Balance transfer/unused card questions

djdestiny

Hi, I am thinking about doing a balance transfer so I can get it cleared quicker.

I currently have a Barclay card with £3100 balance (£4780 credit limit) which I am paying off at £100 per week.
The APR is 23%, so approx £70 of my payments is going on interest.

I also have an old Capital One card with a £4000 credit limit that was cleared May 2015 and will not be used again. The APR 34%!
I have only kept it incase of emergencies.

I have found a Virgin Money card with 0% interest for 18 months, and no transfer fee. Their site says I will need to pay £166 per month to clear £3000 in the 18 months. I would be paying the £100 per week that goes on my Barclay card, so easily covering the £166 minimum.
Am I right in thinking that is a no brainer to go ahead with?

Experian shows my rating to be excellent.
2 months ago a I took out a loan to buy something for £500, that is the only negative thing showing on my record.

Would I be better off closing the Capital One account?
I only really want to go for the Virgin card if I got enough credit limit to transfer the full £3000, is there any way of finding out what limit they would give without committing to it?

If successful I would then keep the Barclay card empty for emergencies, which has the lower rate to the nasty Capital One card.

I think my thoughts are all correct, I just wanted to run it past someone else first

CLAPTON

djdestiny wrote: »

Hi, I am thinking about doing a balance transfer so I can get it cleared quicker.

I currently have a Barclay card with £3100 balance (£4780 credit limit) which I am paying off at £100 per week.
The APR is 23%, so approx £70 of my payments is going on interest.

I also have an old Capital One card with a £4000 credit limit that was cleared May 2015 and will not be used again. The APR 34%!
I have only kept it incase of emergencies.

I have found a Virgin Money card with 0% interest for 18 months, and no transfer fee. Their site says I will need to pay £166 per month to clear £3000 in the 18 months. I would be paying the £100 per week that goes on my Barclay card, so easily covering the £166 minimum.
Am I right in thinking that is a no brainer to go ahead with?

Experian shows my rating to be excellent.
2 months ago a I took out a loan to buy something for £500, that is the only negative thing showing on my record.

Would I be better off closing the Capital One account?
I only really want to go for the Virgin card if I got enough credit limit to transfer the full £3000, is there any way of finding out what limit they would give without committing to it?

If successful I would then keep the Barclay card empty for emergencies, which has the lower rate to the nasty Capital One card.

I think my thoughts are all correct, I just wanted to run it past someone else first

if you can transfer debt at 23% to 0% then its a no brainer
Accept any credit limit offered because (say) 1000 at 0% is better than 1000 at 23%

I wouldn't close either of the other two card but I would use them occasionally and pay in full just to keep them alive for an emergency

however you need to address the reasons for being in debt.
review your spending and cut back : take out no new debt

djdestiny

Thanks for the advice.
I know why I was in debt and that is all sorted now
I took out the £500 loan for music equipment because it is at 0% interest, rather than putting it on my card at 23%.
It is only costing me £46 a month and will be paid off by November this year.
I think I will apply for the Virgin card, as you said, it is a no brainer.

If I get the Virgin card I will keep the Barclays one for emergencies, then I can ditch the horrendous Capital One account as I will never use it again with that interest rate.

engineer_amy

There is also a Halifax card offering 0% on BT for up to 23 months with no transfer fee.
I applied last night after reading the MSE email and was successful. You are asked what limit would be helpful (bearing mind you can only transfer 90% of the limit).
It showed me the limit that I would be approved for, pending further checks, before I hit the "Complete Application" button, so you wouldn't have to go ahead at that point if you didn't get the amount you want. But it would still have left a search on your file.


Even if you didn't get the full limit you need, I would still take it and transfer as much as you can on to it, it will vastly reduce the amount of interest you are currently paying on the remaining balance on the Barclay card

djdestiny

Thanks, I looked at the 23 month card, I won't need anywhere near that long to pay it off.
If I could transfer the full £3000 balance and pay £100 a week I'll have it pay off in under 8 months

Edit: Im sure the Halifax one I looked at with 23 months was something like a 3% transfer fee. That is why I looked at the Virgin one

djdestiny

Just been approved for a Virgin card with £5000 limit, perfect!
Goodbye interest payments to Barclays