Balance Transfer/Credit Card advice needed

ohbilly

Hi,

I recently got a Barclaycard and when I was on the phone activating it they said that I could transfer the total balance left on my LloydsTSB card to them for 2.8% on the total amount and then 0% interest on the balance transfer for 25 months

Just not sure if I understand it really: if I do this does it mean as long as I pay the minimum requested by Barclaycard each month then nothing extra will be added to the total amount owed apart from the 2.8% added to the initial transfer?

Is this a good thing to do or should I just pay off the amount owed (£656) on the LloydsTSB card when the bill comes in like I originally planned?

Also would it affect my credit rating if I kept the two credit cards from different banks or should I close the LloydsTSB one?

Thanks for any help and sorry for the newbie questions

CLAPTON

it does mean just that...


however if you can pay the Lloyds in full and avoid the 2.8% then I would do so.


keeping both cards makes sense in case one is lost or refused for whatever reason

ohbilly

Thank you.

Glad I understood it.

I'll keep both the cards then and pay off the total amount due to LloydsTSB when the bill comes in.

Btw what I originally planned was to buy a new laptop on the LTSB card & transfer it onto the Barclay one to drag out the payments without leaving myself short - out of curiosity is there any reasons why this wouldn't work or any reasons why I shouldn't do this?

zerog

The minimum on barclaycards is 2.25% so unless you are actually short of money, or you have a savings account paying 5% there is not much point in doing the balance transfer. If you do do it then you obviously want to string it out as long as possible

ohbilly

No I actually have the money I just wanted to buy a better spec laptop that I didn't have the money for and it turns out I probably better off saving for it.

May look into a savings account now since I only have a current account.

Thanks to everyone for the help.