Balance tarting - Can I do this...?

Sossij_2

Hello all,

I currently have two credit cars, one MBNA with £550 on it and a Tesco Finance one with just shy of £2,000 on it. The MBNA one is coming to the end of its 0% period and I want to tart the balance of both cards onto one 0% card and then cut all of them up and just leave a direct debit going to pay it all off ASAP.

The best 0% card at the moment is an MBNA one offering 23 months 0% and ~4% fees but I can't balance transfer between MBNA accounts (terms and conditions state this) so I'm wondering if I could clear the £550 on the MBNA card with the Tesco one, leave it a few weeks/a month or so and then take out a new MBNA card and balance transfer everything off the Tesco card onto it. Is this;

1) Possible?
2) Legal?

I obviously want to clear my debt as quickly and cheaply as possible but I don't want to get nobbled for fraud, fees or something else daft like that.

Thanks.

[Deleted User]

Yes, you could (assuming you can get the card). But bear in mind you'll pay in the region of 6% for that £550 (2 BT fees). How long do you expect to take to clear it?

thenudeone

Perfectly legal and possible but it depends on you being able to get a new 0% deal. There will be probably be a fee to transfer the MBNA balance to Barclaycard, and another one to transfer it back again, so it's far from ideal.

The worst case is that you do the transfer, pay a (3%?) fee, and find you can't get a new 0% deal, AND you're now paying a higher interest rate on BC than you would have with MBNA, so it's not risk free.

grumbler

Sossij wrote: »

... leave it a few weeks/a month or so and then take out a new MBNA card

www.stoozing.com/cards.php says "Re-apply after 6 months", but I am no expert in this and reportedly you can have more than one MBNA card.