Barclaycard trying to keep me, better to close?

MrJester

Hi all will try and keep this brief.

I have 3 cards:
Barclaycard £0
Halifax £1600 21.95%
MBNA £2400 0%

Rang barclaycard to ask to close the card the other day, they began offering me options to stay - as they do.
They gave me £50 into my credit card for free.

They did a few checks and today have said they will up my credit limit, which they have gone and done, it was at £200 and its now back up at £2000. They did this because I said I may consider doing a balance transfer of the halifax.

What they told me on the phone was I can do a 0% for 9 months with 2.9% fee. So effectively I could do that now and try pay off £1600 in 9 months.

But to be honest 9 months feels short to pay off that kind of money for me. I have just been given a considerable raise but even so thats looking at £183 approx I'd have to pay to the barclaycard each month to pay off in the 0%.
I've made this mistake before with too small time windows to do it, and whilst I COULD do it - I have stressed myself so hard over the past year and finally got the raise I feel I deserve and want to be able to put money aside for a holiday (first in 6+ years) and not have to worry so much about having money last me the entire month ETC ETC!

With my wage going up, and my credit is starting to rebuild, I had a look on MSE BT check and it reckons I'll get 90% chance of most of the BT cards and the periods are anywhere between 15-28 months or whatever

So my best option is probably to say bye bye to barclaycard for now, and wait a couple months, then reapply for a barclaycard BT card again because I'm likelier to get a better deal?
This all seems logical to me, I just wanted to once it over with some other MSE'ers!

thank you in advance for your opinion on this :T
EDIT oh and one last thing to consider i got a letter from them yesterday stating that i have paid £77 over in interest and this will be reimbursed to me by a change of terms and conditions in february.
what if i close the card? can i just ask for it in a cheque?

Candyapple

If you log in online to your Barclaycard account you can see all your transfer offers, usually you get a mix of 9 months money transfer and 12/15/18 months on balance transfers. There are numerous threads on here about the same topic.

Yes I would probably do what you are suggesting, close the Barclaycard (assuming you have no decent offers) and then either reapply with them in 6 months time http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/cancel-unused-cards or apply with another lender.

Cycrow

You could just apply for a new Barclaycard, then close the old one if you get it. They dont limit you to 1 card

MrJester

Candyapple wrote: »

If you log in online to your Barclaycard account you can see all your transfer offers, usually you get a mix of 9 months money transfer and 12/15/18 months on balance transfers. There are numerous threads on here about the same topic.

Yes I would probably do what you are suggesting, close the Barclaycard (assuming you have no decent offers) and then either reapply with them in 6 months time http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/cancel-unused-cards or apply with another lender.

Just checked on app, an offer shows but not a 0% one. Then just logged into the site, no offers show. I think there's a big difference between automated offers and what they agree to over the phone.

Cycrow wrote: »

You could just apply for a new Barclaycard, then close the old one if you get it. They dont limit you to 1 card

See, they used to only be one card and it would reflect this in the MSE check, it would say only to new customers. But now I do not see this same text I used to.
Perhaps its on certain cards of theirs?

Either which way it looks like the best offer will come from a new card with them, one of their platinum cards. This card I have is an old starter card that just escalated in trouble.
So either way, probably close this card very shortly, and consider an application as soon as I'm sure its shown properly on my credit file as closed.

20aday

Cycrow wrote: »

You could just apply for a new Barclaycard, then close the old one if you get it. They dont limit you to 1 card

It used to be the case you could hold two Barclaycards simultaneously but unfortunately this is no longer possible.

MrJester

20aday wrote: »

It used to be the case you could hold two Barclaycards simultaneously but unfortunately this is no longer possible.

This was my understanding. I reckon I shall be closing my Barclaycard and I'll reapply in a couple months time.

I don't quite believe that "6 months and you're a new customer" lark, as the MSE article says this is what the company say themselves but take with a pinch of salt, and it just sounds like a tactic to me to keep people on cards rather than lose them - just like in my case.

Ben8282

Take the 0% offer and be grateful for what you have been offered. A massive credit limit increase and 9 months at 0% with 2.9% fee. That is much better than 9 months at 21.95%.
If you are a £200 credit limit type of customer what better can you realistically expect to get.

MrJester

Ben8282 wrote: »

Take the 0% offer and be grateful for what you have been offered. A massive credit limit increase and 9 months at 0% with 2.9% fee. That is much better than 9 months at 21.95%.
If you are a £200 credit limit type of customer what better can you realistically expect to get.

I was at £200 limit by my own choice. Now what are your thoughts?

redux

How about this?

Look at how much you typically use a credit card for in a month, or how much you could if you moved a couple more items on there - groceries shopping, car fuel, etc

Pay off the Halifax card in full using a mixture of your bank account when your salary has just arrived and s slightly lower Barclaycard balance transfer.

Then keep using the Halifax card for current spending as above, and keep paying it off in full each month.

That might mean roughly £300 or 400 on the Halifax card, and £1200 to £1300 on the Barclaycard.

It saves £240 interest in 9 months, less the balance transfer fee of course, while you keep an eye out for another deal.

MrJester

redux wrote: »

How about this?

Look at how much you typically use a credit card for in a month, or how much you could if you moved a couple more items on there - groceries shopping, car fuel, etc

Pay off the Halifax card in full using a mixture of your bank account when your salary has just arrived and s slightly lower Barclaycard balance transfer.

Then keep using the Halifax card for current spending as above, and keep paying it off in full each month.

That might mean roughly £300 or 400 on the Halifax card, and £1200 to £1300 on the Barclaycard.

It saves £240 interest in 9 months, less the balance transfer fee of course, while you keep an eye out for another deal.

A bit.. complicated..

But I cant use the Halifax for spending, I agreed with them to stop any further use of the card to keep the interest rate at 21.95% otherwise it was going to rise.

redux

MrJester wrote: »

A bit.. complicated..

But I cant use the Halifax for spending, I agreed with them to stop any further use of the card to keep the interest rate at 21.95% otherwise it was going to rise.

In my scheme even if the Halifax rate goes up you don't incur any interest as it's current spending and paid off in full by the due date.

And actually maybe I was simplifying it too much. If you spend say £300 a month, you can have a balance that fluctuates between £300 and £600, still paying in full on time.

This might mean you can clear the balance transferred to Barclaycard within the 9 months.