Unoffical Existing Customer Balance Transfers

gallacat

Just rang M & S to cancel my card as the 6 months at 0% had ceased. They said, as I'd cleared my balance I could have a further 6 months at 0% & still no transfer fees. And get this, I asked if I could increase my credit limit - they said I could & asked me how much I wanted! I asked for double the original amount & they didn't bat an eye!! Wish I'd asked for more now!!!
Cheers!

skybluesaver

Rang Lloyds TSB today to close my account as they wasn't offering me a good balance transfer rate. They put me through to their closure department & they offered me 5.9% for life of balance with no handling fee. I accepted their offer :beer:

pjala

M_Thomson wrote:

Just called MBNA and got 0.9% for the 7th time in a row! till March 2007 with a £75 fee. Was cheeky and asked if there was anyway round the fee He said he would email the manager and check while I was on the phone. He then asked me if I wanted card protection, I said no. He then said he had had an email back and the manager had said the fee was non negotiable. I got the feeling if I had said yes to card protection, I would have got it fee free. Anyway, I can't complain. I have the AOL credit card and get 3 months free AOL access with the points from the balance transfer which covers the fee!

You should have said yes to the card protection, then done the transfer if they offer you no fee there and then. You have 14 days by law to cancel the card protection - so no problem.

dickdasdedly

Hi All
Can any of you guys out there work this out for me as maths wasnt my strong point. Ive got to move £6k. And ive got two options.
Option 1 BT to egg for 5 month anniversary offer with 2.5% fee or.
Option 2 BT to Barclaycard at 6.9% LOB with no fee. Dont like paying a fee but is that cheeper than the 6.9 % with the Barclaycard.
Any advise appreciated

Cheers Richard W

marje

We have had a Goldfish credit card for years. We were recently telephoned by Goldfish and offered either a 0% or very low % deal (can't remember which it was) for a transfer. We therefore transferred £1000 from another card to our Goldfish card, and also paid off (as we thought) our existing Goldfish balance. To our dismay we found later that the payment we made was used by Goldfish to clear our transferred balance and we incurred £40+ in interest charges on the old existing balance. My husband phoned to complain that we were not told in the phone call that this would happen but was told that it was all explained in the small print so our own fault.

So beware Goldfish - they are sneaky!!

Paul_Herring

dickdasdedly wrote:

Hi All
Can any of you guys out there work this out for me as maths wasnt my strong point. Ive got to move £6k. And ive got two options.

You haven't indicated how much you're paying off per month. In lieu of that I'll assume 3% of the original per month, i.e. £180

Option 1 BT to egg for 5 month anniversary offer with 2.5% fee or.

You pay £150 to Egg, pay interest on that £150 - ~£2.15/month (but not the £6000,) then either have to move what's left of the balance at the end of 5 months, or leave it there and pay interest on the remainder. At the time of writing the typical APR was 16.9%.

Assuming:

• 16.9% APR,
• £180 paid off per month,
• Starting 1 November

at the end of month 5 you'll have paid £900 off your £6000, and have accrued interest of £10.78 on your balance transfer fee. This will leave you at the start of April with a debt of £5260.78, the whole lot of which, if left, will accrue interest at 16.9% (£73.07 for April)

Option 2 BT to Barclaycard at 6.9% LOB with no fee. Dont like paying a fee but is that cheeper than the 6.9 % with the Barclaycard.

Assuming:

• 6.9% APR,
• £180 paid off per month
• Starting 1 November

At the end of month 5, you'll have, again, paid £900. You'll have accrued £162.94 interest on the whole sum. At the start of April, you'll have a debt of £5262.94 (not much different heh?) andthe remainder will accrue interest at 6.9% (£29.85 for April.)

Any advise appreciated

The only advice I'm allowed to give is to make sure that my calculations above are correct before basing any decision on them.

Moggles_2

hi marje

Welcome to the credit card board!

Thanks for your feedback, which warns others. This applies to just about all credit cards, not just Goldfish. It's important to clear your balance first, before requesting a 0% or low interest balance transfer.

Also, never, ever spend on the card afterwards, unless you've checked the terms & conditions and you're certain that retail purchases will be charged at the same low interest rate for the duration of your balance transfer deal.

dickdasdedly

Thanks Paul-
I think Egg can go boil its self and i will go with Barclycard. As you say not much differance and i only have to move it once untill i find a better card. Egg can consider itself ditched.
Cheers Richard

Paul_Herring

dickdasdedly wrote:

Thanks Paul-
I think Egg can go boil its self and i will go with Barclycard. As you say not much differance and i only have to move it once untill i find a better card. Egg can consider itself ditched.
Cheers Richard

Bear in mind that those calculations are only as good as the assumptions I made, and they assume you'll stick with them.

You're probably better off with the LOB deal, and stick with it until you've paid it off. Any BT fee on any subsequent 0% cards is likely to wipe out any potential savings you're going to make (as the calulations above demonstrate.)

For example, if you pay more than the #180 per month the LOB deal works out even better (less interest charged in the interim months.)

dickdasdedly

Paul_Herring wrote:

For example, if you pay more than the #180 per month the LOB deal works out even better (less interest charged in the interim months.)

I think i will try and get the 5.9% Egg have been offering some people first If not then i will cancel. I was looking at paying £200 a month. Thought LOB would be better option. Cheers