Required borrowing after balance transfer?

Cubana48

Hi

I just read the excellent article on Credit card transfers. I am considering the 0% 14month Lloyds TSB Platinum card.

it shows an image to the right "Representative example" which says "Based on borrowing £1200 over 12mths........"

I presume that means that's what the rate would be if I borrowed a further £1200 after my transfer i.e. it's just an example, and not required to get the deal?

I just want to transfer over for a few months breathing space. Aside from the 1.5% transfer fee, does anyone know of any other catches?

Is there a minimum time period before i can pay off? i,e, I'd get penalised perhaps. I can't see it.

Never done this before. Seems too good to be true

Thanks

izools

The illustrative example just shows how much you'd pay in interest if you had a £1,200 balance at the standard rate.

The Balance Transfer wouldn't accrue any interest for the first 14 months, you'd pay £0 interest if you clear the balance within 14 months, but if you took longer than 14 months to clear the balance, only the balance that existed after the initial 14 months would accrue interest.

So say for example you transfer £5,000 and manage to clear £3,000 of that within 14 months. You'd then pay 15.9% APR on the remaining £2,000 so that would work out to, in this example, about £26 interest in month 15.

There aren't any penalties if you clear the balance "early" - there isn't any definition for "early", in fact. So long as you pay on time each month, and clear the balance within 14 months, the only fees you'd incur would be the 1.5% fee and that's it. No "catch"

EDIT: the only caveat might be that the balance transfer fee itself accrues interest - so if you transfer, e.g. £5,000 and the fee works out to £75 after the 1.5% refund, you might pay £1 interest on the balance transfer fee in the first month. You'd have to check with LTSB whether or not the balance transfer fee is interest bearing - this varies from card issuer to card issuer.