Unoffical Existing Customer Balance Transfers

leoleo73

Short story: MBNA offered 2.9% until April (about 6 months) with a 3% fee capped at £75 into my current account. This is 4.5% APR on £9000.

Long story:
I have had an MBNA Gold card from when they first entered the market and I was only just earning £20,000. They kept on increasing my credit limit (regardless of the fact I never got close to using it all and always paid off the full balance), until it got to £15,800 a couple of years ago, at which point I got some cashback cards and stopped using it. My old card expired and they didn't send me a new one, or any more statements, although they continued sending me updated terms and conditions.

After applying for 2 new credit cards recently I decided it was time to do something about the old ones and as MBNA didn't seem to have anything to offer I was going to cancel it until I came across the possibility that I might be able do a promotional balance transfer which would be worthwhile because my high credit limit. I phoned them and they said they had to issue a new card before they could do that. They asked for some income/expenditure details and I asked whether they would be doing a credit check and/or re-assessing my credit limit and they said "no".

I got my new card today and the credit limit has been cut to £10,000 . After activating it I asked about a promotional balance transfer rate. They asked and I told them I wanted to transfer £9000 and I thought I was currently paying 6.5%. They offered me 3.9% until April with 3% fee capped at £75 (as per my T&Cs). I was a bit disappointed, did the sums and worked out that was 5.5% APR over 6 months. I double checked my overdraft rate (One Account) which is actually 5.95% (but expected to be 6.2% from November). I pointed this out to them and asked if they could offer me anything better - Non commital. Could they make the period longer - No. Could they offer a lower rate - They might be able to, would I accept 2.9%? I said yes. They put me on hold for 30 seconds while "checking with supervisor" and confirmed they could offer me 2.9%. I said it was for an overdraft, they took the details and said it would take 7 days.

They then tried to sell me payment protection and then card protection insurance which I declined, but I did feel a bit sorry for her and so allowed her to put me through for a travel insurance quote which turned out to be surprisingly competitive -- well worth getting a quote.

- Leo

Phoenix79_2

I've got an MBNA card with a high limit that is currently unused. Would love to get my loan on it in due course. Will have to give them a ring and see what they offer me

JollyNolly

I'm just coming up to the end of my 12 months 0% BT on my Halifax One card, so I expect to be cancelling it. Has anyone been offered a repeat deal from Halifax when they asked to cancel?

realaledrinker

Rang MBNA yesterday to see what they could offer - 5.9% + 2% uncapped. Rang back later to cancel card, got put through to Customer Loyalty to be informed that a 0% offer to my May 07 statement date was available to me - 95% max BT with a capped £50 fee. Ta v. much!

My card had its initial 0% deal cleared last month. Never put anything on it except a 100% BT, paid off @ £5/month!

mark_steps

In need of Help... My partner has a credit card with a balance of £513.89 (minimum balance this month:£49) and has two charges of interest. I dont know how much money has withdrawn but from this months statement the PURCHASE interest is 2.2723% pm = £8.15.
CASH interest is 2.890% = £8.66

In a year it works out at Purchase interest = 32.680 and Cash interest =34.680

I was considering putting onto my card as its a lower rate, Called Sonycard who offered a Balance transfer of 2.9% per year which is 0.2% per month with a 3% charge for the transfer.

Barclaycard offered 2 things, either :0%till May 07 with a 2.5% handling fee....or...6.9% on the balance for life (0.56) per month.

What do you suggest i do?

Chadsman

Assuming you trust them sufficiently to pay you back or you are happy to treat it as a gift...

Is the Sony deal for the life of the balance or a fixed period of time? I will assume it is for a limited period...
if you think the debt will be cleared by May 2007 take the 0% Barclaycard deal, if you think it will take longer take the 6.9% LOB.

:beer:

Paul_Herring

nikil12 wrote:

[snip]

:spam: reported

BrunoM

LLoydsTSB card - was calling to cancel, usual story of being passed to customer satisfaction after I laughed at the customer service initial offer of 4.9%, 6 months and 2.5% fee, they eventually offered me 0% for 6 months with a 2.5% (uncapped) transfer fee. I said no anyway but just for interest recording it here.

[Deleted User]

Got 1.9% until May 2007 on mbna with 2% fee capped at £50.

amanda40

We got sent a mailing from Virgin offering 0.9 % per annum on balance transfers until April 07, compared to the 17.9% we are payig at the moment is this a good deal ( I think it is but just trying to get head around it)

Thanks