Balance transfers con or not?

mjohnsonuk

I have 2 credit cards both with £6k on each I pay more than the minimum on both and can afford the payments fine.
My credit card providers keep putting up my limit and I have put them back down recently mbna put the limit up to £13k but the interest free period is running out so I thought I would look around.

This is where I keep hitting the snag

When I apply or enquire about a new credit card and make it perfectly clear that I want to transfer my balance the providers still only give me a very low limit, thinking I had a good deal from another mbna card (20 months 0%) I applied (giving the details of my Barclay card as the transfer request) they have just emailed my confirming I have been successful for a £1000 limit card and it will be out in the post soon
It's is not what I wanted at all - but it's not just mbna I. Have enquired about a few and most say the limit will only be £1k-£1.5k

How can I shop around for a good deal if the banks aren't fair with swapping around
I have an excellent credit history/score and always make my payments on time

I wish they would set up a deal where the card I had was closed and the new one opened - I dont want 4,5 or even 6 cards with small balances on

[Deleted User]

One bank can't force you to close a card with another, so they will naturally be worried about give you too much credit, particularly with £12k of debt.

Suggest you take the low limit offers, transfer what you can and start paying down, Once you shift some of the debt, you may start getting better offers.

But to answer the question, not a con.

Tom_G

It's not a con, but I think there's an element of price-fixing going on as surely someone would be extremely competetive (like the loan market).

redpete

No, it's not a con.

I'm surprised they offer you a new MBNA card when you already have one, didn't think they did that.

mjohnsonuk wrote: »

How can I shop around for a good deal if the banks aren't fair with swapping around

They don't know that you won't transfer the balance from your old card and immediately spend up to the limit on that card again - doubling the amount of available credit and your liabilities.

I have an excellent credit history/score and always make my payments on time

But obviously don't meet their criteria for offering you more money.

I wish they would set up a deal where the card I had was closed and the new one opened - I dont want 4,5 or even 6 cards with small balances on

Something that would require coordinated action by two different credit card comapnies with both requiring authorisation from you - can't see the CC companies volunteering to do this when it is only for your convenience.

YorkshireBoy

Originally replied on your other thread. Now deleted. Here's what I said there...

If I understand correctly, one of your current cards is run by MBNA and it has approx £7K of spare limit?

The answer is simple...isn't it? You take the second MBNA card and switch some spare limit over from the existing one to accommodate the Barclaycard balance.

On your shopping around point, I've never heard of card providers giving you an 'indication' of the likely limit to be assigned following a successful application.

CLAPTON

do I read this correctly

banks refusing to give you an interest free loan for 6K is a con?

banks offering you 1.5k interest free loan is unfair because you can't be bothered to have 4 or more cards?

I suppose each has their own views on entitlement

dzug1

You seem to want to borrow large sums of money permanently for little or no interest.

And whilst that may be a reasonable thing to want it's certainly a very unreasonable thing to expect.

In a sense it's you that's trying to con the CC companies, not the other way round. Their expectation (well hope) is that you will take advantage of the interest fee period and then start paying the standard rate.