0% Balance / Purchase cards.

piehole

Hello,

If you have a card that has both 0% purchases and 0% balance transfers (varying times) - is it okay to spend on the card, once a balance has been transferred to it? Do the minimum payments pay that balance off first, as it will be the one which accrues interest first?

21 months BT / 6 months purchases.

Thanks for any help!

molerat

Not necessarily, carefully read the T&C's to check. For instance if the end of promotion rate is the same MBNA will pay off the BT first, Halifax would not care what the end of promo rate was and pay off the purchases first. This is why it is always advised not to mix purchases and BTs unless you are 100% certain of how the payment allocation works.

piehole

Thanks for the comment, Molerat. It is a Halifax card, so would I be safe to assume the purchases would be paid off by the minimum payment? I'll take a look through the T&C's once received.

It's my first 'mainstream' card so i'm not used to having these sort of offers available and I normally pay my cards in full, monthly.

molerat

All payments will go towards purchases that have appeared on a statement then to the BT so you need to manage it carefully to know exactly where the money is going. The card is new to me so have not had a statement yet so not sure if they show how outstanding balances are split(although I am not going to spend on the card, it is purely BT and at almost 90% of the limit). MBNA are very good at this and Santander show differing balances but not which is which.

If you applied on line for the Halifax card the T&Cs were in both e-mails "1 of 2" and "2 of 2" when accepted for the card and also a click to download during the application - you won't get one in the post with the card.