Unoffical Existing Customer Balance Transfers

askance

Hello to you all

Today called up Barclays, offer on my Barclaycard Platinum for 6.9% APR for life of balance.
2.9% handling fee, no struggle, just asked for it.

HSBC, last week... a half an hour 'phone call moaning at them, asking them for a balance transfer or, indeed, anything to keep me as a customer (18 years plus and have never received any offers!!)... blood/stone, etc

henrik1971

Recently been offered 12 months 0% balance transfer from AA Advantage Amex, which I've had for a few years.
Then yesterday I got a letter from Barclaycard (which I've had for about 3 years but not used much other than an initial BT offer), and they've offer me 13 months at 0%.
I have quite a bit on several cards at the moment, but they are all either 0% already or on LOB rates like 3.6% (Capital One) and 4.95% (Intelligent Finance) which I daren't move as the benefit of moving to 0% when you take the admin fee into account is barely worth it.

No buses come along for ages, and then three all at the same time. This seems to be true in so many areas of life....!

scott_lithgows

RBS 12months 0% for a 3% fee (min £5)

thenudeone

Amazon (mbna) 0% BT til 16/1/2013; 3% fee
Amazon (mbna) 0% SBT til 16/1/2013; 4% fee

(Card held for c.2yrs, initially for 0% deal; rarely used without 0% deals)

EnglishGladiator

Called Halifax for a 0% balance transfer for 13 months, 3% fee (after saying I wanted to cancel and passed through to loyalty team.)
Barclaycard 6.9% for life, 2.9% fee - no need to call, available online. Have previously had 0% for 6 months with 1.5% fee (again online).

chez3400

I have recently done a 0% balance tranfer with Post Office only to notice on my statement that interest had been charged to the tranfer fee! As i wasnt made aware of this they have 'waived it' but i wondered if anyone else has ever heard/had this done? It was only a small amount but all about the principle......

heikes

My MBNA sent me a letter in December to offer me a 0% balance transfer deal for all transfers made before 31st January until January 2013. Great Christmas present. Thank you!

Adorian

chez3400 wrote: »

I have recently done a 0% balance tranfer with Post Office only to notice on my statement that interest had been charged to the tranfer fee! As i wasnt made aware of this they have 'waived it' but i wondered if anyone else has ever heard/had this done? It was only a small amount but all about the principle......

Yes! Happened to me a year or so ago. I rang them and said that, although I had done the transfer over the phone and they had gone through every other detail possible, they did not mention this. The fact that the same thing still seems to be happening does make me wonder if it's something that they deliberately do. Even if it's just a couple of quid, with the number of balance transfers they must get, that's not bad money.

udydudy

chez3400 wrote: »

I have recently done a 0% balance tranfer with Post Office only to notice on my statement that interest had been charged to the tranfer fee! ............

Used to be common practice with a lot of credit card providers, but with the recent positive payment hierarchy it really costs only pennies as the first payment would go towards the highest cost on the statement.

Though I disagree with the principle behind it the problem is that lenders are businesses and they would try to make money as much as possible. I do not condone it but at the same time I think the government has dumbed peope enough and we need to wake up to check details.

e.g. a friend was complaining that supermarkets have 2 x 250g packets cheaper than one 500 pack of the same stuff and that it was daylight robbery.....I was like ...excuse me.... the law makes sure that supermarkets put the per 100g cost on the labels so why cannot he read it?? that is the problem the law has made things easier and people have got dumbed down so much they expect that service providers/retailers give them everything in their palms!!!


Hey lets wake up check details than just plain look at the headline rates.....thats what this site is about educating each of us to how things work so that we can understand and make sure we are not conned..... :):):):)

Adorian

udydudy wrote: »

... lenders are businesses and they would try to make money as much as possible. I do not condone it but at the same time I think the government has dumbed peope enough and we need to wake up to check details.
<snip>
Hey lets wake up check details than just plain look at the headline rates.....thats what this site is about educating each of us to how things work so that we can understand and make sure we are not conned..... :):):):)

I rang the Post Office to ask if they had any BT offers and they offered me the 0%, told me about the fee etc but did not mention the interest charged on the fee. There was no small print to read as I got the offer from a phone call and the fact they were obviously reading the T&Cs from a script made me believe that they had disclosed all the relevant information.
Also the fact that when I rang and queried it, stating that this had not been mentioned when I accepted the offer and they immediately acquiesced to the removing of the charge would make me think that that wasn't a one time 'error' on their part. Sure they are a business looking to make money, but, ethical considerations aside, I'm pretty sure that companies can't just not tell you about charges they are going to impose upon you.