Virgin CC 40m 0% consolidation problem

meclive

Hi, I applied for the Virgin 40 months 0% credit card to consolidate the debt on my two existing cards. The application went smoothly and accepted my balance transfer details. Once the application was successfully processed (instant) it displayed the limit of my card, which was unfortunately below the amount I need to consolidate, d'oh!

Gave them a ring and they said all they could do was cancel the card if I wasn't happy. Sort of defeats the object having a card that doesn't consolidate my debt! For info i'd need roughly a £1.5k increase to consolidate both my CC balances. Very annoying as the limit of my other two credit cards are much larger in comparison to what Virgin have offered.

Is it worth any sort of appeal to try get an increase? I earn a decent amount and am wanting to transfer the balances from my other CC's so I can close them! I have a very good credit score according to Experian 988.

Feel a bit stuck as don't think doing any more credit searches will do me any good! Any advice? :huh:

[Deleted User]

BT what you can - no point in throwing it away, as the search is already on your file.

You could try another application, but you may be approaching the max in total credit you're likely to get.

Ignore the 998 score. Unfortunately, Experian don't offer credit cards.

meclive

Deleted_User wrote: »

BT what you can - no point in throwing it away, as the search is already on your file.

You could try another application, but you may be approaching the max in total credit you're likely to get.

Ignore the 998 score. Unfortunately, Experian don't offer credit cards.

Thanks for the reply. I guess there's little point in appealing the limit?

[Deleted User]

I doubt it. They will have set the limit based on risk and would probably want at least 6 months to see how you perform.

But you could always try it, for the cost of a phone call.

meclive

So another bit of advice please. I have a Tesco and Lloyds credit card that I want to clear the balance from. The Tesco CC has a slightly larger balance - roughly £300 more and the Lloyds CC has much higher available limit.

I can only transfer the full balance from one, but which to choose...

If I transfer the balance from Tesco I can close the card, reducing my available credit (good thing?) but I lose the potential benefit of earning Tesco rewards/points and will be paying interest on my Lloyds CC balance...

If I transfer my Lloyds balance, I free up this card. They often write to me to offer an interest free balance transfer which I could use to transfer the Tesco CC debt - as long as they offer a transfer... Plus I could keep the Tesco CC benefits, but I then wouldn't be reducing my available credit...

[Deleted User]

What are the rates on each?

Dobbibill

At the moment as you do not have a large enough limit to transfer it all just do a partial BT of the debt you are paying the highest interest on. Even if this is only a partial amount of total debt owed on that card, you will then be paying less interest overall. You can then maybe snowball payments to the largest APR to clear that quicker than the amount sat on 0%.

If you want the snowball calculator, here is a link.

meclive

Deleted_User wrote: »

What are the rates on each?

Tesco only seems to tell me a monthly interest rate: 1.456%
Lloyds is: 18.9% I think - can't check on my online account for some reason.

Note: just noticed Llloyds will let me do a 0% balance transfer for 24 months (3% fee). That sounds like it might be worthwhile doing in conjunction with initially transferring the Lloyds balance to my new Virgin CC which is 0%. I can pay off the amount I will be transferring in 24 months.

Candyapple

meclive wrote: »

So another bit of advice please. I have a Tesco and Lloyds credit card that I want to clear the balance from. The Tesco CC has a slightly larger balance - roughly £300 more and the Lloyds CC has much higher available limit.

I can only transfer the full balance from one, but which to choose...

If I transfer the balance from Tesco I can close the card, reducing my available credit (good thing?) but I lose the potential benefit of earning Tesco rewards/points and will be paying interest on my Lloyds CC balance...

If I transfer my Lloyds balance, I free up this card. They often write to me to offer an interest free balance transfer which I could use to transfer the Tesco CC debt - as long as they offer a transfer... Plus I could keep the Tesco CC benefits, but I then wouldn't be reducing my available credit...

Info regarding Tesco rewards/points here that you need to read that may affect your decision:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5317390

If it were me, I would transfer the balance from Tesco to Virgin and then close the Tesco card. That way, if/when you decide to apply for a different card in the future, you are more likely to receive a larger credit limit and also if you wanted to reapply for a Tesco credit card in future to take advantage of their new customer offers, you need to wait 6 months between closing your account before you can apply for a new one, plus they usually give you a larger credit limit the second time round (as has been my experience).

meclive

Candyapple wrote: »

Info regarding Tesco rewards/points here that you need to read that may affect your decision:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5317390

If it were me, I would transfer the balance from Tesco to Virgin and then close the Tesco card. That way, if/when you decide to apply for a different card in the future, you are more likely to receive a larger credit limit and also if you wanted to reapply for a Tesco credit card in future to take advantage of their new customer offers, you need to wait 6 months between closing your account before you can apply for a new one, plus they usually give you a larger credit limit the second time round (as has been my experience).

Thanks. I think I'm going to transfer my Lloyds balance to Virgin so that's 0% for 40 months and transfer my Tesco balance to Lloyds so that's 0% for 24 months. Then I have the option to keep my Tesco CC for the rewards or close it. Seem sensible?

Candyapple

meclive wrote: »

Thanks. I think I'm going to transfer my Lloyds balance to Virgin so that's 0% for 40 months and transfer my Tesco balance to Lloyds so that's 0% for 24 months. Then I have the option to keep my Tesco CC for the rewards or close it. Seem sensible?

Sounds like a plan Stan