Unoffical Existing Customer Balance Transfers

Tondella

Thanks terriermania, that's a really useful post to me as OH has an outstanding balance with Lloyds. It's the debt with the highest APR and so we're throwing everything we can to get it down. Over the next month we should have it reduced from £14.5k to £5k, at which point I'm hoping to go in and negotiate a reduction in APR from the current 13.9%. After the debacle with HSBC I was feeling pretty glum but I'll try giving them the line your partner did and see if they are any more co-operative. I'll post the results here if I get anything from them.

Tondella

Tharweb wrote:

My Virgin 0% deal has just come to an end. I paid it off in plenty of time to avoid any mistakes. I rang Virgin (MNBA) today to cancel the card and they said I could have asked for a further 0% term and would I still be interested. :j

I was offered a further 6 months at 0% for a fee of £35, tried for no fee but no banana, looks like I did rather well.

I think the non-high street credit providers are a lot more savvy about keeping hold of their existing customer base. My feeling is that HSBC feel they can afford to be more complacent because they have a steady access to customers through their banking business. Just a feeling.

Anyway, Virgin have approved me for £4k balance on their 0% for nine month BT period, I'll definitely be calling them up next year to see whether they are interested in offering me something as an existing customer.

AC1_2

As someone who has received MSE e-mails, actively watched the site and tried to implement areas of it - I have never been brave enough to register and post something, but here I am now.

My circumstances changed earlier in the year and although I had always been aware of trying to be careful with things, it seemed to quite quickly get out of hand. I'm trying very hard to be careful with everything, but the credit cards sort of got away from me. I had in the past moved debt from one card to another and stay infront of the 0% deadline. I decided a few weeks ago after reading MSE e-mail about the Texaco offer of 3.9% balance transfer for the life of it to go for that deal. I have a good credit rating and have never been turned down for anything, but Texaco turned me down. So I went back to the credit card section on the site and read about the c/card shuffle. Printed everything out and sat with all my details around me and started calling. I have some money on a Capital One card at 6.9% for lifetime so asked what they would do - 16.8%!!!! nuts. Tesco currently 15.9% - balance transfer 8.9% for lifetime. Virgin - currently 0% and then 13.9% from 16th August and 13.9% for BT for life and Barclaycard - yes I realised how bad they were when they advertised 18 months ago about very low BT rate for new customers, filled in all the forms and then the credit limit they gave me was crap. However, Barclaycard came out the best, they upped my credit limit and offered me 6.9% - now I know some of you have had better but I am happy with this. It all means I have moved things about, increased credit limits and moved the debt from my Virgin card to Barclaycard and Tesco. Although I'm now trying to figure out how to identify the original debt from Tesco, shift it on to Virgin and then back to Tesco for 8.9%!! I have sorted it out in my head and yes I promise not to use the Virgin card unless I can pay it off in full. There are many other factors in my debt, I'm not sure when I will ever have it paid off, but at least it is at the best rate possible for now.

Thank you all - you are very inspiring.

Tondella

Good work AC1, now that you have shuffled if you want an idea of your debt free day you can use this nifty tool, developed by another MSE-er.

http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

Martin has also written an article on snowballing Essentially it is the most efficient way of paying off debts on different APRs. You tell the snowball calculator how much you have on each card, giving the APR and the minimum payment per month. You also give the amount you can raise each month to pay towards the debt. The calculator then plans a repayment schedule based on paying the minimum amount on all the cards and then putting any extra you can afford onto the card with the highest APR. It shows where the money goes each month and tells you how long until you are debt free!

It's also very useful as a tool to learn what effect shifting debt to a lower APR can have, as you can play around with entering different APRs and see what happens to your debt free date! The most useful thing it showed me was that the more you can budget towards your debt repayment, the quicker it goes (sounds obvious but makes a much bigger impact than shifting debt to a lower APR), therefore, as part of your money management session, you might want to read some of the debt free wannabe and old school budgetting threads for ideas on how to maximise your spending power and cut your outgoings so that you can really get your debt moving. Good luck!!!

Angel49_2

I have just received some Barclaycard Cheques offering 6.9% for balance transfers for the life of the balance but they are saying there is a 2% handling fee and it doesn't say it is capped at £50. So if I transfer £5000 this will cost me £100. Is this still worth it? I haven't phoned to see if it is capped.

Chadsman

Angel49 wrote:

Is this still worth it?

Depends on what rate of interest you are paying at the moment and how long you think it will take you to pay it off :beer:

Tondella

Tondella wrote:

It's outrageous isn't it!!! Not sure about their full range of products? My HSBC card was my first credit card, offered with my student account. If I get a response from them then I will be sure to post it (and my original letter) here so that you can all have a lookie!

10th August

Got my reply from HSBC today, they've reviewed my account and have offered me 6.9% on balance transfers for 6 months. A great improvement from the original 15.9% APR offer. I won't type out the whole of their response, but I have pasted my original letter of complaint to HSBC below.

Dear Sir/Madam

Re: HSBC credit card account XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX

I have been an HSBC account and credit card holder for approximately five years, during which time I consider myself to have been an excellent customer, I have often had outstanding balances on my credit card but have always made timely payment.

I recently cleared all outstanding balances on my HSBC credit card, however as I have outstanding debts with other credit providers I was interested in moving some of this debt to HSBC. Unfortunately, the best APR that could be offered to me as an existing customer was an unbelievable 15.9%, and this APR was only for the first six months following the transfer. Having an eye on the current credit card market I have seen a number of other credit providers offer 5.9% APR for the life of balance on balance transfers (e.g. Morgan Stanley, Capital One) and have been offered preferential life of balance rates for new balance transfers as an existing Barclaycard customer (6.9%). Indeed, your balance transfer “offer” actually exceeds the normal APR for outstanding balances for other high street banks’ credit products (Lloyds TSB platinum: 13.9% APR; Halifax, 12.9% APR).

My immediate action was to cancel my existing credit card facility with HSBC as I felt that, with uncompetitive APRs for both spending and balance transfers, the card was of no use. I am in the fortunate position of having an excellent credit record and so will be making good use of this to apply for credit with your competitors. Your website states that you are interested in feedback about how your existing services meet your customers’ needs. I hope that my comments contribute to this feedback and prompt you to improve your credit provision for high credit scoring existing customers.

Yours faithfully, Tondella

ti1980

Thanks for the reply. :beer:

adycooney1

I have a Barclaycard Platinuim which had a 12 month interest free on purchases and balance transfers, it is due to run out next month. I have looked at other card companies but nobody seems to get near this. What do you sugges????

LPL

I rang HSBC the other day regarding a BT.

The guy on the end of the phone just asked me what I had been offered and I said 0%.

So I BT'd there and then at 0% for 6 months.

That was the first part of my serious shuffle over the next 4 weeks.