Hoping for one more fee-free transfer - NOW an epic saga!

frivolous_fay

Hi all - hoping some of you could help me out with a little of your experience.
(No joy on the main credit card board as yet)

I see that fee-free 0% cards have dwindled almost to nothing! I have approximately £4500 on an &More 0% deal which is due to expire at the beginning of August. £2000 of that is immediately accessible, and I could pay off the rest if absolutely unavoidable. (Or I'd pay a fee if I couldn't avoid it)

I've been hoping to get another fee-free deal... possibly the last one, seeing the way things are going! Here are my options as far as I can see:

- Asda / GE card: Looks good, but my debt is already on a GE card! That'll be a problem, right? What kind of credit limit have people been offered by them?
- Barclayard in branch. I closed a Barclaycard in March. Will they laugh me out of the bank?
- Charity cards - can't see any reference to them here so are the fee-free deals now defunct?
- Post Office. I've heard they're quite hard to get, and I might not get much of a credit limit on it - any thoughts?
- Egg. I'm a customer on the old green card. Should I expect to pay fees on the anniversary deal? (In November)
- Morgan Stanley. I have a MS card awaiting closure. Is there any chance their retentions team will throw me a sweetener?

I'd be grateful for any info

PoorDave

Check out charity cards - i believe the deals are still there.

Martinslovechild

PoorDave wrote:

Check out charity cards - i believe the deals are still there.

Afraid not - only the 5 month 0% deals are shown in the Charity Cards website.

Here's a link to the Great Ormond Street card (from Halifax Bank of Scotland), which offers 0% for 9 months and, most important of all, is fee-free during the initial promotion period.

frivolous_fay

Thanks! I'm going for it now

frivolous_fay

Well... bit of a disappointing experience with Halifax.. be warned

- Applied on the 7th July online
- Tapped my feet... not even an email of confirmation. Wanted to ring and check but the message on the phone said I had to wait 14 days after application
- Rang on 21st July. To my relief they had heard of me and had details of my application and transfer requests. They said it was all going according to plan.
- Tapped my feet some more
- Rang on 26th July... was told an analyst was waiting to receive a number from someone.
- Rang today - told the analyst was still waiting for the number. Told the assistant that I was running out of time and could he please find out how long things will take? Got put on hold for a little while.
- Final verdict: I will receive credit agreement in 3-5 days. On returning that, my card will be processed and sent out. Once activated, my balance transfer can be arranged. Oh and by the way, my credit limit is provisionally £3600, pending final approval. (90% max)

Best case scenario: balance transfer actioned on 10th August
Worst case scenario: balance transfer actioned on 17th August
Difference between debt and credit limit: a little over £1k.
Date current 0% deal expires on £4223 balance: 5th August.

I could be being naive, but an application process of 5-6 weeks seems a tad excessive.

Fair play to Halifax though, their call centre staff are pretty helpful... but be warned - they're bloody slow to deal with things!

PoorDave

Martinslovechild wrote:

Afraid not - only the 5 month 0% deals are shown in the Charity Cards website.

Here's a link to the Great Ormond Street card (from Halifax Bank of Scotland), which offers 0% for 9 months and, most important of all, is fee-free during the initial promotion period.

I never said exactly which deals! Surely 5 months is better than nothing?!

frivolous_fay

Well... an update on the whole sorry saga.

Received a letter telling me card was waiting to be despatched. Signed and returned my credit agreement post haste (even put 1st class stamp on the freepost envelope to speed things up)

*drums fingers*

Rang Halifax just now. They told me my agreement had been received on the 2nd August. (Very impressive since they'd sent it out to me on the 2nd)

Sooo... how long to receive the card?

Well, you'll receive the PIN in 3-5 days.

Aaaaand... the CARD??

You'll receive the card up to 5 days after that.

So all that 'your card is waiting' stuff was just BS? I asked if it was usual for applications to take 5-6 weeks.

Yes, he said. They usually take 21-28 days.

Helloooo... can you count? I'm talking up to 42 days here.... *sigh*

GRRRRRRRR. Watching the interest tot up every day!

frivolous_fay

PIN arrived today. 5.5 weeks and counting!

frivolous_fay

Card arrived today. (Hooray!)

Spent 5 minutes on the 0870 'card activation' line (AKA the listen to recorded messages from people who talk very slowly, then we'll try to sell you card protection cover line)

Rang a few 0845 numbers trying to find a human being who would arrange my balance transfer. Eventually got through to a nice lady called Tracy. She told me there would be a 3% fee! Ah, I said, but my T&Cs say that fee doesn't apply in the promotional period. She said they'd been told that the 3% fee always applies. I say no, my T&Cs say otherwise... She asks if it's the Halifax One card. I look at it, and say yes... hang on, WHY is it the Halifax One card? I applied for the GOS card!

Oh, she says, this has happened before. (!)

Tracy racks her brain and recalls that you can't just transfer the T&Cs, you have to RE-APPLY for the correct card. BLOW THAT.

I ask Tracy if they'll be able to refund me the fee if they sort out the problem. She says she can't guarantee it, but she'll be emailing the correct department who with luck will straighten things out in 5-10 days.

She kindly calculates for me the corner I'm stuck in.

£90+ BT fee compared to the £50 per month I'll be paying by NOT transferring. I say I'll go for the transfer.

*DRUMS FINGERS*

Moggles_2

She asks if it's the Halifax One card.

This may explain some of your difficulties. The charity cards are operated by Bank of Scotland - same stable as Halifax of course. I signed up for one of these cards last April with none of the problems you describe.

All the same, you wouldn't have thought it would be beyond call centre staff to put you wise!

In case anyone else has applied for the charity or union cards, it's a Freefone number to activate and you can avoid the wretched 0845 number thereafter by ringing 0131 549 8041

Martinslovechild

Moggles wrote:

I signed up for one of these cards last April with none of the problems you describe.

Same here Moggles.

Frivolous Fay - Really sorry to hear about all your difficulties with the application as it was myself that recommended the card to you initially. I had no such problems myself, although I have received a letter recently from the Bank Of Scotland explaining that the GOS card administration is being transferred to MBNA, so whether that has anything to do with your problems, I'm not too sure.