Balance transfer and credit limits

cossie1990

Hi all,

I'm just after a bit of advice. I currently have a 0% credit card ending around September, I have a limit of around £8.5k on this, which I was suprised by actually. I've used this to part fund a new car as my old one went kaphunk.

There is currently a balance of around £7700 and I'm making regular payments of £100 p/m.

My plan is to BT this debt over in around August and carry in making payments however I'm not sure if I will get a credit limit to cover it? Is £7k deemed a 'high' credit limit or fairly standard practice?

I was thinking of maybe BT'ing some over now and then transferring the rest when the 0% ends in August so that I'm not applying for 2 cards at the same time in order to safeguard against not getting a high enough limit.

Does that make sense? Or should I just wait out?

Thanks!

MallyGirl

no point in BTing a balance on 0% before you have to. I would wait till much closer to the August deadline. £7k is not a high limit per se but it might be all you can get based on your personal circumstances.

DD265

If you get a lower limit on a second card, you could consider a bit of back and forth.

I had to do some shuffling last year, and decided that 'new' debt wasn't an option. Already had two credit cards and was constantly getting offers on each for balance transfers. I can't remember the balances or limits at the time, but I transferred £2k from A to B to make some space, then £3.5k from B card to A. I think I anticipated doing an additional transfer between the two but found the funds to clear that balance.

It did cost me in fees, so it wasn't ideal, but it was cheaper than the interest I would've paid without doing the transfers. I spent a lot of time looking at the numbers beforehand and working out the cheapest way to do it so I'd pay the lowest fees.

Remember as well that you can't usually BT up to the full limit; I suspect lenders vary but I think it's about 95% for my two, so you may need a higher than £7k limit to account for that.

I'd agree with MallyGirl to leave it until later. Use the eligibility checker on here, and usually you'd get 30 or 60 days to make the money transfer, so you could leave it until July/August to apply. You may find a way to pay a big chunk off before then