To transfer or not to transfer?

theglueman

Hi all,

Long-time listener, first-time poster etc. Pardon me if this kind of question has already been answered many times elsewhere, or is *blindingly obvious*, but you all seem like the right people to ask... Sorry if it's rather lengthy!

I currently have a Halifax credit card and a Barclaycard. On the Halifax, I owe about £6000, and on the Barclaycard - which I opened in January '14 - about £3500. The Halifax is costing me about £70.00 a month in interest, and the Barlaycard is 0% until the end of February 2016.

I can't afford at the moment to make any more than the minimum payment every month, which is about £140 on the Halifax and £80 on the Barclaycard (I don't use the latter for purchases at all). I want to do another balance transfer before my 0% period ends, and ideally would like to reduce the amount I am paying in interest every month on the Halifax. Barclaycard are offering me another 0% deal on my existing card at the moment until March '17 which would pretty much clear the costly Halifax, but then would I be left paying an extortionate rate on the remaining sum of the original balance that I transferred to the Barclaycard?

Should I transfer from the Halifax to the Barclaycard, or try and find a third lender that would take both of the existing debts on?

Sorry if this is a bit garbled, let me know if there's anything I haven't explained clearly enough!

Cheers.

TGM

12_month_challenge

Hi
Have you tried the Credit Card eligibility calculator to see what the chances of acceptance would be?
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/eligibility/credit-cards/

theglueman

Hi,

Thanks for the reply - I think I did that last time around, it's probably worth giving it another go I suppose!

TGM

bearcat16

Is the new 0% from barclaycard (until March 2017) for new balance transfers only? Or for the whole balance? Also you'd need to consider if the credit limit would be high enough to transfer the Halifax balance.

But at any rate, personally I wouldn't bother with the barclaycard one as its only for a year and 3 months.

I'd get a new 0% card with a nice long term (eg virgin or MBNA with more than 34 months at 0%) and dump them both on there.

I also would recommend (if you can) paying more than just the minimum payment on it. It might be better to divide the new balance by the number of months interest free, and pay that amount. This way the balance will be zero when the deal ends.

That will save you having a big lump to pay (or having to hunt for another deal) at the end of the 0% term.

theglueman

Hi, bearcat16

Thanks very much for your reply - I've since done the eligibility checker MBNA and Virgin come out pretty high so I'm considering both. I'd probably be cancelling both my old cards if I moved the whole balance onto a new card and your suggestion about dividing the new balance up is a great idea.

Thanks again

TGM

bearcat16

No problem! Just a point, don't cancel the other cards as it will adversely affect your credit score.

One of the factors taken into account is "credit utilization". Basically this means the amount of your available credit that you are using. The lower the better.

Just leave them with a zero balance.