Unoffical Existing Customer Balance Transfers

abracadabra707

Good news! I have two more weapons in my fight against credit card debt.
I noticed that the MSE expert did not have any preapproved scheme for Tesco so I thought I might as well try Tesco as most of the other cards I was told it would be difficult for me to get.

Applied for a Tesco Clubcard Credit card sometime in January 2016 and was approved for a card with a limit of £3200.

I was curious about money transfers so got one and took the maximum possible 3040 and paid 3.94% =119.78. Used this money to pay off my Natwest Overdraft and switched from an Advantage Gold/platinum (paying 16£ a month) to a simple reward account (paying 3£ a month). The advantage gold has useful things like travel insurance but i figured it was time to get out of debt and stop travelling lol....

Applied for a Virgin Money card in the middle of March. I wasn't very optimistic as when i had checked earlier on moneysavingexpert it didn't seem to indicate i had a good chance. I thought i'd have a look on moneysupermarket.com as well and it recommended capital one(which i already have) and wouldn't rate virgin or halifax or tesco or mbna etc.

I have never had much luck with MBNA cards but I'd thought I'd give Virgin a go anyway and see what happened. They sent me a letter asking me to provide a photocopy of my ID (like a license or a passport) and i sent off a copy of my passport.

I got an email from Virgin confirming that my application had been successful and that i would be sent the card, pin and registration code soon. I got a limit of £2200 which isn't great but it's 0% interest for 40 months with a fee of 2.59% so it's not so bad either.

I paid off both my RBS cards in full and the accounts should be closed soon.

So now instead of being spread around my debt is on fewer cards and a lot of it is at 0% - i just need to stay focused and direct every extra penny towards paying it all off...... ah a lottery win would make things so much easier

Bam82

Had an MBNA card and a Barclaycard for just over a year. 0% promo rates have just expired and I have been offered a further year interest free on any balance transfers made in May 2016 on both cards within days of each other!

Araky

An update on the first direct refusal.

I applied for the gold card and was turned down, despite having been a customer for over 10 years. I rattled off a complaining email and lo and behold I received a phone call today appologising and offering me a gold card with 0% for the first 6 months.

Well done First Direct, you may have fouled up but you did put it right!

Pollypokit_x

Not a balance transfer, but I contacted Barclaycard today to ask whether I could get an interest rate reduction - mine was 29% now reduced to 21% all in a matter of moments. The lady also froze interest for a month and wavered the over-limit charge for me very helpful! Not as ideal as reducing it to something like 6%, but better than nothing defo worth a try

Mark_in_Liverpool

I've just rang Barclaycard, and I've had my APR reduced from 29.9% to 6.9% on existing balance, while new purchases stay at 29.9 %.

My balance is £9,931, and has been for a while, so that may be a factor (the longer you've owed them, the more like you are to get an offer is my suspicion).

A huge, huge thank you to this website and this forum in particular, as this means I have a very real chance of paying off my credit card in 2 years !

Juls1

After reading this post, called Barclaycard to ask if any offers. Immediately put on 6.9% on current balance for next 2 years anything after 17.9%. Very happy with this. Thank you all ☺

FluroFrancis

Anyone know if it's worth asking capital one for an interest rate reduction?

Br0416

Approached Santander, been with them 10 years. Flat out refusal, said I'd pay 18.9% and 3% fee. Does any one know who is more likely to give a deal for existing customers out of tesco and m&s ?

udydudy

Nationwide offered 0%BT 2.9% Fee not great but then better than any personal loan!!!

udydudy

Barclays 15 months 0% BT with again a 2.9% Fee!!!