Multiple 0% balance transfer cards

Superhoopza

Nasqueron said:

Superhoopza said:

daivid said:

Nasqueron said:

Superhoopza said:

MorningcoffeeIV said:

The searches and accounts will appear on one or more of your files. Lenders will draw their own conclusions. You have no independent 'credit rating'.  The main priority is to ensure that your debt goes down and not up.

Accept any cards you are offered and move what you can

Counter to that, maybe don't accept a card with a very short term BT time and very small limit, if you believe giving it a few months may allow you to get a deal with a provider that has a longer term and higher credit limit, as accepting the lower rate 'may' hurt your chance of getting that better deal. No one knows for sure though.

The shortest ones around for bad credit history people are 6-9 months but even then, the interest saved could well be significant and allow them to pay down other debts - after 9 months, reduced debt will look a lot better than struggling on and paying interest and having higher debts

I would agree- take what one can get to cut interest - there’s no guarantee of getting anything better later, they may still not want you or all the deals may have dried up as they have a few times in the last 5ish years. Superhoopza's point about very small limits has some merit, but with (I believe) most providers you don’t know the limit until you have been approved at which point the impact to your credit history has happened. If it is one of the providers that gives the limit at the soft search then if it is extremely low with a short period then there may be merit in passing on it. But if i was paying standard APR the limit would have to be pitiful and term very short (a couple of hundred for much less than a year, say) for me to think about turning it down.

The ones I was talking about were the likes of your Zopa which is between £600-£1000 balance transfer for 6 months. So even at 30%+ APR you're only saving £100 on interest for the impact of having a fresh account, fresh hard search and more credit available added to your file. 

If we're talking £1500+ and over 12 months, then we start to see a significant impact on having the card, even if it is for a limit lower than needed. Just wanted to clarify that for the OP and other readers.

I'm finding more providers are starting to tell you your limit during soft searches now, but not all. It's an encouraging practice.

Saving £100 of interest on £1000 debt is a crazily good offer, no-one wanting to hit their debts would turn that down. Another credit check in 6 months is not a big deal, even 3-4 months isn't a major problem let alone 6 AFTER having a good chunk of debt paid down with the interest saved

I think we can agree to disagree on this point. I don't think for the sake of £100 it's worth opening a new account, increasing your total credit available (so potentially harming you getting credit in the future, the impact of such we don't know for sure) and you're not paying a good chunk of your debt with £100 saved. If £100 is a good chunk of your interest (imo minimum 5% of total debt, i.e. £2,000 total debt) then you should be able to move £2,000 onto a 0% deal which makes this whole discussion mute.

At least the OP has seen a balanced debate and can make up their own mind which is the purpose of these forums.