Best Balance Transfers Discussion Area

Moggles_2

Dudleydog wrote: »

I've tried Tesco and they rejected me as well. Checked my credit with Experian and seemed OK too.

Virgin and Tesco are not known to score particularly harshly, so you're wise to check your credit reports. Though most lenders are thought to use Experian much of the time, it may be worth looking at your Equifax report as well. Mistakes happen. For instance, a credit card or cards you believe to be cancelled, should be marked settled to show the account has been closed down.

In addition to the number of accounts in use, lenders look at the extent their credit limits have been utilised. Maxed out accounts make you look desperate for credit so, if you're going to apply for a market-leading balance transfer card, it's wise to leave some headroom.

Very best
M

Penny-Pincher!!

I had a letter from Flybe this morning offering 9 months @ 0% with a flate rate £25 fee. Can BT to £3900.
I dont have anything to BT, but thought it was a good offer.

PP
xx

Moggles_2

Penny-Pincher!! wrote: »

I had a letter from Flybe this morning offering 9 months @ 0% with a flat rate £25 fee. Can BT to £3900. I dont have anything to BT, but thought it was a good offer.

Thanks for posting.

Whilst the majority of lenders now charge balance transfer fees, most are calculated as a % of the balance shifted. Few providers have ever charged a flat rate, although fees were sometimes capped to a maximum (usually £50).

You never know, perhaps this is the start of a new trend.

Tiney

Hello new to the forum but have been using Martin's advice for quite some time now! I wondered is it possible to transfer a credit card balance to from a card with a different name?

This might sound like a crazy idea to some people but myself and my partner have been spending a lot of time lately getting our financial situations under control but we both have small balances on a credit card, one each, that we are getting hard to shift because of interest rates.

I'm in a stronger position than he is, my credit rating is better and there are a few other things that I have going in my favour. So I considered applying for a 0% card and transferring both the balance across and then we would both pay off our parts of the total. But is this actually possible? Can you transfer a balance from a card in a different name?

NickX

Tiney wrote: »

I wondered is it possible to transfer a credit card balance to from a card with a different name?

You can transfer balances to your card from your partner, friends or even just Dave from down the pub (he may even buy you a beer :beer: ).

However you should be aware that once the debt is on your card you become legally liable for this debt and ensuring repayments are made. You cannot, at a later date, request the debt be passed back to the original debtor.

Hope this helps.

sarahs999

Virgin seem to be a on a bit of a spree with me at the moment. I cleared my card with them via BT about six months ago, ad it seems like every couple of weeks I get a new letter telling me they've upped my limit, or offering me some other deal. It's getting a bit dull to be honest, and I bet they'll stop offering just when I need a new BT in August!

Moggles_2

NickX wrote: »

You should be aware that once the debt is on your card you become legally liable for this debt and ensuring repayments are made. You cannot, at a later date, request the debt be passed back to the original debtor.

That's right. If you were to fall out, you couldn't ask the card company to charge him for any remaining balance.

From the lender's perspective, it's not a problem. If you request the transfer by phone, customer services may ask for the name on the card, but this is purely an additional verification check. At the end of the day, the card company is after your business. They're not really interested in knowing who ran up the debt, as long as you, their customer, pay up on time each month!

Note: same restrictions apply as when arranging a BT between your own credit card accounts (ie.you cannot transfer balances between cards underwritten by the same bank.) This table on the stoozing site (which is sponsored by Money Saving Expert) should help:

http://www.stoozing.com/cards.htm

Tiney

That's great thank you so much for your advice! This forum is brilliant. So nice to have independent people to answer your questions!

Cheers :beer:

Moggles_2

sarahs999 wrote: »

Virgin seem to be a on a bit of a spree with me at the moment. I cleared my card with them via BT about six months ago and it seems like every couple of weeks I get a new letter telling me they've upped my limit or offering me some other deal. It's getting a bit dull to be honest ..

Congratulations
:beer:

I wouldn't knock it, if I were you. Judging from posts to this board, large numbers of forum users have found their credit limits cut drastically this year (eg. £500 or less), as soon as they settled up.

I bet they'll stop offering just when I need a new BT in August!

Well, that's always a possibility, which is why it's advisable to have more than one credit card on the go and be prepared to ditch & switch, as necessary.;)

mella_3

Thought I'd post an update on here on how I sorted my transfer out in the end.

I had a Barclaycard that I'd opened about 3 years ago with a 12month 0% BT. It had a ridiculously low limit of about £500. Since then I haven't used the card, it's just sat there. I phoned them up to look at closing the account so that I could reduce the number of CC accounts I had before applying for a new one for my next transfer, and they said someone would call me to complete the process.

When I got the call back they offered me 0% for 12 months again, which I told them was only any use to me if they significantly increased my credit limit.

They went off and did their checks (which they assured me were internal only with no external credit check - not sure if that is true or not) and came back to me 2 days later to confirm that the increase was authorised.

Might be worth a call for anyone in a similar situation.

They did warn me that it might not be possible as my card had been inactive for some time and that might result in them agreeing to an increase only if my i made use of my card for a certain period first (she mentioned 3 months). But for me it turned out not to be an issue.

Thanks for all the advice - especially Moggles.