Balance transfer to existing card,already with a bt on it.

leadhead

What are the consequences of transferring another balance to an existing card, that is already paying off a (0% interest) previous balance transfer.

I dont spend on the card, and the existing transfer will be paid off by the end of the interest free term(Dec this year).

Barclaycard have sent me a letter to say I can transfer another balance to the card(0% interest for 9months, but 2.9% fee), but I am worried that if I do, it will count as a spend and I will mess up my existing interest free deal.

I realise there are cheaper deals about, but its only about £500, and would prefer to add it to the existing card, if it doesnt mess up my existing deal.....

InsideInsurance

I personally would check with them how payments will be allocated given you are going to have two balances with the same interest rate (0%) but clearly want to ensure any payments are going towards the balance that will shortly become interest baring

I know my T&Cs state it payments go against the highest interest rate but as these are the same interest rate currently I'd want clarification

thenudeone

Your existing deal will carry on as before, but when you're ready to pay off the earlier offer, you need to check carefully how payments are allocated when there are two separate balances on the same card, both at 0%.

This thread explains the problem:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=54917305&postcount=7

It's safer to wait until 1 day after a 0% offer ends, in these circumstances, because you can then be certain that your payment will reduce the balance which is now being charged interest.

blitzboy

They will be treated, in effect, as 2 seperate balances. The first deal will still run as it was before and the new deal will run seperately, although of course it will all show as one balance.

When you get your monthly statement it will break down each balance transfer amount and how long the 0% deal runs for.

Then once the first deal runs out the amount outstanding on that deal will switch to your standard APR and you will have to refer to your terms and conditions as to how this is paid off.

I have 3 different balance transfers on my barclaycard and I can see them all seperately on each statement with the 'end date' of the deal clearly shown.:)

InsideInsurance

blitzboy wrote: »

I have 3 different balance transfers on my barclaycard and I can see them all seperately on each statement with the 'end date' of the deal clearly shown.:)

And when you make a payment which balance is reduced? The soonest to finish? The last to finish? All of them equally?

exel1966

leadhead wrote: »

What are the consequences of transferring another balance to an existing card, that is already paying off a (0% interest) previous balance transfer.

I dont spend on the card, and the existing transfer will be paid off by the end of the interest free term(Dec this year).

Barclaycard have sent me a letter to say I can transfer another balance to the card(0% interest for 9months, but 2.9% fee), but I am worried that if I do, it will count as a spend and I will mess up my existing interest free deal.

I realise there are cheaper deals about, but its only about £500, and would prefer to add it to the existing card, if it doesnt mess up my existing deal.....

Firstly before doing the next BT establish which BT your current payments will go towards. It should be the first one, but double check. It always has been when I've had 2 BT's on a single card.

Then nearer the time you'll need to call Barclaycard/check statement to establish the exact date and amount left from the original BT which needs to be cleared before it's starts accruing any interest. Clear that amount in full prior to the date given and you should be clear of interest and then start to repay the 2nd BT until the promotional period is up.

StuC75

as per others suggestion you have to be carefull of how a lump payment will be treated, many include a caveat of how they "will apply payments to those balances with a higher interest rate regardless of when they were taken out"..

This means that often to clear the BT bit solely you have to wait for that to become interest bearing; so that a lump payment goes straight to that in the first instance.. otherwise its feasible that a lump payment would be split equally to the BT's meaning that you may not then clear the first balance as you would expect..

worse case, when you want to pay it off, call the card company and get them to process the payment confirming it has gone as you intend..

leadhead

Thanks for all the above advice...I would normally have just asked Barclaycard, but since they have moved abroad, I often cant understand what some of there agents are saying.

When i ring to change over, I will confirm with them all the points mentioned above...I needed this info beforehand, as I often think they say anything to either, just agree with you, or get your business.

I never spend on a bt interest free card, or go over the 0% period....Its just a handy interest free loan, for a small transfer fee.

Thanks again.

chris-j

As blitzboy said, the balances are shown separately on the statement.
Payment allocation follows normal process - highest interest first but as these are both 0% the payment will come off the earliest transaction, not split across them both. So if you still owe £500 on first transfer and clear this between now and December, all of your payments will go to the first transfer and only start paying new transfer once this is clear (if if is not cleared it moves from being earliest transaction to being interest bearing so payments would still apply to first transfer until paid off).

Good thing with BC is that they don't apply interest to the BT fee unlike MBNA.

bouncydog1

Just set up a spreadsheet with three columns. In the first column put the existing BT and in the heading put the date it started and finished.

Same in second column for BT 2. In third column is the total. You could also add in a column on the left with the dates.

Each month when you make a payment allocate it to the first BT and make sure you pay it off by the end of the BT offer date. When you check your statement each month, check that the total in your column 3 agrees with statement balance. Far simpler than trying to work it all out from paper statements.

blitzboy

InsideInsurance wrote: »

And when you make a payment which balance is reduced? The soonest to finish? The last to finish? All of them equally?

The first one transferred onto the card.