Balance Transfers (Advice appreciated!)

mancdude

Hi all,

Over a year ago, I opened both a Capital One and Aqua card account to help boost my credit rating which was suffering due to having no credit. I am now in a position where my score is 'excellent' and as such I was hoping to transfer the balance of both to one single card at a lower rate. I'm currently making payments of £16 on the Capital One p/m and £5 on the Aqua p/m with total debt at about £600 between the two.

I have no idea where to start and to be honest, everything I'm reading confuses me no end! If anyone can point me in the right direction, that'd be grand...!

Many thanks.

Tixy

Have you made all your payments on time? do you only pay minimum payments always?
What are the limits on your 2 cards compared to the balances? (are you using all the available balance)?

Who do you bank with? have you tried applying for a credit card with them?

mancdude

Hi there - yes, I've never missed a payment and I'm paying the Aqua at minimum rate for a debt of £125/£250 and the Capital One is a debt of £375/£500 but I'm paying more than the minimum. I bank with the Yorkshire, not actually approached them as yet, was looking at Barclaycard - it looks like I meet the criteria, do I just apply and then ask them to transfer my balances if I'm successful?

---Edit---

Just applied to Barclaycard and was accepted - it says I should just go through the website to transfer balances when the card arrives. Result!

chattychappy

I don't mean to sound pompous, but you are talking in terms of what you (have to) pay each month and the balance/limit. You said you applied for those cards to boost your rating because you had no credit. Now you have them, but are already running balances on which you pay interest. You could have boosted your rating whilst paying off in full.

You really should be very in tune with the actual interest and APRs you are paying. Yep, you are right to get a Barclaycard at a lower rate - but do consider any fee you will have to pay (probably 2.5%) for the transfer. The fee is never included in the APR. The amount you have to pay each month may be different with Barclaycard.

If better interest terms and a lower minimum payment with Barclaycard cause you to spend more, then you won't really be saving. Don't allow the debt to run up so that as time goes on you pay little more than the minimum and a high proportion of that is interest.

Good luck with Barclaycard - bear in mind some people here seem to get accepted only to have the card immediately cancelled. So don't count chickens!