Card shuffle challenge !

Kev64

I've got three cards - Lloyds, Virgin & Egg.

Egg is clear - zero balance, Virgin has about £8500 on it, Lloyds about £7500.

I have balance transfer offers from all of them, Virgin are the best at 0%, then Egg at 3.9%, then Lloyds at 4.9%.

Both the Virgin and Lloyds balances are already on 0% from previous balance transfers, but both offers are expiring imminently. I need to end up with the cards filled in this order: Virgin, Egg, Lloyds (though the first two will probably hold all of my debt). So far, so simple - I transfer the Virgin balance to Egg at 3.9% (thus clearing the Virgin card), then transfer the Lloyds balance to Virgin at 0%.

However - due to being messed about by Santander (long story !), I am now out of time - and Lloyds are going to start charging me astronomical interest (27% !!) starting on Wednesday, therefore I need to get the Lloyds balance cleared immediately.

How can I juggle this ?

I've come up with a couple of options, but wanted to run them past others here to see if I'm just talking nonsense !

1) Do the transfers as detailed above (i.e. Virgin --> Egg, then Lloyds --> Virgin) and just take the interest hit on Lloyds (starting Wed) whilst waiting for the transfer sequences to complete.

2) Transfer Lloyds to Egg, then make a payment from Lloyds to Virgin (not a balance transfer*) to clear Virgin, then balance transfer back from Lloyds to Virgin.
(*My logic here is that it would be cheaper to pay the normal Lloyds rate of :eek:% for perhaps a week, rather than do it as a BT and incur the associated 3% fee).

Can anyone think of any alternative juggle please, or comment on my suggestions above ?

Many thanks !

smallblueplanet

Off topic - but your Egg BT offer, is this on an old or new card? I've one with an offer that's just ended and was wondering if Egg do further BT offers?

CannyJock

You don't mention what the current APR on your cards are so I'll assume 18% across the board.

You don't mention your credit limits but will assume you've got a 10k limit on each card for now.

Currently you have:
Virgin / 8500 / 10000 / 18% (offer = 0%, 3% fee)
Egg / 0 / 10000 / 18% (offer = 3.9%, 3% fee)
Lloyds / 7500 / 10000 / 18% (offer = 4.9%, 3% fee)

I would
BT 8500 from Virgin to Egg - be sure to get a nil balance Virgin statement.
BT 7500 from Lloyds to Virgin

As a stoozer, I'd also transfer an extra 2000 from Virgin to my current account (whatever amount increases Virgin balance to 95% of credit limit) and earn some additional interest on it elsewhere