Unoffical Existing Customer Balance Transfers

sfax

If you only qualify for a money transfer by virtue of the fact the direct debit is already in place, I'm not surprised that any change to the direct debit triggers a delay because otherwise you could setup a new direct debit only to take advantage of the offer. They should have made an exception in your case as you only changed the amount but the process is understandable

bouncydog1

softforge wrote: »

Same here! I'm currently loving the Halifax!

Yes same here. have been able to BT to OH's card at 0% for 12 mos and convert my Halifax Plat which is always paid off in full to clarity to use for overseas travel.

Laura_Figel

i have just been offered a capital one platinum card
with a 4.9% on balance transfer for life and 10.9%
on new purchases

downshifter98

Loving my Virgin card at the moment - maxed for a year at 0% (2% fee) until they increased my limit by another £6,000 (starting May 1st) and now a new 13 month 0% (2% fee) offer either against another credit card or money transfer into current account - this takes me into the 3rd year of borrowing on similar terms with Virgin - who needs equity release at 6% plus.....

sfax

downshifter98 wrote: »

Loving my Virgin card at the moment - maxed for a year at 0% (2% fee) until they increased my limit by another £6,000 (starting May 1st) and now a new 13 month 0% (2% fee) offer either against another credit card or money transfer into current account - this takes me into the 3rd year of borrowing on similar terms with Virgin - who needs equity release at 6% plus.....

Very good for existing customer deal although 13 months at 2% handling is 3.4% APR and you could recently get 1.5% handling fee on 20 month 0% interest free with Nationwide which is only 1.7% APR equivalent. Drawback is that you need to close and re-open after at least 1 year wait

downshifter98

sfax wrote: »

Very good for existing customer deal although 13 months at 2% handling is 3.4% APR and you could recently get 1.5% handling fee on 20 month 0% interest free with Nationwide which is only 1.7% APR equivalent. Drawback is that you need to close and re-open after at least 1 year wait

So I BT £1000 at a 2% fee for 12 months (to keep it simple) and pay back the required 1% monthly (£10.20 pm) which means that on average I'm losing the ability to earn interest on £61.20 over a year which at 2% is about £1.24. So total cost is £20 fee plus £1.24 = £21.24 or 2.124% obviously it's slightly better over 13 months. Surely the higher Apr only applies if loan is paid back evenly over the period but that's why I prefer this kind of borrowing as the min payments are surprisingly small (ie 1% per month). Or am I missing something else?

sfax

downshifter98 wrote: »

So I BT £1000 at a 2% fee for 12 months (to keep it simple) and pay back the required 1% monthly (£10.20 pm) which means that on average I'm losing the ability to earn interest on £61.20 over a year which at 2% is about £1.24. So total cost is £20 fee plus £1.24 = £21.24 or 2.124% obviously it's slightly better over 13 months. Surely the higher Apr only applies if loan is paid back evenly over the period but that's why I prefer this kind of borrowing as the min payments are surprisingly small (ie 1% per month). Or am I missing something else?

I wouldn't advocate only paying 1% monthly but yes, if you take 10 years to pay it off the APR will start to get closer to the total sequence of handling fees. The APR provides a benchmark to measure different periods against.

The other thing is that if you have a balance already, you can't just balance transfer, you need to clear the existing the balance and effectively make two balance transfers, incurring two fees

sfax

And if you want a different benchmark, consider 4 of these deals spanning 39 months compared with 2 Nationwide deals spanning 40 months. Total balance transfer fees £50,50 for Virgin and £24 for Nationwde on £1000 initial BT

downshifter98

sfax wrote: »

I wouldn't advocate only paying 1% monthly but yes, if you take 10 years to pay it off the APR will start to get closer to the total sequence of handling fees. The APR provides a benchmark to measure different periods against.

The other thing is that if you have a balance already, you can't just balance transfer, you need to clear the existing the balance and effectively make two balance transfers, incurring two fees

By paying the minimum monthly I'm just maximising my use of cheap money; I've rolled these BTs over for the past 3 years (with a collection of cards) and fully expect to keep this going for a while yet. When this ends my only cost will be having to pay a 'market' rate for the replacement loan, at which point I will start repaying as you suggest (or find another means of repayment).

With credit cards now allocating repayments to the shortest/nearest end date first stacking is perfectly OK - I now have 3 different BTs with Virgin - my trusty spreadsheet keeps track of when to make capital repayments.

downshifter98

sfax wrote: »

And if you want a different benchmark, consider 4 of these deals spanning 39 months compared with 2 Nationwide deals spanning 40 months. Total balance transfer fees £50,50 for Virgin and £24 for Nationwde on £1000 initial BT

I do already have an unused nationwide cc and might have to think about cancelling it to re-apply (no repeat offers from them) - for me 2% per annum is good enough without the hassle of applying for new cards which may or may not give me a decent limit (the Virgin limit is chunky and probably puts some cards off) but I accept your point that new cards are generally the best option (especially to newbies).