Credit card to pay off Argos card

alanbatty

Hi all,

I have applied for a Sainsburys credit card in order to pay off my existing Argos card loan as they are doing 42 months interest free at the moment.

The size of the debt is about £1800.

I've never done this before but does anyone know if the repayment process will be relatively straight-forward and if it's ok to transfer all the balance over at once? It's maybe a stupid question but if I'm shifting over £1800 I don't want to get hit with a big repayment bill each month. Do I understand it correct;y that Sainsburys will charge me the 2.25% fee (which I think it is) per month (about £40?) and then I pay whatever I want to on top of it?

I'm hoping to pay back about £100 per month in order to finish it off as quickly as possible but I am just very unsure as to how the monthly repayments will be calculated.

Any help or words of experience will be greatly welcomed;)

Thanks

Alan

YorkshireBoy

Is the Argos card a store card or a credit card? If the former, I don't think you can transfer the balance to Sainsburys...you'll need a money transfer card instead.

Ben8282

If you really believe that the 2.25% BT fee is payable every month then why are you doing the BT? Surely your calculations will show that the monthly £40.50 fee will be similar or possibly greater than the interest that you are currently paying.

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The BT fee is a ONE OFF fee payable at the time of the BT.
Sainsburys do not currently offer a card with either the 0% term mentioned or the fee mentioned.
The repayment process will be the same as for your existing card.
You will receive a monthly statement showing minimum payment and date due.
The minimum payment on BT cards is often 1% of the outstanding balance but it appears that Sainsburys apply a higher minimum monthly payment of 2.25% (so this is where your 2.25% per-months comes from).
You have indicated an intention to repay £100pm so this will not really be a problem for you.
Would suggest you set up a fixed amount direct debit for £100pm, The balance will then clear in l9 months.

As has been said it is not always possible to do a BT to a store card. You will need to check if this particular BT will be possible. It may be. It may not be.
An alternative solution would be to make use of the 0% purchases offer on the Sainsburys card. Transfer all spending to the new card and use the money saved to repay the original store card. This would also give you the added benefit of Nectar points on your normal spending.

While the Sainsburys card is very good if you like to collect nectar points, the 2.25% minimum payment does not make it the ideal BT card. The Sainsburys card is a card that I would consider for the rewards aspect, especially as I spend quite a bit in Sainsburys each month, but would not be my first choice as a BT card. As you have implied that you are happy to pay £100pm, I would actually suggest that you apply for an easier to get card with a shorter BT period and possibly a lower fee, your apparent objective being to repay the debt as opposed to long-term stoozing.

YorkshireBoy

Ben8282 wrote: »

If you really believe that the 2.25% BT fee is payable every month then why are you doing the BT? Surely your calculations will show that the monthly £40.50 fee will be similar or possibly greater than the interest that you are currently paying.

The 2.25% figure refers to the minimum payment. Poor choice of words by the OP.


OP, I can't see a 42 month product on the Sainburys website. I do see a 40 month product, but that has a 2.89% (2.38% for Nectar card holders) BT fee. If you could do £100 a month why didn't you consider the 0% BT fee product for 22 months as you'd have it paid off 4 months before the intro period ran out. All irrelevant of course if your Argos card is a store card!