Best Balance Transfers Discussion Area

beckles88

My boyfriend has roughly £5000 of debt that he wants me to move to 0% credit cards.
I'm trying to find the best deal.

He has approx £1900 on a credit and store card. I think the best thing for this would be to transfer it to a 0% 6month abbey card as this is 0% to BT.

The other £3100 is a loan settlement fee, hes looking for something more long term on this maybe 14months? Which card has the lowest BT rate.

Thanks
Becky

Moggles_2

beckles88 wrote: »

My boyfriend has roughly £5000 of debt that he wants me to move to 0% credit cards.

You can help him find the best deal, but he will have to apply himself, if the new card will be in his name.

He has approx £1900 on a credit and store card. I think the best thing for this would be to transfer it to a 0% 6 month Abbey card as this is 0% to BT.

I've no recent experience of Abbey but, judging from posts to this board, he would be best advised to apply in branch. Online applications are subject to long delays, apparently.

The other £3100 is a loan [plus] settlement fee, hes looking for something more long term on this maybe 14months? Which card has the lowest BT rate.

Which deal is best depends, to some extent, on which card(s) he has at the mo or has held recently.

beckles88

Hes going to apply yes I'm just gathering all the information for him. The credit card he currently has is a standard Halifax one.

Moggles_2

beckles88 wrote: »

The other £3100 is a loan [plus] settlement fee. He's looking for something more long term on this, maybe 14 months? The credit card he currently has is a standard Halifax one. Which card has the lowest BT rate.

He cannot pay off the loan with a credit card, at least not directly. What he can do is apply for a 0% BT card and transfer an overdraft to the card (in other words shift cash from the credit card to his bank account.) He then has funds in his current account with which to pay off the loan.

Caution: you cannot use any 0% BT card. A few rather special cards allow you to transfer cash to your current account at balance transfer rates. A BT fee applies, but there are no other charges during the introductory 0% promotion.

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

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

It might be an idea to apply for the Virgin card first. Credit limit permitting, he may not need an Abbey card as well.;)

On receipt of his new card, he can request the transfer of funds to his bank. It's best to do this when you call to activate the card. (There's a dedicated, Freefone number). Virgin will allow him to transfer up to 95% of his credit limit. The money arrives in your bank account in about 6 days.

Sunshine&Stars

Hi Moggles,

I want to get rid of my overdraft and my horrid MBNA card.

As you know I recently applied and have received two 0% for 13 & 14mths from Tesco and Halifax.

Is it bad to apply for a third card? I would like to shift my MBNA debt onto a better card as well as my overdraft......

TIA

Moggles_2

Sunshine&Stars wrote: »

I want to get rid of my overdraft and my horrid MBNA card. As you know I recently applied and have received two 0% for 13 & 14 mths from Tesco and Halifax. I would like to shift my MBNA debt onto a better card as well as my overdraft.

As explained above (please see #1629), a small number of exceptional credit cards allow you to transfer an overdraft to them, (in other words, transfer cash from the credit card to your current account), at balance transfer rates.

You may be able to clear the MBNA balance and, credit limit permitting, your overdraft using Egg card. A 3 % BT fee applies, but there are no other charges during the 13 month 0% period.

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

Moggles_2

Sunshine&Stars wrote: »

As you know I recently applied and have received two 0% for 13 & 14mths from Tesco and Halifax. Is it bad to apply for a third card?

While Martin recommends spacing out credit applications, there is an argument in favour of applying for three cards at once. If, for instance, you make 3 applications the same day, each lender sees only their competitor's credit checks. If you submit those same applications at intervals, providers not only see the credit checks, but also your available credit increasing with each successful application. So your credit rating could look temporarily worse after the thurd application, than if you had applied for them together.

The drawbacks with this strategy are that, assuming you're successful, you'll have to fork out three BT fees in the same month. Also your 0% promotions are likely to expire together, so I would keep this in mind when coming to a decision.

sparkymarky123456789

just a thankyou to the forum-after being offered a 34% card from capital one, i've just got a virgin 0% for 16 mths- decision in 10 seconds flat!

thanks guys

skindeep

Hi, May sound like a daft question but we have 3 credit cards 6500, 4500 and around 500 on , we have always managed to pay albeit mostly only the minimum payment, point is we have both recently lost our jobs, although we are still managing to make the payments really need to transfer to 0% for all cards (one is adding 94.00 interest per month)! We have excellent credit we believe , Are there any cards avaliable who wont ask for income/job details as this will probably decline us cards despite our credit rating, any help? thanks.

helinlouise

This is due to come in on 1st April 2009 so please be aware!