Basic credit card balance transfer question

chrisbrowne28

Sorry if this is a very basic question, but I'm not a regular credit card user and have two that have been sitting there since student days. Never missed any payments etc., but would rather have just the one.

I have

1) Natwest Basic Mastercard - limit of £500, 11.1% APR, spend on card of ~250

2) Capital One Basic - limit of 1000, 34.94% APR, spend on card of ~150

Interest on each is about 2 or 3 quid a month.

Had both for a few years

Question is - is it worth transferring the balance from one to the other? Or should I just keep paying both off?

welshiex

You could BT Capital One to Natwest as that has lower Interest but you need to keep in mind the transfer fee of normally 3% and your APR for BT may be different to your purchase APR.if you've had the card for a while check online with Natwest as they may have an offer on BT available to you (when I hadn't used mine in a while I went online and saw a 15mth 0% on BTs available

Edit: sorry just noticed your limit on the Natwest you might have to be careful that if you do close cap one your not increasing you capital utilisation percentage. Maybe do BT but keep cap one open for a little bit with zero balance to keep you percentage down?

CLAPTON

better to pay them both off in full each month and avoid paying interest

the one to pay off asap is the capital one at 34.94% APR

try to have a no spend month or two and pay off the debts

pay the minimum plus a couple of pounds on the natwest and then as much as possible on the cap 1 until it clear

thebritishbloke

Not to be rude as I obviously don't know your personal situation, but is there any reason you can't afford to pay at least one of the cards off in full? If I were you, I'd pay off the Capital One if you can afford to. Then pay off the Natwest. It's not worth BTing £150 IMO.