Another credit card query

AJ84

Hi all,

I'm on a very good salary but now need to consolidate my credit cards - having paid off a fair whack of my student spending back in the day, I still have a fair amount to pay back.
Breaking it down:

Barclaycard: £7221 (£3483 @ 0.561% and remainder @ 1.240%)
Halifax: £5000 @ 29.95%
Capital One: As good as £0.00

Currently paying in around £300 a month on the Barc and around the same on the halifax account

I have pending around £1000 to put into the Halifax this morning so that will bring it down to £4000

The option I have currently is the Barclaycard currently has a 0% BT until April 2013 and my available is around £3800 which would mean paying off the Halifax card but putting on around £11k on the Barclaycard with some of it being 0% until next year. Would this be the right thing to do and tackle that card with £600 a month payments?

Or do I keep it as it is, suck up the interest on the Halifax but concentrate on paying it off quicker than maybe the barclaycard (it's minimum is around £170 so I could do £200 Barc and £400 Halifax for instance)

Cheers in advance

AJ

Tixy

Doing the transfer will save you money - exactly how much would depend on the balance transfer fee but probably over £500 (assuming you continue paying the £600 each month).

trikidy

Yes try and move your halifax debt, very high APR there, it would save you money in the long term.

CLAPTON

one assumes that 0.561% is per month so 6.9%APR
and 1.24% is 15.9%APR?

AJ84

Brill thanks Tixy
From memory, it was the usual 3% transfer fee

Is there a calculator available anywhere where I can work out how much the minimum would be on a balance of 11k?

I guess what I don't understand is if I currently have a minimum of roughly £170 on the Barclaycard, would that push up once the BT is complete? Appreciate some will contribute to the fee and add to the balance that way but it's more whether the actual BT amount will push up the minimum.

Tixy

Barclaycard minimum payment is 2.5% of the balance I believe, so if you end up with a balance of £11k the minimum will be £275.

If your limit is £11k, then you probably won't be able to transfer right up to that limit, so you may need to leave a small amount on the halifax. If you do focus on that first and just pay the minimum on bcard until its cleared.

AJ84

Yup you are right - just noticed that I can transfer up to £2700 on it leaving still £1400

Fee is 2.9%
I think my issue is going to be that if I do transfer with a balance remaining on the Halifax, that card can still be used and will be used... I was hoping I could just close it off :- )

Let me do a bit more number crunching to see if it's worth it or not - it would leave around £1400 remaining on it if I went the BT route

AJ84

CLAPTON wrote: »

one assumes that 0.561% is per month so 6.9%APR
and 1.24% is 15.9%APR?

Sorry Clapton- yes you're right, the breakdown was on a monthly statement but on a yearly, it is 15.9% APR

Tixy

Chop the halifax card up?

Call them and ask them to reduce your limit to £1500?

Worth doing still - if you have £1400 left on the card and pay £325 a month (£600 less £275 to bcard) then the debt will be clear in 5 months and cost less than £100 in interest.

AJ84

Thanks once again
Just done the transfer which brings up the Barclays to £9999.99 (No really!) with £1100.01 left
Fee cost £79 or thereabouts

Found a bit more cash to move around so Halifax is a bit better off now too

I normally put away around £500 into savings a month - MAY consider paying off the halifax in next month's pay or just be strict and keep putting away as I cancelled my pension at work to put away myself.