0% ending advice

Willing2Learn

The purchases promotion gives you either 3 months or 12 months of retail purchases at 0% APR. Once the 3 or 12 month promotional window finishes, the retail purchases APR will go up to it's standard rate.

andju6290 wrote: »

Just to elaborate on above lest its unclear - does it mean if I make any purchases after that time I get hit with charges ?

No - Once the promotional window shuts you simply have to pay standard purchase interest, if you are unable to clear the statemented balance in full.

andju6290

Sorry still don't quite get it !. Lets say I get 4k transferred onto a BTC 0% for 29 months, and I am paying more than I need to monthly to clear it by the end , if I use it to buy anything outside of the lets say 0% 3 month purchase window I get hit with interest on the purchases OR ive blown the 0% 29 month arrangement ?

I was just thinking if ive say paid 2 k off and want to pay for a weekend break or something with the card Im going to get hit with charges if that's outside of the 0% purchases window?

Willing2Learn

I was going to type a great big load of spiel to explain how it works. But then I remembered that MSE has an article on this. And it will probably make more sense than anything I type.

0% Balance Transfer & Spending


And here is the bit from the article that I really have trouble explaining in plain English:

Sometimes a 0% spending period is different from the 0% balance transfer period – so do watch out for this. For example, a card could offer 20 months 0% on balance transfers and only 15 months 0% on purchases. In this example, after 16 months of holding the card you'd still be within the 0% interest-free period on existing debt but any further spending will immediately incur interest.

Even if this is the case, it's not as bad as it used to be, as your credit card provider now has to put repayments towards the most expensive debt first. So even if your purchase deal does run out before your balance transfer deal, any repayments you make will go towards paying off your remaining, interest-attracting purchases balance first – helping to clear that.

andju6290

Many thanks, much appreciated

PixelPound

On the 100% vs 95%, the 100% acceptance means unless a hard search shows up something the soft search doesn't you'll get the card, on a 95% there is a 5% chance it could get rejected, so good but if you were borderline then you could be rejected.

This does not necessarily mean the 100% is best though. Some providers stipulate you may not get the offer stated, so instead of rejecting you they accept with a lower offer, so instead of the full 0% time you may get less say 12 months at 0%. This way they have a higher acceptance as they accept you with a shorter 0% rather than rejecting you.

On top of this you don't know what credit limit you will get until you apply and there is no hard and fast rule or seemingly any reason behind why they give what they give. For example I applied for Sainsburys card knowing if accepted I would get the full 29 months 0%, I did but the limit was a lot lower than any of my then current cards (other people have stated on here that when they have applied for sainsburys have been given higher limits than other providers, so its nothing to do with them giving low limits to all), in my case I applied for another card with another provider got a credit limit as high as other cards I had. Their offer was a few months shorter than sainsburys (which is why I applied for sainsburys first) and I got the full term and it had a lower BT fee. Everyone's circumstances are different but I am just pointing out you may need to consider what you do if you don't get the limit you want - don't apply for a worse offer however, simply in the hope that it will mean you get a higher credit limit as it does not work like that.

Sncjw

Don’t mix purchases and balance transfers. Get the 29 month one as that’s longer but it could be shorter period of time as it would say up to 29 months. Don’t use the card for spending. Just pay off the balance transfer.