Credit Card Balance Transfer Question

lightyear87

Hello guys. 

I am new here and looking for some help.

I have 2 credit cards at the moment. Both have around 3k on them and looking at the best and cheapest way to pay them down. 

One of my cards has a balance transfer offer on it for 12 months with a 4% fee. 

My question is would it save me money to transfer some of the balance from 1 card to this card that is offering me the 12 months 0% even though i currently have a balance on it? If so then would my interest be calculated on my remaining balance or will this 0% balance be taken into account to? Also when i make payments to this card would the balance that i am paying interest on be paid off first?

i am just thinking of a way to reduce the monthly interest i would be paying as i am paying both cards down.

Any help would be much appreciated

Thanks

MorningcoffeeIV

Interest is charged on the various balances at the relevant rate for each.

Payments will go to the highest rate balance.

vacheron

Hi. 

If you have sufficient remaining credit on the card offering the balance transfer (BT) you can transfer some (or all) of the balance to this card for the 4% fee. However bear in mind that most cards only allow you to transfer up to 90-95% of the credit limit to allow some contingency for posssible fees etc.

Things to be careful about. 

• Make sure the card you are transferring from is charging more than 4% per year to make this worthwhile. 
• If you are making the minimum monthly payment on the BT card, this will increase after you transfer, but the payment should address the highest interest debt first, but check in the T's and C's becasue I have seen occasions where this has not been the case and the existing and BT debt are considered as two separate entities! 
• If you are not repaying at a level which will clear the entire debt on the BT card within 12 months, the 0% debt will revert to a higher percentage (possibly more than you were paying on the original card), so be sure to factor this into your calculations.