Best Balance Transfers Discussion Area

danwms

Balance Transfer cards are the only way i have managed to get by recently.

I have a large amount of debt but I am on top of it because I am a bit of a credit card slag moving the money around all of the time.

chancey

I did a balance transfer summer this year and wasnt aware of never ever ever spend rule (doh!) so I am now paying approx £30 interest a month on the 500.00 I spent. at present my balance is 3163 and im paying approx 150.00 a month off. I have been trying to do a 0% balance transfer but since I am now fulltime mum with no income of my own I dont seem to be able to get accepted. My husband asked his card if he could move my balance to his card at the 0% they are offering but they declined. Will a loan in my husbands name be the cheapest way to pay this off?

Moggles_2

chancey wrote: »

I did a balance transfer summer this year and wasn't aware of the never ever spend rule (doh!) so I am now paying approx £30 interest a month on the 500.00 I spent. At present my balance is 3163 and I'm paying approx 150.00 a month off. I have been trying to do a 0% balance transfer, but since I am now full-time mum with no income of my own I don't seem to be able to get accepted. My husband asked his card [provider] if he could move my balance to his card at the 0% they are offering, but they declined. Will a loan in my husband's name be the cheapest way to pay this off?

The least expensive strategy would be for your husband to apply for a new 0% balance transfer card and shift your balance to his new card. Which card is best depends, to some extent, on which cards you currently have.

To maximise the 0% period, 16 months is currently available to new customers from Virgin (which is issued by MBNA). There's a 2.98% handling charge.

http://uk.virginmoney.com/credit-card-v3/

Alternatively, he'd get 14 months from Egg card

http://new.egg.com/visitor/0,,3_84106--View_1763,00.html

For tips to improve your chances of credit card acceptance, have a look at the *Credit Rating: how it works and how to improve it guide*, especially Martin's *Manage and Improve your credit score* article

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/credit-rating-credit-score#improve

JimmyTheWig

chancey wrote: »

I am now paying approx £30 interest a month on the 500.00 I spent.

If these are the correct figures then I suggest you contact your card company. This is over 70% interest a year! They might be calculating it wrong.
I presume that you have always (at least) met your minimum repayments on time.
Was it a 0% balance transfer deal you got?

at present my balance is 3163

About 1/6th of your balance is from purchases. Assuming the transfer was at 0% and the purchases rate is 30% (I'm not aware of any non-specialist cards higher than this) then you're going to be paying about 5% interest a year on your full balance. This isn't bad at all. Hardly worth a 3% fee to move it. Certainly not worth taking out a loan.
It's not quite as good as I'm saying because the monthly interest will get compounded, but that shouldn't affect things too much at this stage.

and im paying approx 150.00 a month off.

Whatever happens you will need to have a strategy in place for dealing with this balance once the balance transfer deal runs out. As moggles says, a transfer to a card in your husbands name would probably be easiest.

My husband asked his card if he could move my balance to his card at the 0% they are offering but they declined.

Did they decline him a 0% deal, or decline a transfer of money to your card? As far as I am concerned you can transfer a debt from anyone's card. Unless you believe they meant he couldn't have a 0% deal I suggest you chase this up.


So, to sum up...
1. Check how much interest you are actually paying.
2. If you are paying more than, say, £15 a month then contact card company and find out why.
3. Was your balance transfer deal at 0% and when does it run out?
4. Check what your husband was told about a transfer.

jennabelle42

Hi All
New to the forum but looking for some advice.....

Recently opened a new capital one card to balance transfer from Barclaycard and my BOS mastercard. (Capital 1 are offering o% until Feb 2010) Barclaycard transfer was not a problem but Capital one are saying that the BIN number for my BOS card is not accepted on their system! Although most other BOS cards are accepted. Really annoyed as this is the reason I got another card was to consolidate 2 cards into the one card with a good balance trasnfer rate.

Is there anything at all I can do about this? Will my card be added to their system in the future (it was a classic BOS Visa but recently changed to mastercard and therefore the BIN for my card changed)

JimmyTheWig

jennabelle42 wrote: »

Capital one are saying that the BIN number for my BOS card is not accepted on their system!

Have no idea about the BIN problem, but one solution would be if you had an Egg Money card. Do you?

jennabelle42

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Have no idea about the BIN problem, but one solution would be if you had an Egg Money card. Do you?

No not got an Egg Card- will look into this.

Moggles_2

jennabelle42 wrote: »

No not got an Egg Card. Will look into this.

Egg Money, not to be confused with the Egg card, is a very useful card to have.

The Egg card is a credit card like your Barclaycard, BOS and Capital One cards. Egg Money is a hybrid credit card, which has some functions of a current account. For details, see Martin's *card trick* article

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cards/stooze-cash-credit-cards

vastsarah_2

hi can any one give me advise?
I have a egg card 0% till may 09 wth £2800 on it ,credit li is £5000.
That working well no problems paying ,cut card up etc min payments.

But i have a 1000 overdraft with HSBC who charging me about £17 month and now arrangement fee £25. lim is £1300
im wanting to clear this and cancel the o/d useing the egg card.
My child benfit and d.s DLA go into this account.

I really want to clear this as i need to know what i have to spend ,reather what left of the o/d.
I have a barcleys connect card no o/d which tax credits and carers allowance go into for food shop and normal weekly stuff.That working fine no problems.

I also have another Hsbc card with 100 o/d which i should proberly close as i dont use.

And there my Barcley credit card at 1700.Which im paying intrest on about 40 month Should i clear that with egg card instead.

sarah

Moggles_2

vastsarah wrote: »

I have an Egg card 0% till May 09 wth £2800 on it, credit limit is £5000. I have a 1000 overdraft with HSBC who charging me about £17 a month and now arrangement fee £25. Limit is £1300. I'm wanting to clear this and cancel the o/d using the Egg card and there's my Barclaycard at 1700, which I'm paying interest on about 40 a month. Should I clear that with the Egg card instead?

If I've understood your post correctly, your Barclaycard is costing you more than the HSBC overdraft, so I would transfer the B'card balance to your Egg card, if I were you