Balance transfer amount

Bat-Man

Hello,

Apologies if this question has been answered before.


I have a Halifax Mastercard with an £8,200 limit. The current outstanding balance is £5,300.

I pay at least the minimum amount every month and occasionally am able to pay £200 or £300 towards the outstanding balance but what I pay in interest (approx. £85 - £90 per month), I would like to be able to put towards paying the card off. Maybe a zero interest balance transfer to another credit card could be a good idea?

My Noddle credit report is quite good at 4/5 with no CCJ's or missed payments. I am a home owner and have lived here for 20 years. The Noddle website has returned a few matches for 0% balance transfer credit cards I may be eligible for.

I would rather transfer the whole £5,300, not just a part of it, so before I go off and start applying for a card, my question is: do credit card companies have an upper limit to what they will likely accept with a new customer? Or, do they see my existing limit and that I am well within it and make regular payments?

Thank you for any advice

Tixy

If accepted the limit you will be offered will be based on your credit file and your financial circumstances (including taking in to account your current income and current level of debt).

It is certainly possible to get a card with a starting limit in excess of £6k, but it is most likely if you are a high earner with relatively little existing debt.

Some cards appear to be more generous with starting limits than others. MBNA and barclaycard are often reported on this forum as offering high limits.

MallyGirl

it will depend on your individual circumstances - particularly your salary. They will assume this is additional borrowing so does your gross salary support borrowing of 8200 + 6000 = £14,200 ?
you would need to be on nearly £30k plus have no other significant debts/commitments.

Bat-Man

Hi Tixy & MallyGirl,

Thanks both for the quick replies!

I'm currently only on £20,000 a year salary so I'm assuming that would go against me?

Is there any way of finding out in advance of applying for a card how much I could expect from the lender?

I wouldn't want to go through the whole registration process, only to find out I could merely transfer £1,000, then apply for another card and find out the same. More searches on an address don’t do the credit report any favours do they?

Tixy

No there is no way to know what limit you will be offered until you have applied and been accepted.

If you get accepted but with limit lower than your current balance then it would still be worth transferring over what you can. Some debt on a 0% deal is better than paying interest on it all.

Multiple searches on your credit file in a short space of time can have a short term impact on your chance of being accepted for new credit.

Bat-Man

Yes, that sounds like good advice.

If I got accepted by a credit card company and they would only allow, say, £1,000, is there any harm in applying for additional 0% credit cards with a view to transferring more of the debt? Or is this a bad idea?

Tixy

In that situation it may be worth trying an application for a second new card, but I probably wouldn't apply for more than that (as the chance of acceptance for 3 new cards in a very short period of time would be slim, especially if the first 2 only offered you small limits).

Bat-Man

Thanks for all your advice