0% interest on balance transfers QUESTION

MickeyDaMouse

Hi all,

I have a Barclay card that I'm using to put my balance from another card on to so I can avoid paying interest for a while.

The interest free period is useful as it's saving me some money while I chip away at what I owe, but I have a question about the card.

If I were to use the card for a purchase of say £100 and then a week later pay £100 on to the card would this pay off my purchase, leaving my balance transfers alone or would it just go on to the total amount?

The reason I ask is because if I have £1,000 in transfer on there interest free I don't want to ruin that by having £100 suddenly generating interest against me.

So I guess what I'm trying to ask is does the payment go to the part that earns interest before going to the part that's interest free or is it just one big amount to pay off and I'll start paying interest if I start using it for purchases?

Thanks

IWantToBeFree_2

Barclaycard allocate the payment to the balance which attracts the highest interest rate, so it would go against your purchases rather than balance transfer. If you have balances which attract different promotional rates (i.e. 2 at 0% for different lengths of time) they allocate it against the one that expires first.

MickeyDaMouse

Wow, thanks for the fast reply at such a late hour

So let me get this straight,

Card with
£1,000 transfer at 0% for 20 months.
£100 purchase in a store

A week later I pay £100 on to the card. No interest charged at all. Balance is £1,000 still, but it remains 0% for the rest of the 20 months?

If that's correct I'm really happy

IWantToBeFree_2

Yeah! Most cards now do it this way after much pressure, never used to be the case!

MickeyDaMouse

Excellent.

On one of my late night debt destroying sessions I've just paid off my Dell finance using my Barclay card. Instead of owing a few hundred pounds at 29.9% for over 12 more months it's now paid off and I've got the cash to pay that off next week, so I'll avoid the interest.

It seems that picking advice up from this forum is saving me quite a bit of money, I'd have never thought to pay off my Dell finance before and now I've just done it a week earlier too. The week earlier won't make a difference interestwise, but it made me feel better

Thanks and good night...

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

MickeyDaMouse wrote: »

Wow, thanks for the fast reply at such a late hour

So let me get this straight,

Card with
£1,000 transfer at 0% for 20 months.
£100 purchase in a store

A week later I pay £100 on to the card. No interest charged at all. Balance is £1,000 still, but it remains 0% for the rest of the 20 months?

If that's correct I'm really happy

Steady on. Don't you have to wait until that £100 purchase appears on a statement? Otherwise I think that your £100 payment will be used against any existing debts. i.e. the £1000 transfer.

Happy to be corrected if I've got that wrong.