To balance transfer or not

FiNakoma

Hi All,

Sorry if I'm asking in obvious question I'm new this place.

I have two credit cards with money owed on them.

Tesco Credit Card £4.5K Limit = £2384.15 (Got 9 months interest free left)
Barclay Credit Card £6.5K limit = £4135.50 (Currently paying interest @ 18.7%)

I've set the Tesco card to minimum payment to pay off the Barclay card with interest quicker.

Is it better to do a balance transfer with fee of 2.9% and pay off the Barclay card quicker or just pay the most I can off the Barclay card?

I have also applied for a Lloyds 30 month interest free card with 1.5% transfer fee but not heard anything in 3 weeks..so don't really want to apply for another one.

YorkshireBoy

If the 18.7% figure is your APR, then this equates to 1.4388% per month.


So if you pay a 2.9% BT fee, that fee is recovered in around 2 months if you BT to a 0% deal.


Does that answer your question?


Are you sure the Lloyds card is 30 months? Looks like 24 months, according to their website, to me.

FiNakoma

Actually I just checked the Barclay Credit Card and its charging me 1.7% a month interest.

- I've balance transferred £2.1K from the 0% Tesco and set it to minimum repayment
- Every spare penny after bills until its cleared will now go on to the Barclay Card

Thanks for the advice!

YorkshireBoy

FiNakoma wrote: »

Actually I just checked the Barclay Credit Card and its charging me 1.7% a month interest.

Then the APR isn't 18.7%.

- I've balance transferred £2.1K from the 0% Tesco and set it to minimum repayment

I think you mean to the Tesco card.

- Every spare penny after bills until its cleared will now go on to the Barclay Card

Thanks for the advice!

The advice, if you read between the lines, was to BT to another card (and still is, for the residual Barclaycard balance) because any fee paid would be recovered in around 2-3 months...or maybe you think you can repay within this timescale?


One final thing...are you sure the Tesco BT is at 0%? Many cards have only a 60-90 day window in which to make the BT. I don't know the answer...do you?

FiNakoma

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Then the APR isn't 18.7%.I think you mean to the Tesco card.The advice, if you read between the lines, was to BT to another card (and still is, for the residual Barclaycard balance) because any fee paid would be recovered in around 2-3 months...or maybe you think you can repay within this timescale?


One final thing...are you sure the Tesco BT is at 0%? Many cards have only a 60-90 day window in which to make the BT. I don't know the answer...do you?

Yes for the Tesco account its 0% for any BT's made for the duration of the 22 months period interest free period.

I phoned them and asked them this specifically. Also I've done BT's well after 90 days and have checked the account isn't incurring any interest fee's.

I won't be able to pay off the Barclay Card in 4 months, so based on the advice and calculations I'd be better off doing a BT. Which I have done.

Thanks all..