Do you get charged interest on BT fees?

Abhorsen

Hi all,

I pretty much a constant lurker on this site but I've popped up for air and a brief question!!

I am a year into my first credit card, coming up to the end of it's interest free period, and looking to transfer the balance to a new card. I currently have a Mint card am thinking of transferring the balance to the Virgin credit card (with 15 months 0% on balance transfers).

Ok, so far so good.

My question comes from this. If I transfer my current balance (for the sake of arguement let's say it's £1500) to the new card, with a 2.98% BT rate then will the balance on the Virgin card be £1544.70? And will this be interest free until March '09? OR will the 2.98% (£44.70) be charged at a different rate? OR can I pay the fee seperately (put it on my debit card for instance). I am going travelling in a few months and want to just put this card to bed, paying it off slowly as I'm away but don't want any funny business coming into account like extra interest for the £44.70 or anything. Any help from a slightly confused first time BT'er!!

Thanks in advance!

Tom

Paul_Herring

Abhorsen wrote: »

OR will the 2.98% (£44.70) be charged at a different rate?

This is the most likely situation, unless your first payments go towards paying off the fee first. (MBNA (who issue the Virgin card) IIRC used to pay the fee off in the first two installments - unsure what they do now.)

OR can I pay the fee seperately (put it on my debit card for instance).

Unlikely.

Your best bet is to ring up MBNA and ask.

BrunoM

I'm no expert - but I am pretty sure the answer is, that it goes onto the card, gets charged at higher rate of interest, but then your payments go to paying it off first - so

e.g. if your first month's payment = the amount of the fee, you're sorted after that.

Abhorsen

BrunoM wrote: »

I'm no expert - but I am pretty sure the answer is, that it goes onto the card, gets charged at higher rate of interest, but then your payments go to paying it off first - so

e.g. if your first month's payment = the amount of the fee, you're sorted after that.

That was pretty much what I thought. I'll probably still follow it up with a call to be safe. The amount I'll be transfering is actually a little less then what I stated and so I'm sure it'll be taken out of the first months payment. I should have enough to cover if I need to fork out a little more for a couple of months anyway. Thanks.

YorkshireBoy

The interest rate charged on the fee is 0%, the same as the BT it relates to. Also, the fee is cleared with the first minimum payment.

Using your example...

First minimum payment will be 3% of £1,544.70 = £46.34

Second and subsequent minimum payments (whilst in the 0% period) will be £25.