Unoffical Existing Customer Balance Transfers

Werthead

Thanks everyone. It also turned out that my credit rating was way lower than it should be due to a !!!!-up from Experian. So that's been fixed now. I'll give it a day or two and give them another call.

abracadabra707

Barclaycard
How long have I had it: 7 years(opened July 2008)
Original Credit Limit: 2800
Current Credit Limit: 5200

I read Martin's article about the existing customer offer for Barclaycard. I phoned up Barclaycard sometime in October 2015. At that time I had a balance of around 2700 and my credit limit was 2800. I had been making minimum payments. The guy on the phone said he could not increase my credit limit and advised me to make more than the minimum payment and call back after the balance was reduced a bit. I made a few bigger payments and got my balance down to around 2200 in December. I logged in online and noticed a balance transfer offer of 6.9% with a 2.9% fee. I thought i might as well make use it and started making payments (used a few balance transfers too-to Aqua and First direct) to get the balance down to 0 as I noticed that only 90% of the limit was allowed to be used as a BT(so i could only use 90% of 2800 which is 2520).
the balance transfer offer was only valid until 31st January 2016.

A week or so later, I got a letter from Barclays saying they had upped my limit to 5200 and this would apply from Feb 2nd 2016 and that if i wanted to use this limit sooner I could give them a call. So i paid off the entire balance and got my Barclays acccount down to 0. I waited for the January statement to show a balance of 0. It seems like I got charged £33.69 trailing/residual interest which i paid off immediately. I phoned them just now and was allowed to transfer balances from two cards (Vanquis 1850 and First Direct 2700) and was charged £134.18 which appears to be 2.949%. I chose to transfer a balance from First Direct in the hope that I might get some balance transfer offers on them as i have a few other balances elsewhere to transfer.

So thank you Martin, thank you fellow moneysavingexperts! Good luck!

TheOneEsty

I was looking into the details of my MBNA credit card in an attempt to reduce the cost of my debt. I pay the minimum amount by direct debit each month plus usually knock at least a couple of hundred off it every month as well. My debt is 3500, well under my 6000 limit. I use the card for holidays and large purchases.
I rang them and it was a complete non-starter. I explained that I wanted lower interest rates (having worked out that I was paying over 26%!!) but didn't want to move provider. They said they don't do that for existing customers. I asked three different ways and then said, to clarify, 'so you have lots of offers for new customers but there's no reward for loyalty,'and he said, 'We would advise you to move to another provider and then come back when we send you new offers.'
So no deal. I wasn't even asking for zero percent, just a reduction, but he said that in the small print I had signed up for that rate when my introductory rate ended ( this was years ago, I've been with MBNA for ages.)
Anyway I'm now waiting to hear from Halifax who had sent me an offer of 0% on purchases for 12 months and 0% on balance transfers for 30 months.

rosak

Me and my wife, both have Barclay's credit cards. One for 24.9% and the other one for 29.9%. After reading this thread I rang them and within 5 minutes reduced both cards to 9.9% for a fixed term of 2 years.
Thank you so much!

adowney1984

I have a Halifax credit card with a zero balance which I no longer use so I decided to cancel it. Called Halifax to close the account and they offered me 0% on balance transfers for 27 months with a 3% fee.


I already have 0% on a Barclaycard for another 12 months but still thinking about switching back to Halifax for this deal!

Candyapple

adowney1984 wrote: »

I have a Halifax credit card with a zero balance which I no longer use so I decided to cancel it. Called Halifax to close the account and they offered me 0% on balance transfers for 27 months with a 3% fee.

I already have 0% on a Barclaycard for another 12 months but still thinking about switching back to Halifax for this deal!

Sorry but that's a poor deal, especially given that if you closed your Halifax card you are eligible to apply for a new card with them after 1 month. Also, if you didn't want to close your card you are also eligible to take out a second Halifax credit card alongside your existing one.

Given that their current credit deals are:
0% for up to 40 months with 2.95% fee
0% for up to 32 months with 1.14% fee
0% for up to 30 months with 1% fee
0% for up to 23 months with no fee

abracadabra707

Card - First Direct Gold
Credit Limit - 3000£ (they haven't changed it)
How long have I had it - 3 years (April 2013)
Balances transferred - 2600 from Capital One and 300 from Natwest.
Fee charged - 75.40+8.70 = £84.10
Some good news - got an existing customer offer from First Direct!!! Looks like the decision to bring the First Direct credit card balance down to 0 paid off! I had tried to get them to increase my limit to 4000£ online last month but they asked me to call them and I didn't bother. Anyway, I logged in the other day and saw the following offer -
% for 18 months Special Balance Transfer until 8 May 2016

If you have credit cards with other providers who are not within the HSBC Group* you can transfer the balances to your existing first direct Gold Card and pay 0% p.a. for 18 months. A 2.9% Balance Transfer fee (minimum £5) applies.
You may ask to transfer as many balances as you like, providing you do not exceed your credit limit.

I have 2 RBS cards and one Natwest card that were cancelled by the card provider that i've been paying the minimum balance on for many years now and I was tempted to pay them all off but the interest rate on them is a lot lower than my Capital One Card so I paid off the Natwest card and the Capital One Card in full and kept the RBS debt for later.

I'm still not quite sure whether the lowest amount or highest interest rate method is better for paying off debt - I'm currently using a combination of both - targetting the higher interest rate cards first but also trying to pay off some of the smaller debts - there is definitely a psychological boost to paying off debts that you have had for many years.

More than anything else, I find that writing everything down and making spreadsheets for everything seems to help. Every penny counts!!! I still have a long long way to go but things are looking better.

almondp

I simply called Barclaycard and managed to get my rate reduced from 28.9% to 20.9% indefinitely. Result.

I also called MBNA - they refused and said it was against business policy.

Finally called Santander - they also said there were no deals or promotional offers currently and couldn't do anything. Although did send an electronic message to their underwriters saying that I requested an interested rate reduction - and to take this into account when they next review my rate.

BillyBalue

Hi
I have been offered 0% balance transfer and purchase for 40 months from Tesco after they ran a special offer till 28th April for clubcard users
I moved my £1500 balance from Capital One @ 34.9% to Tesco @ 0% for 40 months
I am a very happy chappy

jason11169

So I've just been offered 23 months 0% on Halifax.

As a credit card noob, I also have a question if anyone can answer...

I currently have 2k on a Santander 0% card and the 0% interest ends 21st April. My next statement due is 20th April and i had intended to transfer the balance before this to the new halifax card. Unfortunately looks like i have left it a few days too late and the balance transfer might not go through until after the 21st when my 0% interest expires.

Question is, if I transfer my 2k balance out after the 21st April, will I still get charged interest in my May bill which will be due 20th May?