advice re credit cards

lunar

I hope nobody minds me starting a new thread but i wasnt sure if i would get replies on my diary.

I currently have 3 credit cards

Barclaycard Balance £1450 @ 19% limit £2000
Mint Balance £8941 @ 25% limit £9100
Egg Balance £9467 @17.9% limit £9500

I have just been accecpted for a natwest credit card with a limit of £4200. it has 0% for 13 months but charges 2.5% to balance transfer onto it. I was thinking i could transfer half the money from the mint card which has the highest interest rate. I will have to pay £100 for the transfer but this wll be covered by less than two months of payments from what i would have payed in interest.

My question is what should i do then. know i wont be tempted to use the cards for spending ive made that mistake too many times. Should i try and shuffle other balances around to reduce the interest rates or should i just reduce the credit limit on the mint card?

To be honest im just in shock that they would give more credit to someone in this position, I guess thats how we all got into this mess in the first place! Any advice would be greatly apriciated.

lunar

just wanted to add that arround £3000 of my mint balance is from cash advances, does this make a difference whan doing a balance trnsfer?

CharliesAngel

I would transfer the Mint balance over to the new (natwest) card and contact Mint to bring the credit limit down from £9100 to within £3 of the new balance. This should stop you spending on it again! Cut it up also...

When you've got room, I'd say shift the barclay card onto the Natwest one and close it.

Then work on getting the rest of them down... and if the 0% deal is still on, keep moving chunks over, or see if at that time you can open another 0% card to get rid of one of the others!

Balance transfers are balance transfers, it doesn't matter how you got the balance on there, so you shouldn't have any problem transferring it over. Be careful though - only transfer onto your Natwest up to 95% of the limit (not many lenders will let you transfer 100% of the limit anyway), the charge for transfer will be added on top of this!

CA x

lunar

thanks for the advice CA, im really trying to get rid of the barclay card before christmas so im hoping not to need to shift that balance.

I think my credit rating must have improved as i was turned down for a new card just 3 monts ago. if i do this balance transfer andreduce the limit on my mint card, how long should i wait before applying for another card at 0% to try getting all my credit cards to a zero balance?

RAS

You have a bit of capacity on the barclaycard at the minute, and it charges 6% less APR, so move £500 more off the Mint card onto that.
It is the mint card you need to put all the effort into getting rid of, rsather than the barclaycard, as the Mint costs you more.

go to www.whatsthecost.com and play with the snowball, so you can see the difference that maks.

Having a lower minimum payment, will give you extra money each month to throw at the Mint card to clear it.

lunar

Do you know what order they pay off the credit in when you have taken out cash advances on a credit card, do they take it in the order you spent it, or are they cruel and save the cash amount until the end?

lunar

Thanks RAS i cant believe i never thought to do that with my BC! sometimes i think you need others to look at your situation to find the best solution

Dr_Hook

lunar wrote: »

Do you know what order they pay off the credit in when you have taken out cash advances on a credit card, do they take it in the order you spent it, or are they cruel and save the cash amount until the end?

Nope, they're cruel unfortunately

Usually payments are applied to interest & fees first, then special-rate (i.e. low-rate b/t) balances, standard-rate (purchases, etc), high-rate balances last (cash advances).

Your still better off transferring from the Mint though - it means you'll start paying off the cash advance balance sooner.

lunar

I had a nasty feeling they would do that, oh well at least i can move £4500 to either 0% or lower interest, then if i concentrate all my effort on getting rid of mint i can close it.

does anyone have thoughts on when i could apply for a new card once i have recieved my natwest card and done that balace transfer? i dont want to completly ruin my credit rating but i need to get rid of all this high interest credit.

lunar

just phoned BC they wont transfer my balance as i have missed 2 payments this year. that was in june and all my account were brought up to date by july, and have been since.

could this mean that when i recieve my NW card they would let me spend on it but not transfer a balance!? seems mad to me.

BC told me to call back in 2 months.

im wondering if i should just forget BC and reduce the credit limit. would this help my credit rating slightly?

lunar

p.s my missed payments wernt to barclaycard