm not a card tart and i'd rather (in hindsight) stick with what i know. Besides which, if i can pay cash i'd rather!

Is there any reason whyi can't call up card 1 and see if i can negotiate a good LOB transfer rate from cards 2 and 3?

Thanks for your help guys, particularly Rafter