Balance transfer question

Tigerlily13

Hello, i'm hoping someone can offer me some advice.
I have about £400 on a credit card, with free interest for the next couple of months. I have £200 on a Tesco credit card, which I am paying interest on. I have had an email offering me 0% on balance transfers to my Tesco card for 13months, so I am going to transfer the £400 over.
My question is, could I transfer the £200 from my Tesco card, to the other card, and then transfer the whole lot back over so I am not paying any interest on it? And can it be done before 16th Dec?
Hope that makes sense!

Thanks! :-D

MallyGirl

you will pay a balance transfer fee each time so it is probably not worth the hassle

Tixy

You could.
But you'd need to consider if it was financially worthwhile. That will depend on the balance transfer fees for each card, the current APR on the tesco card and how quickly you are paying off the debt.

StuC75

What is the current monthly interest rate you are being charged on the £200 (A)

How many months are you likely to take to pay the £200 as it stands now? (B)

What is the One off Fee that you will be charged on the BT? (C) - although you would have 2 of these as you aim to move the money out and then back in...

If A Times B is greater than C (e.g. 1.5% * 3 = 4.5 > 3% one off fee - but could be 6% if you have a fee out and back in again..) then its more cost affective to transfer the balance - as the one off fee is less than the cumulative remaining months being charged interest. But with 2 fees its probably a bad idea unless it would have taken you over 4 months to payback [generally]..

How long is the offer for on the transfer? and what are you paying to the existing transfer? - i.e. how much would you have likely paid from the £400 when that offer ends...

Tigerlily13

Thanks for your replies. Just checked the fee to transfer over to the Tesco card, which is 2.99%, but I also noticed that I still have to pay interest on purchases while the BT is there, even if the full purchase amount is paid every month. That doesn't seem fair as that means the BT isn't technically interest free! So I might not bother...