Constantly transfering balances

digging

sfax wrote: »

I put together a spreadsheet a while ago to weigh up the best balance transfer strategies.

I get stung sometimes when I assume I'll get another credit card and they decline or they give me one with a lower credit limit.

Very organised! And handy too! So you don't have to work things out everytime. Excellent idea.

I have 5 credit cards, 3 with balances on and two empty ones. I was going to close them when I cleared them but I'm restrained enough to not use them (plus I don't know pin numbers for them) so kept them open and now I always get offers to transfer. When I transfer away I usually get an offer from the card I moved away from a month later asking if I want a bal tfr! It works well so I don't have to try for another.... But I think I will go for a new longer card in feb before these 0% are up

samtoby

There will come a point surely when you will run out of places to transfer?

jojo57_2

I would just stick to cards that have longer promo periods on them,12 months+. If your only getting 6 month offers you are paying a fee every 6 months?!There are so many good deals at the minute up to 22 months so shop around and make sure you always pay as much as you can every month and it wont be long until the end is in sight

sfax

samtoby wrote: »

There will come a point surely when you will run out of places to transfer?

Why? You just recycle credit card companies. E.g. I've opened Nationwide twice, Barclaycard opened and closed about 4 times. Dump the company as soon as you threaten to close your account and they don't respond with a new 0% BT offer rate (i.e. not just 6 months!). A year after you closed your account you can easily * apply for a new account with them and get the best rates again

* providing you have a good credit rating

sfax

If you use a separate cashback purchase credit card for all of your purchases, you can also get the equivalent of a balance transfer to your current account. Just substitute the amount you would normally have paid in full each month for a balance transfer of that amount, and hey presto a 4 year cash loan at about 2.2% APR. Not bad considering loan rates at the moment.

APR is worked out approximately by taking a 3% handling fee at the start and another handling fee after 2 years (when you owe half the initial amount) and comparing it with the total interest payable on a 48 month loan at 2.2% APR