Balance Transfer Help!

JJA83

Hi everyone, a newbie here so please excuse me if this has already been answered. 

I have 3 credit cards, 1 with 7k limit and £4k balance and 2 with 2k balance and paying £80pm in interest across all three 

If I move one of the £2k balance to the 7k limit to clear one card, then move the other credit card £2k balance to the now cleared card - Would I only pay interest on the £6k limit card? (minus the 0% bal transfer offer)

Hope that makes sense 
John

Gandalf644

JJA83 said:

Hi everyone, a newbie here so please excuse me if this has already been answered. 

I have 3 credit cards, 1 with 7k limit and £4k balance and 2 with 2k balance and paying £80pm in interest across all three 

If I move one of the £2k balance to the 7k limit to clear one card, then move the other credit card £2k balance to the now cleared card - Would I only pay interest on the £6k limit card? (minus the 0% bal transfer offer)

Hope that makes sense 
John

Which card(s) have a 0% balance transfer offer?

In general you want as much as possible on the card(s) with the lowest APR.

However do be aware there maybe a fee to transfer and in most cases you cannot balance transfer to the full credit limit of the card you are transferring to.

Make sure you check the t&c's of the cards involved as sometimes it is best is to refrain from spending on a BT card. Use it solely for the BT. Use another card for everyday spending and pay it off in full every month to avoid paying interest on that card. 

JJA83

Thanks. I have balance transfer offers on all three for 9/12 months

Gandalf644

JJA83 said:

Thanks. I have balance transfer offers on all three for 9/12 months

In that case, you also need to look at the fees to transfer (can vary between 0% and circa 5%) of the amount you wish to transfer and also the length of time the offer runs for. The fee may exceed any interest saved in such a short window between card offer expiry dates. 

Is there any way you can fully pay off the cards before the 0% offers expire? You cannot gurantee you will be offered another 0% BT card, so pay down all/as much as you can whilst on 0%. 

If not, look at the shortest 0% offer and transfer as much as you can onto the longest offer card before the 0% on the first card expires. Or see if you are eligible for a new card to BT the shortest onto.

CliveOfIndia

If I understand correctly, you've got 3 cards that you're paying interest on, plus a new BT card?  If that's the case, transfer as much as you can from the current cards to the new BT card - you can do as many transfers as you like.  Although, bear in mind you'll be charged a BT fee for each individual transfer, and you can usually only transfer up to 90%-95% of the new card's limit.

If you can't transfer the entire balance from the 3 existing cards, prioritise the one that's charging the highest APR.

You can't do a transfer between your existing cards unless you've been offered a specific balance transfer offer on one of them.

Once that's done, pay the minimum each month to the new BT card (assuming it's at 0%) whilst paying every spare penny you can to the remaining interest-bearing debt.

Once the interest-bearing debt is cleared, you can then focus on clearing the new 0% BT card.  You need to make sure you've cleared the debt by the time the promotional offer expires.  Otherwise you'll start paying interest at that card's standard APR, with no guarantee that you'll be able to get another BT offer.

JJA83

Hi CliveOfIndia

All these are existing cards, all three are offering balance transfer offers.

£20 interest on 2 of them (1 £7k limit, 1 £2k limit, £40 on the other (the one I aim to clear - £2k limit)

JJA83

All are circa 22-25% APR

Brie

Sorry but I'm confused.

Can you simply state how much is the credit limit for each card and how much debt is on each?

So Card A has a £7k limit and £4k of debt.
What are the amounts for Cards B & C?

Furthermore are all the lengths of the BT offers the same?  And are they all from different bank groups?  

I suspect you could pick one of the small limit cards for your ongoing spending after BTing any debt to the Card A.  Then BT between Card A and whichever other you won't be using for ongoing spending until everything is on a 0% rate.  Ongoing spending card gets cleared in full each month without fail.  Both the other cards have DDs set up with at least the minimum required but with an eye to clear them both in full by the end of the offer period to avoid very high interest being charged.  

JJA83

Card A (HSBC) has £7k limit with £4k debt - apr 23.9 - 9 months 0% bal transfer - current int £20pm
Card B (MBNA) has £4k limit with £2k debt - apr 24.66 - 12 months 0% bal transfer current int £20pm
Card C (Virgin) has £4k limit with £2k debt  - apr 26.49 - 12 months 0% bal transfer - current int £41pm

Gandalf644

JJA83 said:

Card A (HSBC) has £7k limit with £4k debt - apr 23.9 - 9 months 0% bal transfer - current int £20pm
Card B (MBNA) has £4k limit with £2k debt - apr 24.66 - 12 months 0% bal transfer current int £20pm
Card C (Virgin) has £4k limit with £2k debt  - apr 26.49 - 12 months 0% bal transfer - current int £41pm

Are any of the debts already on the cards from a BT, thus at 0% currently or from spending and thus attracting interest currently?

JJA83

Gandalf644 said:

JJA83 said:

Card A (HSBC) has £7k limit with £4k debt - apr 23.9 - 9 months 0% bal transfer - current int £20pm
Card B (MBNA) has £4k limit with £2k debt - apr 24.66 - 12 months 0% bal transfer current int £20pm
Card C (Virgin) has £4k limit with £2k debt  - apr 26.49 - 12 months 0% bal transfer - current int £41pm

Are any of the debts already on the cards from a BT, thus at 0% currently or from spending and thus attracting interest currently?

Yes, Card A & B.

 £1500 on card A and £1500 on Card B. Both promotional rates set to end June and APR is at the APR shown above.

Got myself into a bit of a pickle with it all and just want to try and level it out so appreciate any help.