Advice on balance transfer

msallen

crazyshady wrote: »

Another thing I want to ask is, currently my minimum payment on the Barclaycard is £5.00 per month. If i done the balance transfer, would my minimum payment per month still be £5 and the balance transfer would not be affected or because I already owe money on the card would it suddenly shoot up? And also if i transfer the £846 to the Barclaycard and I pay £100 off in the next month and then I buy something at £10, will my minimum payment still be £5 or does ANYTHING i buy from here on out affect the OVERALL balance? If i transfer £846, get the balance down to £900 and then buy something at £10 is it now a case of......you will now be charged interest on a £910 balance and here's your minimum payment and it's back to £50 a month with £30 interest like I was doing with Bank of Scotland?

Do not buy anything on a card that you have a balance transfer on, otherwise you'll pay interest on it (the spend not the transfer). Also make sure you pay off the full balance on the Barclaycard before you do the transfer.

crazyshady

Thank you. I will do that. I've got till the end of the month to make the transfer so that gives me time to pay the Bank of Scotland a bit more than the minimum payment and also clear the Barclaycard before making the balance transfer. It says on the letter that you can't transfer more than 90% of your credit limit excluding the fee so I can only transfer £900 but if I do that I'm pretty sure I can have it cleared within 12 months. A year to be debt free! haha.

It also says on the letter - If you make purchases after making a balance transfer you can get up to 56 days interest free on new purchases. You'll need to :

Pay your purchases off in full by your payment due date and;
Make sure that this payment covers at least the minimum payment on your statement.

If you're carrying over a balance from a previous month (excluding any promotional balances), you'll need to clear it before you can benefit from your interest-free credit on new purchases. Don't forget to stay within your credit limit.

When you pay us, we'll use your payment to reduce balances with the highest interest rate first. If you've got two promotional balances at the same rate, we'll pay off the balance on the one that ends first.


What does that mean?

MallyGirl

which bit?

crazyshady

The bit about new purchases being interest free up to 56 days. How will I know if it's really interest free and how will I know if it's up to 56 days or not as it says by payment due date. Well the payment due date is every month so If I spend £20 then surely I need to pay it off within 4 weeks not 56 days?

[Deleted User]

The up to 56 days refers to the longest time you have.

If you make a purchase the day the statement is produced, it will not appears until the next statement, and then you have a couple of weeks to pay it. That adds up to 56 days.

If you make your purchase the day before your statement is produced, you'll only have a couple of weeks.

You'll know it's really interest free because you'll be clearing those purchases in full each month.

MallyGirl

But it is safest to follow the advice already offered which is to not make purchases on a card with a BT offer on it. Keep it simple

crazyshady

I understand it now.

If I do this BT then this will be the only credit card I have so it's this or nothing. I never bought a lot on it anyway, I think the most was about £20 but what I didn't understand was, If I clear the balance, then do the BT and then a few months from now I spend £20 on it and then a week later I pay £20 in to the balance.....how would I know that £20 went to clear the £20 item I paid for which should be interest free and it didn't go towards the amount of the BT?

I'll just have to keep it simple. I did try and get an increase in spending limit online but it was refused so it's staying at £1000, it would have been nice to get £1200 because then I could really transfer everything from the Bank of Scotland. I've got till the end of the month so if I pay the Bank of Scotland this week, I'll pay a bit extra on top of the £35. I have to pay my minimum £5 payment to Barclaycard by the 21st, I'll have to clear the card to do this BT and then I have until the 30th November to do this BT so it's giving me just under 3 weeks to get everything done. It's a lot of worry on my head doing all this, in some ways it really is a safer stress free way to just stick to what you know and keep paying tons of interest isn't it?

Terry_Towelling

crazyshady wrote: »

I understand it now.

If I do this BT then this will be the only credit card I have so it's this or nothing. I never bought a lot on it anyway, I think the most was about £20 but what I didn't understand was, If I clear the balance, then do the BT and then a few months from now I spend £20 on it and then a week later I pay £20 in to the balance.....how would I know that £20 went to clear the £20 item I paid for which should be interest free and it didn't go towards the amount of the BT?

I agree with others that you should not use the card for purchases after making a balance transfer (BT) but if you really have to then read the following carefully.

You need to refer to the T&Cs of your card. However, most credit card providers will allocate your payments to the portion of the balance that has the highest interest rate first. So, if you have £917.10 at 0% (your £900 BT and the 1.9% BT fee) make a purchase of £20 and then make a payment of, say, £30, £20 will go towards your purchase because its rate of interest is over 0% and £10 will go towards the balance transfer.

Be careful to only pay after your statement has been produced, always make sure your payment is either the minimum payment or the amount of purchases you've made - whichever is the greater.

For example, if you have £917.10 (BT inc fee) and spend £50 on shopping, your minimum payment would be £21.76 (2.25% of £967.10). If you just paid this minimum amount, you'd not reduce your BT at all and also leave £28.24 of your shopping unpaid. That £28.24 would then be charged interest on your next statement.

crazyshady

Thank you for that advice. I am taking a note of everything just so I can keep reading over it all.

OceanSound

Do not wait until the statement is produced.

Your card has a high interest rate. Pay as soon as the transactions appear on recent transactions (on online banking). Never while they are still 'pending'.

It'd be silly to leave it until the statement is produced as this is how credit card providers make their money. Weary (unattentive) customers not paying attention and forgetting when to pay. Go ahead, play in to their hands, you'd be their BEST customer.;)