No 0% balance transfer offers from my bank

saturdaychild

Until recently I've had rolling 0% balance transfer offers or cheap rate money transfers from my bank and another credit card company. I've been with them both for years, never a problem. Suddenly as of a month or two ago, there are no offers available to me. I read somewhere they both now belong to Lloyds. This is deeply troubling. Help?

Marchitiello

It happens, from time to time you may not see offers then suddenly they appear again… nothing troubling unless you are really expecting them and overspending, never a wise strategy. Nevertheless there are still offers from other provider out there, check the relevant page on this site. As a matter of fact, you would virtually always get a better deal as a new customer than as an existing one.

MBNA, Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Lloyds are all part of the Lloyds group

Marchitiello

OP, check here: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/balance-transfer-credit-cards/

Brie

I think the last time I had a 0% offer from Barclaycard was nearly 6 years back.  About the same time they started reducing the card balances.  Not sure why I still have the card as the balance is so low to be nearly useless.  If we used it for daily spending I'd have to be paying it off twice a month.  

MBNA have almost never NOT had an offer.  Usually there's the 0% with a fee and then the 3.9% for 4 years with no fee or similar.  Interesting to see that over the years my card and OH's have had slightly different offers with his fee being 1% more or a slightly higher interest rate or a shorter period.  Not sure why.

cymruchris

There can be a number of reasons why 'offers' dry up - partly the current financial climate with lenders being a little more careful on offering too much credit, so have tightened their criteria a little, but could also be partly related to your history. If you've been keeping a balance for a long period of time, and only making minimum or near minimum payments, that can go against you in the long run. Also, if your level of debt has risen (even if still within your credit limits) that can also have an impact on what offers you have available. 

You can run some eligibility checks on some of the popular card providers websites (don't use comparison sites) and see if any have a balance transfer offer that you're eligible for. 

Things are getting tight for quite a number of people right now, but I wonder if you have a plan to reduce the debt to zero, or whether your intention is just to keep kicking it down the road with a new 0 percent offer every so often. If it's the latter, you're likely to be in for a bit of a shock when you have to start paying interest. If you didn't have a plan, now's the time to make one.

[Deleted User]

Brie said:

I think the last time I had a 0% offer from Barclaycard was nearly 6 years back.  About the same time they started reducing the card balances.  Not sure why I still have the card as the balance is so low to be nearly useless.  If we used it for daily spending I'd have to be paying it off twice a month.  

MBNA have almost never NOT had an offer.  Usually there's the 0% with a fee and then the 3.9% for 4 years with no fee or similar.  Interesting to see that over the years my card and OH's have had slightly different offers with his fee being 1% more or a slightly higher interest rate or a shorter period.  Not sure why.

Depends on the user, I have had BC offers for the last few months, actually at a slightly lower fee (3.1% vs 3.4%) than before, my limit is being increased periodically. Halifax keep offering me them on my now unused old card but it's always stupid high rates and short deals (5% fee, 12 months). Lloyds do them sometimes but that's my main spending card. I checked my other BT cards, M&S have no offers and Santander don't seem to even have an option on the app

CRISPIANNE3

I get regular offers from MBNA, Lloyds, Halifax, Virgin money and up to a few months ago Barclaycard.  I can only think the reason Barclaycard stopped was because I owned £1.00 on one of their cards and was due to be taken by dd that month. However because the dd had not been actioned for over a year the dd mandate had expired. I happened to check the dd mandate and saw it had expired but I still made the £1.00 payment on time and was recorded the day the dd should have been applied.

I assumed Barclaycard were not happy hence the reason no offers from them now.

Marchitiello

Brie said:

I think the last time I had a 0% offer from Barclaycard was nearly 6 years back.  About the same time they started reducing the card balances.  Not sure why I still have the card as the balance is so low to be nearly useless.  If we used it for daily spending I'd have to be paying it off twice a month.  

MBNA have almost never NOT had an offer.  Usually there's the 0% with a fee and then the 3.9% for 4 years with no fee or similar.  Interesting to see that over the years my card and OH's have had slightly different offers with his fee being 1% more or a slightly higher interest rate or a shorter period.  Not sure why.

I am assuming you mean Credit Limit rather than Balances.

Barclaycard also did not have any offers for me for a couple of years, then halved my Credit Limit during Covid (still quite healthy) but then about a year ago I start seeing offers again (just checking on the app, no marketing material received)

MBNA, HSBC, Santander, Lloyds also send me almost monthly slow mail offers. 

Sparkleon

I have a card with Lloyds & a card with Barclays. For me, Barclays always seem to have balance transfer offers, but Lloyds barely offer anything. I have just checked my Lloyds, and I currently have a balance transfer & a money transfer but before today, it had been months and months before I had an any offers. Barclays fee for a balance transfer was 2% however Lloyds was for 5%.  

[Deleted User]

Funnily enough I checked today and my current BC one has dropped from 24 months (in November) to 18 months, same 3.1% fee

I just noticed today though, NatWest are offering a 33 month 0% at 2.9% fee (for existing customers only) as well as their 22 month 0% with £0 fee, definitely going to take advantage of one of them if they will give me one

Martico

BC just emailed me - BT now 3.1% for 18 months (up from 2.9% in November) and money transfer now 3.6% for 18 months (up from 2.6% in November)