Been offered £6000 on Natwest should I take it?

GentleGiant_2

Hi,

I called up to close my NatWest Gold card and they have offered me the credit limit £6000 on a BT for 6 months with a 3% fee.

Not sure if I should take it and transfer it to my Egg Money card.

I have one other interest free card, with does not run out for another 12 months, so pointless moving it there.

Should I just close the account?

If I had it on my Egg Money then I would only make 1% over those 6 months, so not really worth it.

NatWest are calling me back - I think I will say just close the card.

I have another NatWest card with a high balance transfer on that for 6 months - so I am thinking that I will simply have too much to eventually pay back.

Thanks.

Moggles_2

It sounds as though you've already decided to close this card and I'm sure that's the right decision.

It's hard to see how you would make anything at all in 6 months with an uncapped 3% handling fee.

Btw, you would not be allowed to BT more than 95% of your £6000 credit limit.

YorkshireBoy

3% for 6 months equates to 6% for the year. It's this 6% you should be comparing to your savings rate (after tax if you're a basic rate tax payer).

A couple of suggestions...

1. Tell them you'd love to take them up on their kind offer, but your debt is currently on a special rate of 0.9% APR until April. Shifting the debt now will cost you money. Tell them you'll transfer it to them if they waive the fee.

2. RBSG CSA's have been know to offer capped fee deals (as they used to do a year or so ago). Getting them to cap the fee at £49/50 will make you over £60 profit* according to this calculator.


* Assumptions

£5,700 BT
Effective 5 month stooz
£50 capped BT fee
2.25% min payments
6.25% stooz pot
Basic rate tax-payer