Current 0% interest ends soon (November)

grholden

Hello,

My current 0% interest ends soon, in November.

I have seen the excellent deals available at the moment and am interested in a low fee deal. I know you can get longer periods (28 months etc), but am thinking that another 15 months would be ideal for us and it'll be a lower fee.

As my current deal with the Halifax ends in November and we're at the start of September now, when would be a good time to start applying for a balance transfer?

As you've probably guessed, this is very new to me!

Thanks for any help anyone can give.

grholden

Sorry, I forgot to mention that this would be the first time we'd balance transfer the amount. Am I correct in thinking that you can balance transfer as many times as you like?

chattychappy

Personally I'd wait until end of October/start of November. Despite the warnings, I've found once I've got a card the BT usually goes through pretty instantly. Although you want to avoid unnecessary interest, if you run over a few days it's not a "gotcha" situation - interest runs daily from the date your existing deal runs out. If you apply too early, then you are losing value by having overlapping interest free periods on your old card and new card.

With most cards you can do as many BTs as you like, but only during the promo period. Eg it might be 18 months interest free for transfers during the first month. So if you were to do a transfer in month two, then standard interest will be apply to this whilst your earlier transfers would still be on 0%. When they quote a period such as 18 months 0% APR, it's usually from the date of offer (for existing cardholders) or when the account is opened (new applications). Hence the reason for not applying too early for a new card.

grholden

Thanks for your response. I have understood everything that you have said. I will wait until the end of October before doing anything. Thanks again.

YorkshireBoy

chattychappy wrote: »

Personally I'd wait until end of October/start of November.

OP doesn't say when, in November, the current deal expires...so "start of November" may be too late!

Personally I'd apply 4 weeks before, so anywhere between 1st and 31st October.

I also wouldn't put constraints on my repayment period, ie "15 months would be ideal". I'd err on the side of caution and take a longer deal...for example, with 15 months for a 0.8% fee vs 2 years for a 1.5% fee the additional cost could be quite small (depending on the balance of course). After all, you never know what's around the corner.

zerog

I usually work out whether a BT is worth applying for it by subtracting a month from the offered deal.

Firstly sometimes you may not be able to BT during the card application, and then it takes a while to receive the card. Then you need some time at the end for the next card. Nobody knows their exact plans 2 years later, what if you're not able to make applications for some reason? Also what if you can't get a card and need to free up some cash for paying the balance?

If you allow one month of overlap and then try to keep that to a min when the time actually comes then you will be safe.

On that note, why the ** is Martin promoting the 28 month barclaycard 3.5% fee over the same card with 27 month 2.69% fee. The only possible way the first one could be better is if your pension will pay out a lump sum in exactly 28 months' time, or something like that.

chattychappy

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

OP doesn't say when, in November, the current deal expires...so "start of November" may be too late!

Late night?

grholden wrote: »

...
As my current deal with the Halifax ends in November and we're at the start of September now,...

I was working on my experience that it usually takes 2 to 3 weeks to get a new card and the transfer is usually a couple of days at most.

grholden

Sorry guys, I should have made it clear that we intend to BT this amount and pay it off - it's £100/month we pay off, not a great deal when you consider the balance is about £4K but we have to start somewhere.

We don't intend to use any credit cards we have!

YorkshireBoy

grholden wrote: »

Sorry guys, I should have made it clear that we intend to BT this amount and pay it off - it's £100/month we pay off, not a great deal when you consider the balance is about £4K but we have to start somewhere.

£100 isn't going to make a big dent in £4K over 15 months.

Just out of interest, and to prove my earlier point that "early November" may be too late, what date, in November, does the existing 0% deal end?

YorkshireBoy

chattychappy wrote: »

Late night?

No. You?

chattychappy

OK I had the late night... misread the OP twice!

Yep, when does it end? If you're unsure, Halifax will give you the precise date if you call them.