>12 month balance transfer for low-income student

HERC0

Hi there,


First post on these forums!


I currently have 2 credit cards with a total balance of around £5,000, and have maxed out my £1,800 interest-free student overdraft.


I think I only managed to get such high credit limits in the first place because I took them out while on a full-time 11 month work placement with a respectable salary. Now however, I am back in the classroom and only working 8 hours a week, and stupidly let the balances on both cards creep up which at the time, of course, I promised myself I wouldn't do...


I have applied online for a couple of the balance transfer cards recommended on this website, and have been accepted, but they only offer very small credit limits of around £1,200. I am guessing this is due to my low income.


Are there any cards out there that I could transfer a balance as high as £4,500-£5,000 to, or are there any alternatives?


Thanks for any advice offered.

DomRavioli

You can usually only borrow 50% of your income - so if your income is low, so will your credit limit.

Also, stop making applications!!! Too many in a short space of time stinks of desperation, so don't make any more.

HERC0

DomRavioli wrote: »

You can usually only borrow 50% of your income - so if your income is low, so will your credit limit.

So if my income was around £8,000 now (which it is), I should reasonably expect to be offered around a £4,000 credit limit on a single card?

JKSandy

You currently have £6.8k of debt so your already using more than 50% of your income.

A new lender will probably not give you £4k as you could transfer the balance then spend on your current credit cards again.

zerog

You can transfer less than the full balance which will still reduce the total interest you need to pay (though it will increase the total minimum payments - but most cards only need 1%)