Unoffical Existing Customer Balance Transfers

Frugaldom

Egg Card (CC not Egg Money) 0% BT for 8 months, 2.5% transfer fee
Have had same (or similar) offer for past 5 years.

RavingMad

MBNA said 3.9% until Oct (3% fee) and when I umm'd, he said 0%! I still declined as I have an outstanding balance accruing 14.9%

MonteCarloHangout

I had a HSBC MasterCard with a £10k limit, a balance of £250 or so and a whiter-than-white record.

After having the card for over 5 years, I asked them about getting the same balance transfer rate as new customers (after reading Martin's article of course!) for a balance transfer of £5k from another card I had... Didn't want to know!

I've always found HSBC to be excellent, but I was not amused with this and moved the balance to a new Barclaycard Platinum @ 0% instead!

I'd be interested to hear if anyone has got a better BT rate from HSBC as an existing customer?

Card_Tart_Extraordinaire

Hi, I have a Halifax one card which I opened some years ago for a 0% balance transfer deal which was paid off and was then used occasionally for shopping which was paid off every month. Credit limit on this card is £6,400. It has not been been used since July last year (2007).
I have just accepted a credit transfer deal of 0% for six months on just over £5,000 with a 3% charge. This suits me quite well at the moment so have transferred from a Morgan Stanley card who would not offer me any kind of interest deal. Am now waiting for my other half to test the water with his credit card on Lloyd's TSB and see if they will offer to lower the interest on his card or we will be transferring the money to a Virgin credit card which we have just been given with a credit limit of £8,800 on the 0% for 15 months with a transfer fee of 2.9% deal. Is this a cheap way of paying off some of our mortgage? So long as we keep on transferring the money.
Something to watch out for. Though Nat West offer 0% for 14 months for a transfer fee of 2.9% the fee is added onto the card and you will be charged interest on the fee after 5 months. This is not mentioned though I was told this is because it is classed as a purchase and purchases are interest free only for the first six months. When I asked if I could pay the transfer fee on the date of the transfer I was told that it has to be put onto the credit card. I am trying to ascertain the legality of this. If you have a large sum you wish to transfer for 13 months say £15000 you will be paying interest at up to 19.9% on the £435 fee until the Transfer sum is paid off. Not exactly 13 months interest free is it?

peterbaker

Credit Tart Extraordinaire - I am sure you know all this, but just in case anyone should have read your post quickly and thought you might be asking if 0% balance transfer deals for 6 months with 3% handling fees are a cheap way of offsetting your mortgage, then the general answer would be It's extremely unlikely, even if you optimise the arrangement so that you get a full 6 months at 0% (and don't make the mistake of incurring higher normal rate interest at the end).


But 2.9% for the 15 month Virgin deal is worth comparing to your mortgage, despite the 19.9% interest on the fee.

You have to keep your eye on the ball when analysing these deals. The ball is the total cost ofthe arrangment converted into an APR which you can then compare with your mortgage. Balance Transfer Fees are totally arbitrary. I can't wait until someone shows they are unlawful

Applying full rate 19.9% to the fee from the outset is also an arbitrary rule, but as a fraction of the £15,000 borrowed it can be 'annualised' to fit the 13 months you are trying to picture. Using the most simplistic analysis 19.9% (pa) of £495 is £98.50. Call it £110 to cover the thirteenth month and anything we haven't thought of. Add that to your original £495 giving £605 total fee cost of '0%' loan.

605/15000 = no more than 4% over the period of the 13 months you are planning to take the money.

If your mortgage rate is significantly higher than 4% then it may be worth the hassle of offsetting, but don't forget to add to the £605 any other costs of doing the offsetting e.g. can you offset large amounts without penalty on yor mortgage? Can you borrow it again in 13 months time at no charge and at the drop of a hat so you can pay back the card? If you make an error and forget to pay it back on time, just a few days late might land you with a month's interest on the card at 19.9% not just on the fee but on the whole balance. Then the cost of the exercise has become nearer 6% and you are instantly looking pretty silly to have wasted your time on it

Card_Tart_Extraordinaire

In case anyone missed my earlier posting so far as I can make out today only Nat West is charging interest on the Transfer fee after five months. I spoke with Virgin and they take transfer fee as part of first month's minimum payment so they do not class the transfer fee as 'shopping' so there is no interest charge on their Transfer fee. Only Nat West so far seem to be charging interest on the transfer fee before the 0% term is up. Thank you Peter for all your sums. I will endeavour to work it out myself using your method in future.:j

King_Weasel

I did a NatWest 0% bt with fee in November 2005 and had no problem then. Is this a new ruse or have they actually made a mistake? You might at least ask when they introduced their procedure and check the T&Cs. If it's clause 550 (m) (12) then you'd have a good cause for complaint, I'd say.

jules_gooner

Hi All,

Apologies if this has been covered before but I've done a fair old search and haven't come across it..........

My bank Natwest are having a 'sale' and offering bt's for new cards at 0% for 13 months, here's my question;

In ALL the literature given to me and on display in the bank, the bt fee is 2.5% (including the small print) but online and according to the customer services girl its 2.9%. Is this just part of the sale offer?

Has anyone applied for it and done a bt? What fee were you charged?

Thanks for any advice.

Zebrugge2

Hi - new poster!
Does anyone have any expeirence of transferring balances on RBS Cards. Currently looking to balance transfer £1500 over to a new card and wondered if they would allow this.

Any advice welcome!

CannyJock

Zebrugge2 wrote: »

Hi - new poster!
Does anyone have any expeirence of transferring balances on RBS Cards. Currently looking to balance transfer £1500 over to a new card and wondered if they would allow this.

Any advice welcome!

Hiya. Can't transfer from one RBS card to another RBS card but can transfer to any other - there's normally a transfer fee around 3%, but there are some that won't charge a fee, but the 0% period will be shorter. There's also a few cards offering a life of balance (LOB) transfer rate which is usually a reasonably low rate that lasts until the transfer is cleared in full.

Which one is best depends on your circumstances and how quickly you're looking to clear the £ 1500 debt.