Balance transfer - help needed.

bob69

Hi, I have a few questions regarding the best way to transfer my existing balance to a new card, which I have never done before. 
I have a £4900 debt on my Virgin Money card, my latest statement has 2 different end dates on it for my 0% promotional rates. 
The statement reads:
£78 for Transfer Balances/Fees which ends on 21/1/24,
& £4822 for Purchase Balances/ Fees which ends on 15/5/24.
I intend to shift the whole debt to another card before the earlier date, but I am curious as to why there are 2 dates on the statement, & if there is a sweet spot for transferring the balance, similar to the 21 days before renewal for car / home insurance? 
The eligibility calculator has told me I am pre-approved for a number of cards, & any balance transfers should take place within 60/90 days, I assume this is within 60/90 days of receiving the new card? So in effect I will have 2 different cards for a short period of time, & simply need to shift the balance onto the new card, then contact Virgin to close the old one? 
Apologies if the answer to these questions are a bit obvious, but I have never transferred a credit card balance before, & couldn't find the answers to these questions when searching other posts on the Forum. 
Thanks in advance for any replies. 👍

Brie

My guess is that your monthly minimum payments will clear the £78 before the January date so you'll just need to deal with the larger amount in May.  But that's my guess - you'll need to look at your last or your next statement to see what it says about how much is left on the 0% deals.  It's possible that your payments are paying down the purchase deal rather than the transfer deal.

In any case if the £78 is still there in January I would check with Virgin and see at what date you can pay that off.  Make sure you do this by chat or email rather than in a phone call because you want to have proof of what they tell you.  If they say "pay it by 20/1/24 to ensure no interest is accrued" but then use your payment against some other amount on your statement you can go back and complain about being given the wrong information.

Then do the same as you approach the May deadline.  Either way the sweet spot for clearing a balance is the day before the money is due where possible to ensure no interest is charged.  But frankly even if there's some silly interest rate for cash advances (which this is what these will likely become if not cleared) then ensure you have cleared the balance the date after (so 22/1/24 & 16/5/24) as you will only be charged 1 day of interest on the outstanding amounts which will be minimal.  

To shift the debt any earlier than necessary is a waste of some of the 0% period in my opinion.

prettyandfluffy

Don't be too hasty in closing the Virgin card account; my experience is that when you clear a debt or when a 0% period comes to an end, they will offer you a new 0% deal.  If the card is free and the 0% offer might be if use to you, it could be worth keeping it.

born_again

No sweet spot as such.
If you see a good deal, go for it. As these days they are not as frequent as in the past. Add in nearly year end & if CC sales targets have been met, they get very stingy & may not offer any at all. 👍

bob69

prettyandfluffy said:

Don't be too hasty in closing the Virgin card account; my experience is that when you clear a debt or when a 0% period comes to an end, they will offer you a new 0% deal.  If the card is free and the 0% offer might be if use to you, it could be worth keeping it.

Thanks. Was this experience with Virgin? If so, in your opinion, are they likely to offer me an extension on the 0% now? If I were to contact them in the next few days & enquire? Or would I need to contact a certain department?

retiredbanker1

In my opinion if you are not getting offers now it maybe that you will not get them in the future.
I am getting ones monthly despite me having a current interest free balance transfer on my card.

prettyandfluffy

bob69 said:

prettyandfluffy said:

Don't be too hasty in closing the Virgin card account; my experience is that when you clear a debt or when a 0% period comes to an end, they will offer you a new 0% deal.  If the card is free and the 0% offer might be if use to you, it could be worth keeping it.

Thanks. Was this experience with Virgin? If so, in your opinion, are they likely to offer me an extension on the 0% now? If I were to contact them in the next few days & enquire? Or would I need to contact a certain department?

Yes, this is with Virgin.  I normally receive an offer soon after the other one has expired.  No need to do anything, just keep an eye on your inbox.  I can't comment on whether they would extend the current 0% offer, it's not something I've done.

Brie

They won't "extend" your current 0% period.  They will offer you something, maybe, if you have credit available now on your card or after you have cleared down your balance sufficiently.  

bob69

prettyandfluffy said:

bob69 said:

prettyandfluffy said:

Don't be too hasty in closing the Virgin card account; my experience is that when you clear a debt or when a 0% period comes to an end, they will offer you a new 0% deal.  If the card is free and the 0% offer might be if use to you, it could be worth keeping it.

Thanks. Was this experience with Virgin? If so, in your opinion, are they likely to offer me an extension on the 0% now? If I were to contact them in the next few days & enquire? Or would I need to contact a certain department?

Yes, this is with Virgin.  I normally receive an offer soon after the other one has expired.  No need to do anything, just keep an eye on your inbox.  I can't comment on whether they would extend the current 0% offer, it's not something I've done.

Thanks to everyone for their replies. Having just checked my inbox, I received an email from them on October 23rd stating that I have 0% interest on both money & balance transfers until my October 2024 statement. Does this mean I can continue to pay off the card at 0% until October 2024? Or will I still need to shift the debt to another card? 
It also states that there is a 3.5% handling fee for balance transfers, & a 3% fee for money transfers. Is this only applicable if I were to shift any other debt onto my existing Virgin card? I don't have any other credit cards, or any other outstanding debts that are accruing interest, so don't need to put anything else onto this card, I just want to pay off my existing £4900 balance. (I used the credit card in January to transfer money to my bank account to pay off my PayPal Credit account in full, & incurred a 3.5% handling charge to do so).
Thanks again for any replies, it is most appreciated. 

molerat

Does this mean I can continue to pay off the card at 0% until October 2024? Or will I still need to shift the debt to another card?

The offer is to transfer a balance from another card, you cannot transfer the balance to a new deal with the same card. You could do a money transfer then pay off the card with that but you need to have enough credit available on top of the existing balance and you will incur the fee.

The big question is what is your plan to pay this debt down because you may hit a brick wall at some stage and will not be able to move it to another card.

bob69

My plan is to give myself as much time as possible to pay off as much as possible on what I currently owe on this card without paying any interest, but I can't discount the possibility of maybe adding a few smaller purchases in the meantime.
On the eligibility calculator I was 100% pre-approved a NatWest all-rounder card for 18 months with a 3% transfer fee, or given a 95% chance of applying successfully for a 15 month, 0% fee Santander all-rounder card. I already have a Santander bank account, would this have any bearing on an application for 1 of their credit cards? 
Thanks once again. 👍