0% credit card debt shifting question

JohnR1978

Hi all,

I am new on here so hope this question hasn't been asked and answered over and over again?

We have a (Barclay) credit card with a balance of £6900 ( we are paying £250 off a month). It is currently on a 0% offer which runs out in February.

I have another 'empty' (Halifax) card with a 6 month 0% offer plus fee, to transfer the balance onto in February.

However, looking around I'm 95% likely to get a credit card with a longer 0% offer and smaller fee, although we wouldn't know what credit limit I would get.

I'm not sure if having the Halifax card, although empty would effect how much of a credit limit I would get on a new card.




Here is the question, would we be better cancelling the Halifax card altogether now, to improve my credit score, and just hope, come February I get enough of a credit limit on a new card to shift the whole balance?

Or keep the Halifax card as a back up in case I don't get enough of a credit limit, which may affect the limit offered?

Transferring to the Halifax card would mean we'd have to transfer again in 6 month and again after that which would cost us a fee over and over again. Which may be almost £1000

We don't EVER spend on the card, we are just moving the balance until it is paid off.

One last twist is.. we are hoping to move house next year so I wouldn't want to adversely affect our credit rating for a new mortgage.
:-0

I look forward to your advice.

Thanks in advance


John.

Dobbibill

JohnR1978 wrote: »

Hi all,

I am new on here so hope this question hasn't been asked and answered over and over again?

Hi John,

Welcome to the forum

We have a (Barclay) credit card with a balance of £6900 ( we are paying £250 off a month). It is currently on a 0% offer which runs out in February.

I have another 'empty' (Halifax) card with a 6 month 0% offer plus fee, to transfer the balance onto in February.

However, looking around I'm 95% likely to get a credit card with a longer 0% offer and smaller fee, although we wouldn't know what credit limit I would get.

Before you do another application, have you spoken to Halifax to ask them if they have any other deals for a BT? There's no guarantees but if you ask, you never know, they may say they can offer you 12 months. Worth a quick call I reckon.

I'm not sure if having the Halifax card, although empty would effect how much of a credit limit I would get on a new card.

Yes it would, you are asking a lender to increase you available credit by x amount. They do not know what your intentions are so will look at any application as being credit on top of what you already have, not instead of.

Here is the question, would we be better cancelling the Halifax card altogether now, to improve my credit score, and just hope, come February I get enough of a credit limit on a new card to shift the whole balance?

Or keep the Halifax card as a back up in case I don't get enough of a credit limit, which may affect the limit offered?

I would be keeping the Halifax card, no-one on here will be able to tell you for certain if you will get accepted elsewhere. The only way to know for certain is to apply but 6 months at 0% is better than nothing.

Transferring to the Halifax card would mean we'd have to transfer again in 6 month and again after that which would cost us a fee over and over again. Which may be almost £1000

That's alot of money in fees. How did you come to this figure? BT to Halifax, which is normally 3% is approx £207.

During this time, BCard may offer you something for a longer period of time.

If you continue to pay £250 a month to your credit card that will leave you with approx £5607 to move back again, which if Bcard charge you a further 3% this would be approx £170, making a total of £377 in fees.

If Bcard are able to offer you a BT of 23 months or more, then you would not need to transfer the balance again. At £250 a month, that will have your balance cleared in that time.

One last twist is.. we are hoping to move house next year so I wouldn't want to adversely affect our credit rating for a new mortgage.

The debt is going to still be there next year with or without a 0% deal. Paying interest on it is just going to cost more and take a longer time to clear. Your credit report will detail how much debt you have when a credit search is done for the mortgage application, clear as much as possible before that time.

bearcat16

Usually you get 3 months. To transfer balances on new cards with a promotional rate, so there's no harm in looking around and trying to get one now, not just wait until Feb.

Also, as a general rule, avoid any applications for credit in the 6 months preceding a mortgage application (longer if you can), so the sooner you get this sorted the better.

If you have decent credit history, MBNA are known to give relatively high credit limits and have some good 0% deals. I got a 34 month money transfer card recently, with a limit of £7k. Virgin money are also good.

Regarding Halifax, as Dobbibill says, definitely worth a call to them, though they can be a bit idiotic. My wife has a Halifax classic visa credit card and when she phoned them to ask about extending a 0% deal they said no, sorry. So she transferred the balance on it to a tesco 0% card.

A week later Halifax sent a letter offering 0% for 24 months!

JohnR1978

Thanks for the detailed replies Dobbibill and Bearcat16.


Definitely a lot to think about and sort out.


:-)


John.