Cedit card/APR confusion

SebastianRobinson

Some years ago I was looking to take out a loan for ~£8000 to buy a new car, at the time I looked at all the options, and the best Deal I could find was around 7% APR with LLoyds-TSB, who I already banked with. Before I took out the loan I got a letter from LLoyds-TSB credit card department with some credit card checks, which where offering a rate of around 5.5% for the life of the balance.

What I did was to clear the credit card of what I owed it (not a lot) and then pay the credit card check into my current account and set up a regular monthly payment to the credit card, which has been working fine for me so far.

I've got the amount down to just under £2000 now, and I've received a similar offer from the Halifax, and I'm trying to work out if I'd get a better deal if I switched. But I have two problems.

The rate the Halifax offer is "3.94% p.a" is that different from APR?

I dont have to hand any of the documentation that covers what the APR is for my current credit card "loan" but looking at the statement they charge 0.482% monthly.

Do I work out the APR by just multiplying that monthly amount by 12? (ie 5.784%)

Can anyone help me out?

CLAPTON

0.482% monthly is 5.9398% APR (multipying by 12 isn't quite right as it fails to take into account monthly compound interest but is quite close)