GREAT 0% BARCLAYCARD HUNT!

MSE_Martin

Ok Rochdale Guy. Before we go any further I suggest you read my articles on

a. The Credit Card shuffle, so that we minimise the cost of your existing cards
and
b Credit scoring: the comments of one bank dont necessarily apply to them all

there are lots of things to do even without new cards

martin

You may also want to consider applying for one of the life of balance transfer cards - see my balance transfer article too

martin

lostit

Hi , Im on the one pound a month deal for life.
Ive just gone to check my account and my last statement day is today and my 2nd paypal acct money has not gone through yet. Does anybody know a surefire way to use one pound on my card so that it shows as todays date, ive noticed most transactions usually take a few days to show on most cards.
Any suggestions greatfully received, please hurry.
:-[

System

Hi, and a big thanks to Andrea & Martin for their kind replies and for calming me down

Right then, seeing as you both asked, here is what I owe on which cards. Apologies to the rest of you if this is off-topic

Starting with the highest APR cards first (note, I don't have the exact APR's so have put a rough estimate). All are VISA cards, not that that matters really ::)

CAPITAL ONE £45 owed, £5 min.monthly payment @ +14% APR
TESCO £185 owed, £5 min. monthly payment @ +14% APR
BARCLAYCARD GOLD £645 owed, £13 min. monthly payment @ 6.9% fixed until paid off
NATWEST £815 owed, £18 min. monthly payment @ 5.9% APR fixed until paid off
AMERICAN EXPRESS BLUE £1,000 owed, £32 min. monthly payment @ 4.9% APR fixed until paid off

I do NOT spend on the above cards. All are for Balance Transfer purposes only.

I also have an ALLIANCE & LEICESTER Visa card with a ZERO balance and credit limit of £3,400 ... plus an MBNA Visa card, also with a ZERO balance and a credit limit of £4,300.

Both the above 2 have APR's of +13% APR, but I don't owe anything on them luckily ;D

Finally, today I had a letter from A&L offering me a reduced APR fo just 3.9% if I make a balance transfer from another card to the A&L one (with a ZERO balance remember !). This last s until 24th March 2004.

If I use the convenience cheques that came with the letter, it's still only 3.9% but they charge a 1.5% handling fee. >:( It also says in the footnotes that if I just phone them up and request a balance transfer i.e. not use the cheques, I will still get it at 3.9% until March 2004 but there may be a b/transfer fee.

What do they mean may ?!?!

It states "we will advise you before processing your b/transfer request if there will be a fee". ??? ??? ???

So, what do you you top people advise me to do them please. Don't forget I don't think I'd get accepted for any NEW cards, and 3 of the ones above are already good deals on low, fixed rate APR's until paid off.

Do I use the A&L 3.9% offer to transfer the highest TESCO £185 balance over ?

Please help me !

Many, many thanks.
Rochdale Guy (Mr.T)

Rochdale_Guy

<<< Hmmm. Don't know how I managed to post that as a guest, when I'm logged in ! >>> ??? :-/

System

I got my Barclaycard and even got over £3,000 credit, I only have about £1,000 to transfer so thought I was quids in here, 0% for life? However, when I called to confirm the deal and none of the paperwork said anything about the 0% deal, she said I had to spend £25.00 pcm, ok - no prob, but any money I paid off by transfer would be ok, but I asked could I then pay the £25.00 I had spent each month too, she said no, this would be taken off the transfer amount and I would be charged a very small amount on the £25.00 I spent each month and then charged a rolling interest rate, whcih said would work out at about 25pence per month plus the rolling interest on it. Their offer neve said anything about this on the web, any comments on this one, what should I do, any better deals out there with 0%

Thanks

Chris

Former_MSE_Moderator

Martin has written a number of articles on Credit Cards:

0% for life credit card

The Credit Card Shuffle

Cashback credit cards

Free Cash - get your own back on credit card companies

Credit Card for Spending

Best Balance Transfers.

chewie

Not read the rest of these posts but got something to say about the Barclaycard offer.

1) Put all details on form and they felt they had to phone me to go through it all again "to verify who i was". Even my previous addresses etc. Waste of my time so i asked.........

2) The min spend £25 - am I charged interest on this even if I repay. She said yes (at 13.9%) so I cancelled my application.

Was this info wrong? Think I need your help on this one Martin!!!!!

