M&S Card APR not quoted

DLGEMINI

After reading the last MSE advice about best card balance transfer rate I applied for the M&S card which has a 5.9% for life of balance rate. Got approved and when the paperwork came through I found that the APR was 17.9%. The 5.9% quoted in the MSE article isn't the APR, I had assumed it was, it must be me thats stupid! But the 17.9% APR means that the card isn't much cheaper than the card I was going to tansfer the balance from. I like the Money Saving expert emails but I think the APR's should be quoted when good deals are recommended

YorkshireBoy

Any balances you transfer to the card (within the first 6 months I believe?) will be given at 5.9% APR for the life of those balances.

The 17.9% APR figure relates to any purchases/balance transfers you make after their respective introductory periods.

At the end of the day, you shouldn't be putting any purchases on to this card unless you can clear the entire card balance before the end of the 0% on purchases intro period (March 2008?).

DO NOT cancel the card without looking into this further.

missile

If you read Martin's guide you will see that the rate for balance transfer is often much less than rate for purchases. You need to factor in the balance transfer fee. BEWARE transfering balance to a card which you then use for purchases. Many (like M&S) offset payments against the balance transfer first, so end up paying at the higher rate!

Ditch your M&S card, there are many better deals for balance transfer.

DLGEMINI

Thanks for the advice to both the above, will check, very helpful comments:T