SHOULD MY CREDIT CARD PROVIDER BE PAYING OFF MY BALANCE TRANSFERS BY SOONEST ENDING FIRST?

Dham06

Quick question forum folks? I have a credit card that I have balance transfers on. Some end this year, some next and some the year after. Every month when I pay my direct debit payment, it doesn't always come off my soonest ending transfer. The transfers were 0% APR, but had a fee to transfer. I have a balance that I now need to transfer again, which will incur another fee, but if my monthly payments would have been accrued to the soonest ending, it wouldn't have been as much and would be less of a transfer fee charge. Should the monthly payment not decrease the soonest ending balance, or am I missing something here?? Any replies are appreciated. (NB: No purchases are made on this card, it is solely used for balance transfer)

DullGreyGuy

The regulations require payments to be applied to the pot incurring the highest interest rate. If there are multiple pots incurring the same interest rate then it is down to the lenders T&Cs to determine which pot the monies goes against. 

As you have multiple 0% pots you need to read your lenders terms and check they are applying them correctly. There is no requirement for them to say it pays off the soonest ending pot. 

CliveOfIndia

I'll second the previous reply - check the T&Cs of your particular card.  Where you have more than one promotion at 0% running concurrently, some cards will prioritise the one that's ending soonest, some will prioritise the one that started earliest.  There is no "legal" requirement for them to prioritise one over the other.

Of course, if one promotion expires and its balance starts to attract interest at greater than 0%, then that would take priority over the 0% deals.

surreysaver

Surely if the regulations say the highest interest rate should be paid off first, the 0% that expires first will be the highest rate?

MorningcoffeeIV

Once expired, yes. Not until then.

Dham06

Thanks for the replies on here, much appreciated and most helpful. 

redux

Note when the particular offer expires, and pay that amount back the following day.

Brie

All my cards seem to work (mostly) the same

If you do a BT on day 1 and it runs for 24 months all payments will be applied to that.
If you do a BT on day 2 and it runs for 12 months all payments still get applied to BT1 until the 12 months have passed and then due to the higher interest rate on BT2 payments will go to that.

I check my statements and note which BT is actually decreasing month on month to ensure I don't get caught out.  Strangely (or perhaps not) the statement used to be very clear about the order in which the BTs were cleared but now the info is more vague thus ensuring that some people will get caught out.