Balance Transfer card and Money Transfer from existing loan question

mezzo6

Hi, thanks for letting me use this board.

I am a little confused.

I recently took out a Virgin credit card with 0% on balance transfers until Feb 2027, which is the offer I used to move a roughly £2,000 credit card balance.

I also have an offer for 0% on money transfers on the same card, until 12 May 2026, and I am thinking to use that offer to pay a £750 personal loan I have with my bank which has about a year left, and which currently costs me about £17 per month in interest.

My thinking is that this could save me interest and lower my monthly payments.

Is this a good idea ? Would they both just appear as one balance on my credit card ? and if so, how will they allocate my monthly payments if the offer expiry dates are different?

Thanks in advance for your time, and I hope this is an easy question 

HillStreetBlues

They would appear separately with the different end dates.
The payments you make should come off  the one that is ending soonest, that would be the money transfer once that is taken.

And taking it is a no-brainer, as you're paying £17 pm interest, and the transfer will cost total about £22 for the whole 11 months

surreysaver

HillStreetBlues said:

They would appear separately with the different end dates.
The payments you make should come off  the one that is ending soonest, that would be the money transfer once that is taken.

And taking it is a no-brainer, as you're paying £17 pm interest, and the transfer will cost total about £22 for the whole 11 months

Is that what the T&Cs of the credit card say? 

DullGreyGuy

HillStreetBlues said:

The payments you make should come off  the one that is ending soonest, that would be the money transfer once that is taken.

Thats not a requirement and most banks credit the payment to the first created balance not the first expiring. Regs only say they have to credit it tot he balance with the highest current interest and its down to the T&Cs how to deal with payments where there are multiple balances with the same interest rate. 

CliveOfIndia

HillStreetBlues said:

They would appear separately with the different end dates.
The payments you make should come off  the one that is ending soonest,

Not necessarily, the OP needs to check the T&Cs.  Payments always get prioritised to the highest-rate debt first.  But where there are two 0% promotions in place (or promotions with the same APR), some banks will prioritise the one that started first, some will prioritise the one that ends soonest.

mezzo6

Thank you for the quick replies. Having the knowledge of what I need to look for in the T & C's lead me to find this on the Virgin Money site :

Virgin Money and Virgin Atlantic Credit Cards

• At each stage, we pay off balances with the highest interest rate first, before repaying those on lower interest rates. This doesn’t apply to instalment plans. 
• Where we charge interest on multiple promotional balances at the same rate, we will pay off the balances in the order that the promotional rate is due to end (for example, a balance transfer that is due to end in two months’ time will be paid off before another that ends in six months’ time). 
• Where promotional rates end at the same time, we will pay off the balances in the following order: Money Transfers, Balance Transfers, and then Card Purchases.
• Instalment plans are paid off in the order they are due to end. 
• Where instalment plans end at the same time, we will pay off the plans in the following order: Money Transfers, Balance Transfers, and then Card Purchases. 
• Any additional payments put to

And so it looks like the shorter term money transfer would in fact be paid off first, which would seem to make it a good choice. And thanks also for the information to let me know that it would appear separately on my balance.

HillStreetBlues

surreysaver said:

HillStreetBlues said:

They would appear separately with the different end dates.
The payments you make should come off  the one that is ending soonest, that would be the money transfer once that is taken.

And taking it is a no-brainer, as you're paying £17 pm interest, and the transfer will cost total about £22 for the whole 11 months

Is that what the T&Cs of the credit card say? 

Yes

DullGreyGuy said:

HillStreetBlues said:

The payments you make should come off  the one that is ending soonest, that would be the money transfer once that is taken.

Thats not a requirement and most banks credit the payment to the first created balance not the first expiring. Regs only say they have to credit it tot he balance with the highest current interest and its down to the T&Cs how to deal with payments where there are multiple balances with the same interest rate. 

It is a requirement as it's in the T&Cs

CliveOfIndia said:

HillStreetBlues said:

They would appear separately with the different end dates.
The payments you make should come off  the one that is ending soonest,

Not necessarily, the OP needs to check the T&Cs.  Payments always get prioritised to the highest-rate debt first.  But where there are two 0% promotions in place (or promotions with the same APR), some banks will prioritise the one that started first, some will prioritise the one that ends soonest.

It is in the T&Cs

Seems strange that there was a suddenly rush of comments saying the same thing when a check of the T&Cs would show the info supplied was correct.
 

CliveOfIndia

HillStreetBlues said:

surreysaver said:

HillStreetBlues said:

They would appear separately with the different end dates.
The payments you make should come off  the one that is ending soonest, that would be the money transfer once that is taken.

And taking it is a no-brainer, as you're paying £17 pm interest, and the transfer will cost total about £22 for the whole 11 months

Is that what the T&Cs of the credit card say? 

Yes

DullGreyGuy said:

HillStreetBlues said:

The payments you make should come off  the one that is ending soonest, that would be the money transfer once that is taken.

Thats not a requirement and most banks credit the payment to the first created balance not the first expiring. Regs only say they have to credit it tot he balance with the highest current interest and its down to the T&Cs how to deal with payments where there are multiple balances with the same interest rate. 

It is a requirement as it's in the T&Cs

CliveOfIndia said:

HillStreetBlues said:

They would appear separately with the different end dates.
The payments you make should come off  the one that is ending soonest,

Not necessarily, the OP needs to check the T&Cs.  Payments always get prioritised to the highest-rate debt first.  But where there are two 0% promotions in place (or promotions with the same APR), some banks will prioritise the one that started first, some will prioritise the one that ends soonest.

It is in the T&Cs

Seems strange that there was a suddenly rush of comments saying the same thing when a check of the T&Cs would show the info supplied was correct.
 

To play Devil's advocate, you didn't actually clarify that this payment prioritisation was stated in the T&Cs of this particular card - that's probably what caused the confusion.

I think it is still worth mentioning in case anyone else with a similar question should happen upon this thread.  Yes, in this particular instance, the promo that ends soonest gets prioritised.  But there isn't a blanket rule that says this has to be the case, and the procedures do differ from one card to another.  So any customer would be wise to check the T&Cs that apply to their particular card.

DullGreyGuy

HillStreetBlues said:

Seems strange that there was a suddenly rush of comments saying the same thing when a check of the T&Cs would show the info supplied was correct.

You clearly dont remember the long thread from a month or two ago where someone was claiming it was a legal requirement for the money to be credited to the 0% balance ending first. 

Without reference to the T&Cs, especially as we dont know which Virgin CC they have (haven't checked if all their products have the same or differing terms), it felt like a reopening of the prior debate hence I and others pointing out more explicitly that it comes down to terms rather than it being a blanket reality. 

HillStreetBlues

DullGreyGuy said:

HillStreetBlues said:

Seems strange that there was a suddenly rush of comments saying the same thing when a check of the T&Cs would show the info supplied was correct.

You clearly dont remember the long thread from a month or two ago where someone was claiming it was a legal requirement for the money to be credited to the 0% balance ending first. 

Without reference to the T&Cs, especially as we dont know which Virgin CC they have (haven't checked if all their products have the same or differing terms), it felt like a reopening of the prior debate hence I and others pointing out more explicitly that it comes down to terms rather than it being a blanket reality. 

I clearly do remember the thread, that's why I checked the T&C's before I made my post as OP stated that it was a Virgin CC.