Balance transfer large balance

Daylight82

Chrysalis said:

Not pointless, 6 months is better than nothing, and the cards might give you new offers as an existing customer which you could then move the balance around.

6 months of interest at normal rates will be quite high for 18k even just 6 months worth.

Whats your current utilisation level?  

That’s true, maybe I should consider one of those then to limit my interest for the short term at least. 

Current utilisation is roughly 10k off a £12100 limit and £7k from an £8500 limit. As I say it’s been hard to reduce these figures as the interest makes payments in the £400 a month region combined

martinbainbridge1975

Barclaycard do a soft check eligibility checker, I used them to get out of a similar situation a few year ago and got quite high starting limit

Daylight82

martinbainbridge1975 said:

Barclaycard do a soft check eligibility checker, I used them to get out of a similar situation a few year ago and got quite high starting limit

Thank you. Barclaycard is who I have my larger balance with currently unfortunately 

Dobbibill

Daylight82 said:

Chrysalis said:

Not pointless, 6 months is better than nothing, and the cards might give you new offers as an existing customer which you could then move the balance around.

6 months of interest at normal rates will be quite high for 18k even just 6 months worth.

Whats your current utilisation level?  

That’s true, maybe I should consider one of those then to limit my interest for the short term at least. 

Current utilisation is roughly 10k off a £12100 limit and £7k from an £8500 limit. As I say it’s been hard to reduce these figures as the interest makes payments in the £400 a month region combined

Refer back to my post on page 1 and follow point 1 & 3.

All the best. 

Chrysalis

Daylight82 said:

Chrysalis said:

Not pointless, 6 months is better than nothing, and the cards might give you new offers as an existing customer which you could then move the balance around.

6 months of interest at normal rates will be quite high for 18k even just 6 months worth.

Whats your current utilisation level?  

That’s true, maybe I should consider one of those then to limit my interest for the short term at least. 

Current utilisation is roughly 10k off a £12100 limit and £7k from an £8500 limit. As I say it’s been hard to reduce these figures as the interest makes payments in the £400 a month region combined

Yeah take that 6 month card, with that level of utilisation you going to struggle.

Hopefully you can get a 2nd card after and both cards then keep offering you new deals so swap balance back and forth between them if that happens.  Do not raise the utilisation any further, only pay it off.

Out of the cards I own. Best ones in bold for rotating balance.

1 - MBNA new deals every month, and very high quality they often offer low APR for life not just 0%. 0% usually 14-18 months.
2 - Tesco new deals every month and second best behind my MBNA card. 0% usually 12-18 months.
3 - Virgin money new deals every month but usually only 3-6 months with higher fees.
4 - Barclaycard used to do occasional offer new deals, but not all year round, since they did the massive credit limit cull a couple of years back no longer get any offers.  Friend of mine not part of that cull still gets offers but not all year round.
5 - Sainsburies, they gave me shoddy limit, but I checked the card a few times and they keep giving me new deals every time I check.
6 - Halifax new deals 6-10 months, not as good as Tesco and MBNA but better than the rest.

Bear in mind you need financial discipline, as you get more available credit with more cards, its key you concentrate on only paying it off. 

Good luck.

secla

I would say if your struggling to pay the debt you have its unlikely your going to get a card to move onto, especially at a 0% rate.
best bet would be to reduce your outgoings and putting as much as you can towards reducing it for a while and you may increase your chances of getting a balance transfer card. You have over 20k of available credit its unlikely you will get this doubled and any card you do get is likely to have a relatively small limit.
Check out the DFW board

Daylight82

Thank you everyone for your really helpful input. I’m certainly not looking to extend credit further merely pay off these cards completely as quickly and cost effectively as possible. The reason for this level of credit card debt is too long winded to get into here but I’m not a frivolous spender!

I will no focus on bouncing some of debt onto whatever 0% I can get and then work through as methodically as possible. I’ve been complacent with this for too long and that’s cost me too much interest up til now. 

Thanks again 👍🏻

Daylight82

Just to update any interested parties. 

I got £1500 limit on a 9 month 0% interest and also accepted on £3000 on a 26 month 0% too (despite 20% chance on eligibility checker!). 

I’ll now bounce £4500 from my largest balance to this and it will ease the interest a lot. 

Thanks again for the advice everyone 

fergie_

It can also be worth trying to negotiate with the card providers that have your debt. They could offer you an interest rate cut or even a period free. Ultimately they want to make money, but also want their money back.

The other factor to keep in mind is that a lot of applications or new cards will hammer your credit rating (once your file is updated) so sometimes better to do them all together, rather than every few months. Also, as long as your debt doesn't go higher, having extra limits will lower the credit utilised - which perversely can help in the long run.

[Deleted User]

fergie_ said:

It can also be worth trying to negotiate with the card providers that have your debt. They could offer you an interest rate cut or even a period free. Ultimately they want to make money, but also want their money back.

The other factor to keep in mind is that a lot of applications or new cards will hammer your credit rating (once your file is updated) so sometimes better to do them all together, rather than every few months. Also, as long as your debt doesn't go higher, having extra limits will lower the credit utilised - which perversely can help in the long run.

Trying to do a financial hardship / arrangement to pay will do far more damage than 1-2 card applications