Balance transfer £5000 - can I use Halifax

moneykev

Hi I need to balance transfer £5000 within the next 2 months - I was looking at the Halifax card with 20 months 0% (there's also one with 22 months for up to £3000).

Already have Virgin (empty but need to delete card)
Already have Tesco (empty but may use in future)
Already have Barclaycard was Goldfish (use this one and pay off - most months)

Need to transfer from Egg and Nationwide.

What I want to know is should I go for the 20 months with Halifax in the hope of transferring over £5000 or is it more likely that they will only offer £3000 transfer in which case might as well get 22 months at 0%.

Any experiences or alternative suggestions

greggp_2

hey moneykev,

I’m no expert but I think It will depend on your outstanding debt to available credit as to how much lenders will determine your limit.
Lenders are not that forthcoming with setting such large credit limits anymore for obvious reasons - so it may be beneficial for you to consolidate your £5k debt onto 2 cards.

Have you checked your virgin card hasn’t any current promotions on it for existing customers. I have had a virgin card for 3 years now and they are always offering 0% balance transfers to me being existing customer even when I have had o/s balance on it.

If you can secure a transfer to your virgin card at 0% - you can then apply for the Halifax (20 months) or the 22 month lender and then if successful you can split the £5k between 2 cards.

Try and close any unused cards with zero balances on them but check your virgin one.

Another option could be to open a First Direct Bank Current Account (Currently offering to pay customers £100 if you open and transfer your salary to them) – I just opened an account with them and now they have offered me a credit card with 20 months 0% - gave me a £2500k limit on the card.

:beer:

moneykev

greggp - thanks for the reply.

Re: virgin. This card has been clear for about a year now. Originally I opened it up with a balance transfer, but when the 0% period ended I transferred the remaining balance away to Egg.

So your saying I can re-balance transfer a portion of the amount on a 0% deal? They do send me 0% 'deals' but I'm sure that those are normally only for very short periods. However, I will look and see if there is a possibility for a 12 month 0% option.

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I'd still like an answer to my main point.

In a nutshell - Is it more likely to get a higher transfer amount on the shorter deal?

moneykev

Many thanks to greggp. I hadn't even considered transferring back the balance to virgin.

Have done this with the Egg card (now B'card), this morning 0% until dec 2012 - hopefully everything will go through ok. If so, I will look at transferring the other cards.

One year should allow me breathing space to pay off the money altogether