Cheers

the wookie

Rochdale_Guy

Where has everyone gone ?

And.... where the heck has wozza gone ???

??? :-/

Milarky

[Apologies for 'off topic' reply given here;]

Hi , Im on the one pound a month deal for life.
Does anybody know a surefire way to use one pound on my card so that it shows as todays date, ive noticed most transactions usually take a few days to show on most cards.
Any suggestions greatfully received, please hurry.
:-[

I pay £1 per month towards my council tax. This is done instantly by online merchant - RBS (So, it may be available in your area too). Confirmation of the amount charged comes back after a few seconds and goes through onto your Barclaycard the same day. (Viewable online the next day). If you pay your Council Tax by direct debit (or other means) already, just carry on - The £12 per year will credit your next bill and reduce the regular payments, hopefully.

[However, there is no need to 'spend' the £1 on the very last day - I do this as soon as my BC statement is produced - so just bringing forward your PayPal standing order to the start of your statement period will help]

An alternative might be Natwest's FastPay. This does now charge new customers 1.5% for paying in by credit card BUT that is only 2p (rounded up) on the BC £1 - taking £1.02 from your account - whereas the interest is 50p anyway. As with the Council Tax idea, you would go online to make the payment once a month, and see it apply to your BC the next morning.

[Minimum Payments to Barclaycard: Most conveniently done by setting up a direct debit, of course - never missed. But I expect you have got that in place by now?]

System

Rochdale Guy,

Here's what I'd do.

- Transfer the Tesco and Capital One balances to the A&L card, which is cheaper and whose post-promotion rate is unlikely to be significantly worse than what you're being charged by Tesco and C1 now anyway.

- Next, ask MBNA if they're doing for-life balance transfers, and if so, at what rate. If they are, and that rate is less than what you're paying on any of your Barclaycard, Natwest and Amex balances, transfer them in that order (i.e. costliest first) to your MBNA card.

- If you draw a blank with MBNA, ask Amex if they're still doing any for-life offers like the one you're on. Tell them you've had a for-life offer from someone else and you're thinking of switching, but if Amex match it you'd switch some more to them. If they agree, switch your BC and NatWest balances to them.

- If Amex won't play ball, ask NatWest the same thing and see if you can switch some BC debt to their rate.

- Don't transfer any of the Amex, NatWest or BC balances to the A&L offer or to any offer which is not life-of-balance. This is because the A&L offer is only cheaper for a few months and thereafter may go up to 14% or so. If you transferred the above three balances to your A&L, you'd get a small short-term benefit, but as a result will probably lose the life-of-balance deal you currently have on those cards. If you're having trouble getting new cards you won't be able to replace those deals. It's worth doing for the C1 and Tesco cards, because you are already on a crummy rate, but those other three are your cheapest source of credit right now and are worth keeping.

- If none of the above works, call all three again and ask outright for an interest rate reduction, again mentioning that you've been offered a cheaper deal elsewhere. If they grant you one, make sure to confirm that the lower rate is also life-of-balance and that it isn't a short-term offer which cancels the existing life-of-balance deal.

- If anyone offers you a life-of-balance deal as cheap as the Amex package, transfer that too. This is worth doing even if the interest rate is the same and not better - it means you can get back to using that Amex as a 1% cashback card.

- If you are able to make extra payments, always pay extra to the costliest cards first.

- You may soon find you're in the position of having a number of cards you no longer use. You might want to think about cancelling some of those. The process of credit checking is a closely guarded secret and varies from one bank to another, but there seems to be some evidence that having a lot of apparently available credit can harm your credit status. Lenders are sometimes reluctant to lend to someone who's already got a lot of credit relative to their income, because it suggests that you're having trouble with money if you need even more. You've got seven cards and you have been trying to get an eighth, which may have frightened them.

This can also work the other way though, weirdly. Nationwide recently told me they'd increase my card limit if I showed them statements that proved it was much higher with my other card providers. So in that instance they found it reassuring that I had loads of unused credit. But then again, I was an existing customer and not an unknown quantity.

- Once you've managed your existing credit cards down to say 3 or 4, you may find it easier to get new ones. The only downside to cancelling old cards is that you may miss out on the promotional offers for existing customers - but equally, if you phone up to cancel, this may actually prompt them into talking you out of leaving by offering you a deal to stay. So there's really no reason to keep the old ones.