When in the month do you transfer balance?

sirjeremy

As I stated on another thread, I have £3,700 balances on my two credit cards. The cards APR's are 20% so I need to transfer to a lower rate card soon, I know.

But when do you do it? Do you wait for the two statements to come then transfer them? Or do you do it as soon as you've paid the monthly repayments? Or doesn't it matter?

Milarky

The general advice is:

- always pay the minimum payment yourself by the due date
- arrange to pay the rest of the balance by balance transfer to another card offering the lower APR

This just covers you on your existing card against late payment fees.

Otherwise transfer as soon as you can - a statement is not generally necessary as, with interest being added, you can't give an exact amount to transfer to clear it - just an approximate amount. It is prudent therefore to overpay by (say) one month's interest and put the card into a small positive balance which you can spend quite quickly again.

Money-Saving-Monk

Do it as soon as possible. Personally I always work on 6 weeks. This could be over kill but its always better safe than sorry so to speak. Id rather not sail close to the wind and make sure that I am not going to get my fingers burnt.

Try and find a card which does not have a transfer handling fee. If you went with one of the regular cards on the market you would be looking at a 2.5% transfer fee which would work out at about £92.50 for you. Try and find one of the few cards on the market at present which do not have a fee.

Post Office is a good card with 6 months on both balance transfers and purchases plus no transfer fee! The downside is that I feel they offer slightly lower credit limits as they are more conservative than some providers. All in all though it is a great card and could save you a good lump.

Hope that helps mate

grumbler

Transfer ASAP. It is impossible to predict the exact amount to transfer. Transfer either a little smaller amount or a little bigger. The latter case is simpler. They will send you a cheque on small remainder on closure of the account (or will make BACS transfer it to your current account).

grumbler

Money-Saving-Monk wrote:

Respected websites
Money Offers UK (Good Credit Card Search Tool) - http://www.moneyoffers.co.uk

Respected? Oh, come on ... Absolutely useless and asking your e-mail address as a mandatory field for a general search.
And links are not allowed in signatures.
I reported you to abuse controller.

EDIT. I am sorry, the e-mail address field is not mandatory in fact ...

Money-Saving-Monk

Your name suits you?

What on earth have I actually done wrong? Ive come on and given useful tips on credit cards as ive done alot of transfering myself in the past and done alot of stoozing. Its a personal interest of mine.

Money Offers is a favoured website of mine because money supermarket popups lots of spammy popups and adverts which are confusing when all I want to know is what rates, intro offers and handling fees are being bandied about? It was passed onto me by an IFA when I was remortgaging so you should not just flame!

As for the signature why didnt you just politely PM instead of being so nasty. Its a great way to approach someone who has just joined the board community! Great stuff!

What are you on about asking for an email? I don't ask for emails? Explain that one to me?

Its not my site! So watch what you say before burning people! This is a community and you should greet everyone as equals until you investigate. You may have many posts as a user but you are obviously not in the right spirit of what a Money Saving community is about!

Ive even went on to look at that site about the email and you don't have to give your email address! It even states that!

If links arent allowed in signature how are you meant to know. They actually allow you to put links in!

Nice one and very nasty! Your a great credit to the forum!

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grumbler

I am sorry if I was wrong about you. There are a lot of spammers arount and it is waste of time to PM them. I still insist that 'respected' site wouldn't ask you to enter your e-mail address during your first attempt to make general search. I was wrong that the field was mandatory though ...

Re signatures and links, see the top of the boards:
Welcome New MoneySavers: Do read this > MoneySavingExpert.com Forum Rules > #24 :

The only links permitted in signatures are those of the MSE team, the Forum team, Board Guides and links to charity (ie they are on the Charities Commission Register of Charities). This includes un-activated links. If in doubt, contact [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL]

See also #23 :

Please ensure your signature takes up a minimum amount of space. Large signatures can make threads harder to read.

What's the point in advertising http://www.moneysavingexpert.com on the same website? IMHO the only point could be to make some other links not so provoking ...

Money-Saving-Monk

Righteo my apologies I did not know No was just automatic of me putting in my useful sites. I have been a regular visiter just never progressed to signing up. Saying as I had found alot of the information useful I thought I would sign up and start sharing to help out in return It was just an automatic thought to put in Money Saving Expert as it was one of my favoured sites. I hate spam and stuff being over busy. I know at times this site can be but the information is fantastic so I forgive it!

I hate the likes of Money Supermarket (http://www.moneysupermarket.com) as it just popups up adverts and too much going on that I find it hard. At the end of the day I like to get the information as fast as possible and with Money Offers I find it easy to understand ive used to twice now as a tool for switching my cards after an IFA from Positive Solutions suggested it. I just thought others might not be aware of it.

I didnt know what you meant by me taking emails I was like eh?

I think on the email thing alot are quite sneaky in trying to get emails by the looks of things. Money Supermarket does the same ive just noticed going back on it Hadnt really spotted that

Are you allowed to list site titles but not actually link to them? I wanted to list some guides as well. Found out about a cool stoozing website guide earlier off one of the forum guys.