Balance transfer - help please!

hollie123

Hi
I have a question with regards to balance transfers.
I have a Barclays credit card that I previously transferred to as it was a 0% balance transfer offer for 12 months. I have reached the point where it is no longer 0% and it's costing me a fortune in interest.
I am looking to transfer the balance of the credit card to another 0% interest fixed credit card but have found a lot of them now don't have a credit limit large enough to transfer my amount (about £3500).
My question is - can I split the amount on my current Barclays credit card on to more than 1 0% interest credit card? I.e £1500 on one card and £2000 onto another card?

Does anyone know the answer or can help me?

Thanks in advance

grumbler

hollie123 wrote: »

I am looking to transfer the balance of the credit card to another 0% interest fixed credit card but have found a lot of them now don't have a credit limit large enough to transfer my amount (about £3500).

Generally, you shouldn't be surprised that the more cards (available credit) you have, the harder it gets to get new cards with sizable limits.
However, how do you know the new credit limits?
Also, every little helps. You can transfer a part of the old balance or transfer it to more than one new card.

My question is - can I split the amount on my current Barclays credit card on to more than 1 0% interest credit card? I.e £1500 on one card and £2000 onto another card?

Yes.

Ebe_Scrooge

You can, assuming you are accepted for the new 0% cards. But you'll pay 2 balance transfer fees, one for each card.

stator

You can do that if they accept you, but the more credit you have the less chance you have of getting what you want. eg if they calculate your max credit is £5k and you've already got a £3.5k card they would only offer you £1.5k and until you close one of them down another lender might reject you. Of course all lenders have their own criteria so it's entirely possible another lender might think your max credit is £6k and give you another card. Just remember too many applications in a short time will affect your credit rating.

It also sounds like you need to come up with a plan for paying off the balance

hollie123

stator wrote: »

You can do that if they accept you, but the more credit you have the less chance you have of getting what you want. eg if they calculate your max credit is £5k and you've already got a £3.5k card they would only offer you £1.5k and until you close one of them down another lender might reject you. Of course all lenders have their own criteria so it's entirely possible another lender might think your max credit is £6k and give you another card. Just remember too many applications in a short time will affect your credit rating.

It also sounds like you need to come up with a plan for paying off the balance

Yes - I do need a plan to repay the balance completely before the 0% interest rate ends on the next card/cards I get. Any suggestions to do this would also be appreciate!

Nasqueron

Multiple cards or close the unused accounts you have which will lower the amount of available credit you have (which would mean better chance of the full balance on a new card) and get whatever you can onto the 0% card which will reduce your interest on the main card - if you can pay it now, then use the money you are not spending from a reduced balance to pay off the other cards or save it to cover the balance at the end.

Little bit confused about how you know what limit the new BT cards would give you - have you applied and been accepted and had a limit offer and closed it or just guessing? If you have been applying for cards and got low limits then stop doing that for a few months, makes you look desperate to lenders and many will not touch you.

Otherwise post on the debt free page of this forum for advice on reducing outgoings and increasing incoming (whether it's cancelling expensive contracts, negotiating discounts or even flogging stuff on ebay).