BT guidance

Ems112

Hello,

I need some assistance/advice on balance transfers and how it all works. I am relatively new to credit cards having taken out a couple last year for home improvements. I have £3000 on a Halifax card and £3500 on a Barclaycard. Both 0% introductory rates are coming to an end next month. I was going to settle both cards in full but have also recently been considering balance transferring one of the cards to keep my money in my ISA for a little while longer.

I have been looking at the Lloyds TSB Platinum card which is 0% on balance transfers for 21 months (I think) with a BT fee of 3% with 50% of the fee then being refunded. My question is, if I transfer say the Halifax card balance (£3000) to the Lloyds card does this mean the balance transferred will then attract no interest for 21 months (provided I make the minimum payment each month). Have I got the general concept for BT correct? Is this a good plan?

thanks

sfax

Ems112 wrote: »

Hello,

I need some assistance/advice on balance transfers and how it all works. I am relatively new to credit cards having taken out a couple last year for home improvements. I have £3000 on a Halifax card and £3500 on a Barclaycard. Both 0% introductory rates are coming to an end next month. I was going to settle both cards in full but have also recently been considering balance transferring one of the cards to keep my money in my ISA for a little while longer.

I have been looking at the Lloyds TSB Platinum card which is 0% on balance transfers for 21 months (I think) with a BT fee of 3% with 50% of the fee then being refunded. My question is, if I transfer say the Halifax card balance (£3000) to the Lloyds card does this mean the balance transferred will then attract no interest for 21 months (provided I make the minimum payment each month). Have I got the general concept for BT correct? Is this a good plan?

thanks

Yes, you only pay the handling fee (which is usually added to the balance)

SuperAllyB

The general concept is right, but aren't Lloyds and Halifax the same group now? May need to transfer the Barclaycard to Lloyds instead. Then again, i'm not an expert and may be completely wrong.

Ems112

Ok, thanks! Have also been looking at the NatWest Platinum card which has a BT fee of 1% and 0% for 13 months. I think this would suite me quite well. A couple of questions though:

1. Is the 1% fee added to the credit card? and, if so
2. Does this then attract interest as it is not a balance which has been transferred? Say I transfer £3000, the fee will be £30 - will I have to pay interest on the £30?

thanks

sfax

Ems112 wrote: »

Ok, thanks! Have also been looking at the NatWest Platinum card which has a BT fee of 1% and 0% for 13 months. I think this would suite me quite well. A couple of questions though:

1. Is the 1% fee added to the credit card? and, if so
2. Does this then attract interest as it is not a balance which has been transferred? Say I transfer £3000, the fee will be £30 - will I have to pay interest on the £30?

thanks

1. Yes
2. Not normally but even if it did, it would be negligible because your first monthly minimum payment would pay the fee before paying down the BT

zerog

I think there was a recent thread on here which said the Natwest fee does attract interest.

For Nationwide and Lloyds the fee becomes part of the balance transferred.

sfax

zerog wrote: »

I think there was a recent thread on here which said the Natwest fee does attract interest.

For Nationwide and Lloyds the fee becomes part of the balance transferred.

The fee always becomes part of the balance transferred but any payments will pay down the fee first if it attracts interest so the fee is likely to disappear in the first two minimum payments meaning you'll pay about 1-2 months interest on a very small fraction of the balance in total (e.g. £5000 BT, 3% fee, £150 => 2.5% min payment is £125 so you'll pay 1 month interest on £150 and 2 months on £25. Even at 20% APR that's less than £3 in total or less than 0.06% of the balance)