Advice please!

Italy_2012

Hello all, this is my first post on the Forum after reading many articles with interest. I have tried to find the answers i am looking for but thought it best to tailor my question as there are so many posts! I hope somebody may be able to give me some advice...

I have 3 Credit Cards. Virgin, Egg and Barclaycard Gold.

Credit Limits and Balances outstanding are:

Virgin £8000
My Balance - £7,000 15% Interest

Egg £12,000
My Balance -£2,000 30% Interest (scandalous)

Barclaycard Gold £9,200
My Balance - £7,500 Lifetime at 6.5% Interest

Having £10,000 credit available on Egg Card I was hoping to be able to do a transfer at a good rate but unfortunately Egg will only offer me 30% Interest!

My credit rating is excellent according to Experian and a couple of months ago I tried to apply for a new card for a 0% transfer (RBS) and was rejected.

I don't want to keep applying for things as it will affect my rating I'm sure. Should I close the Egg account? Is it because I have too much credit available that new cards won't accept me?

What I want to do is obviously get my balances on the lowest Interest rate possible. I manage all my payments (but would love to go on a Cruise instead!) but cannot stand paying such High Interest.

My thoughts were to transfer Virgin Balance to Egg, then Barclaycard to Virgin and finally transferring Egg balance back to Barclaycard as both Virgin and Barclaycard are offering me 0% deals.

My big worry is that my transfer to Egg may get stuck there at 30% Interest if I cannot then transfer back. I just don't know how it works and the timescales allowed between transfer etc.

I hope I am making myself clear. I am sure I am not being very clever here and would really appreciate some wise words or anybody who has had a similar position to me?

If I have been unclear or confusing please let me know and I shall try and simplify. It's tough thinking how to word it all.

Just to let you know a bit about me...these debts are backlash from my 30's when I was rather silly and just spent far too much...I am so sensible now and the constant reminder of my irresponsibilty is maddening...paying the price now!

Thank you in advance of any help :j

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

Welcome to MSE.

Italy_2012 wrote: »

Hello all, this is my first post on the Forum after reading many articles with interest.

Italy_2012 wrote: »

My credit rating is excellent according to Experian

You may have missed the ones which advise against believing what Experian say about your "credit rating". They just supply information to potential lenders; the lenders themselves decide whether you are acceptable to them.

pugzy

I've found Credit Expert to be a good source of info for finding who will accept you and how much credit you have against you etc.

[Deleted User]

Are you sure you want to give up a 65% LOB for a short term 0%? With that sort of debt, I would hang onto the LOB from BCard.

So you could just shift Virgin to Egg and back again (incurring the relevant fees)- although of course, you take the risk that Virgin close your limit down as soon as you BT out, as 30k is a lot of limit to have floating about, depending on your salary. And then you really will be stuck.

Shifting Egg to Bcard and closing Egg may help, but you can't guarantee you'll get another card.