Advice on balance transfer

OceanSound

crazyshady wrote: »

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

Well, some of it you have to take with a bucket of salt.:rotfl:

Terry_Towelling

OceanSound wrote: »

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.;)

The bucket of salt should be taken now.

If you are paying at least the amount of the purchases you add to your card each month (as advised), the interest is irrelevant because you won't be charged any.

If you make a purchase and make a payment before the statement is produced, the payment will be part of the previous billing cycle. If you had no statemented purchases on your previous billing cycle, any early payment will be applied to your balance transfer only. To then avoid the risk of interest being charged, you would then need to make another payment after your statement has come.

I repeat, do not pay before your statement is produced (if you have made a purchase) and then always pay the minimum payment or the amount of the purchases - whichever is the greater.

OceanSound

Terry_Towelling wrote: »

The bucket of salt should be taken now.

You mean, when you started your post?
Anyway, it's not clear from the OP (or the thread) what the actual question is. Therefore the answers are a mish-mash of advice on different things.
Some saying do not mix balance transfer with a purchase. Then others suggesting waiting for the purchase to be statemented.
I personally would not put a purchase on a card where a balance transfer has been statemented. You are welcome!

Terry_Towelling

OceanSound wrote: »

You mean, when you started your post?
Anyway, it's not clear from the OP (or the thread) what the actual question is. Therefore the answers are a mish-mash of advice on different things.
Some saying do not mix balance transfer with a purchase. Then others suggesting waiting for the purchase to be statemented.
I personally would not put a purchase on a card where a balance transfer has been statemented. You are welcome!

Nice one, thanks!

As you have read the thread carefully, you will see that I also felt it was unwise to mix a BT with purchases where there may be a bit of an issue with money management. However, I think OP is asking for guidance on how to use a card for both a BT and daily spending.

If you are simply going to spend on credit and then pay it off immediately, you might as well use a debit card in the first place. Low-value, daily spending generally doesn't need S75 coverage and Chargeback protection is the same for debit and credit cards.

If you have a 0% BT, get your first statement and pay the minimum before the due date but then make a purchase and pay that off before you get your next statement, both payments will be cleared from the BT amount because the purchase hasn't yet been billed.

When you get your statement, showing all this activity, you will be told about the minimum payment you need to make for this billing period. There is a danger if you've already made an early payment to clear your purchase that you might think you don't need to make that minimum payment because you've already covered it by paying early.

If you do that, you will get a late-payment charge on your next statement and interest charged on your purchase. You will get a mark on your credit file and you will probably also lose the 0% offer on your BT.

If you are 'unattentive' (as you like to call it) how does your strategy help, because you still need to make a payment after the statement has come in.

If you made an early payment and are not inattentive and realise that you still need to pay after your statement has been produced, you will avoid all of the negative stuff but you will have made 3 payments to your card when only 2 were necessary. That is great for debt reduction but not so good if you don't actually have the money to do it. OP does seem to have some cash-flow issues, so double-paying is probably not ideal for them.

Does this reasoning sound about right to you, OceanSound?