help me with my credit card balances please

redballoon_2

Ok. Here goes.

Balance one : 5504.06 on Barclaycard (most of it a balance transfer with a few purchases on it) Limit £6500. They are offering me 6.9% for life of the balance or 0% with 2% handling fee

Balance two : 2118.96 with HSBC most of it a balance transfer with a few purchases on it) Limit £7500

they are offering me 3.9% for six months with 2% handling fee

Balance three : 307.01 with the post office. limit £1000

I would like the debt on one card as one balance transfer so i know where I am.

Can any one give me some advice on how to swop these around so i am getting the cheapest deal. And i wont spend on them after I have done the balance transfer

Summary:

Balance Limit %
£5504.06----£6500

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6.9 for life or 0% oct with 2.5% fee
£2118.96----£7500

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3.9% for 6 months with 2% fee
£307.01

---

£1000

CLAPTON

probably too complicated to work out but one would need to know the following before even starting

a. how much can you pay per month in total.

b. does the barclaycard offer include your total current balance or just the balance transfer part and if not then what is the APR on the purchases element and how much is it. or does it only apply to new balance transfers?

c. again same questions for the HSBC card

d.what is the apr of the post office.

frugglewump

The problem with your situation is that there isn't enough room on the cards to move a full balance off either card with a decent offer & then back on again. Normally when only part of a balance is paid off you are pretty much guaranteed the more expensive debt is left behind - I belive HSBC do this the other way around - you need to check the T&C

The other thing to remember is that cards usually only allow a max of 90% of the limit when doing a BT which is what i have assumed for the maths below.

You haven't told us the APR for the post office card - are you past the 6 month 0% ?

The best shuffle I can calculate with the info you have given is:

4631.01 from barclays to hsbc (fee 92.62 or 50)

barclays total 873.05
hsbc 6842.59 or 6799.97 (4631.01 @ 3.9%)
postoffice 307.01

592.99 from barlclays to post office (no fee)

barclays total 280.06
hsbc 6842.59 (Assuming worst case)
postoffce 900

can't clear any more from barclays & they do pay off lowest apr first so it'll be your purchases

900 to barclays at 6.9% (fee 18)

barclays total 1198.06 (900 @ 6.9%)
hsbc 6842.59 (4631.01 @3.9%)
post office 0

now i'm pretty sure hsbc pay off more expensive balances first so if you move 2211.58 to barclays at 6.9% (fee 44.23) you'll end up with

Barclays total 3453.87 (3111.58 at 6.9%)
HSBC total 4631.01 all at 3.9%
post office 0

You can't then move the non 6.9% barclays to hsbc

Total fees paid for this shuffle: 112.23 or 154.85 depending on HSBC


Then after the 6 months you need to do it all over again.

It should be obvious that the fees (even if HSBC is capped) of doing this make the whole thing expensive. Probably too expensive. The maths is even worse if you start with trying to move the hsbc balance around.

If you really need all on 1 BT then you need
- either a larger limit on the post office card (since they are fee free)
- or another card to use as a temporary for the shuffle

This post doesn't even address whether or not you can afford the repayments - remember that barclaycard ask for 3%

david_hellier

If you can manage to transfer them all on to the "for life" card, do that. This will be the best value as base rates are set to rocket over the next year.

Avoid using the card for any more spending.

Good luck.