The best way to borrow £2500!!??

Steerpike_2

Hello,

I need to borrow £2500 and am struggling to decide the best way of doing so. Wondered if any kind souls could highlight some good deals / options I may have missed. Worst Case scenario is I take 3 years to pay off. So a 36 mth interest free deal would be good. Can afford repayments of approx £50-60 per month. I'd like the option of making overpayments / paying off early if poss, but don't want a 0% balance transfer to run out and find I cannot transfer anywhere else.

1. I have 6 or so credit cards so could potentially slap it on one of those with the hope of shifting at 0% every 6-12 months
2. Some places do interest free for 36 months - this is an option.
3. Borrow extra on mortgage - unlikely as have very little (or no) equity.
4. Loan
5. I have a good credit rating

Anyone know of any good deals out there?

Thanks in advance.

globalds

Are any of your cards offering to take a balance transfer for life at a reduced rate.

Halifax just emailed an offer of 6.95% for life if you balance transfer onto their card.

Not great but at least you could overpay and it is not the craziest rate ...although not as low as it could be.

[Deleted User]

i got 2.95% for life of transfer from halifax in december,shifted all my cc to it,and best of all min repayments 1% which is handy on the bad months.

Steerpike_2

good call. I bank with Halifax also so might swing it in my favour. Thanks folks.

Steerpike_2

quick query - given that I have about 6 cards already:

1. If I've already transferred a balance to one of the cards, do they usually exclude you from making another transfer for the life of the card? Even if you've paid the balance off?
2. Assuming the above is true, there must be a finite amount of times you can do a balance transfer because you can surely only apply for a finite number of cards?

Tammer

Hi Steerpike,

There are a few things you should be aware of:

• Transferring a balance onto a card that already has a balance can have nasty consequences. In most, but not all, cases and money you pay towards that card from that point on will go to the balance transfer and not the amount already sitting on the card. E.g. if you have £1000 on the card already at 16% and transfer a further £2500 at 6.95, all payments will go towards the £2500 until that's paid off meaning you pay a lot of interest on the original balance.

• Balance transfers normally come with a fixed fee (usually of 3%) on top.

• And finally, there has been a lot of consolidation in the CC market so quite often it's the same bank that offers 2 or more seemingly different cards. This can mean they don't let you transfer between those cards. An example may be MBNA and Virgin.

Hope the above comments help you anyway.

Steerpike_2

thank you Tammer - useful info.indeed.

I think the way to go is to try and find a 'for the life' deal at as low a rate as possible - then cut up the card.