Best Balance Transfers Discussion Area

Innocent_Guy

Super_Sam wrote: »

I just got a fright when I opened my Virgin Credit card statement and found that £115 of interest had been charged on my (considerable!) balance transfer, supposedly "interest free until June 2010".

When I enquired about this, a helpful member of staff advised me that because I made a late minimum payment on my FIRST ever repayment ("late"= paid at 10pm on 18th Feb, due 21st of feb, but technically "late" due to 3 working days processing time if paid after 5pm!!!!).

Because of this one late (?!) payment, I am technically in "breach" of my credit agreement with Virgin. This translates as the 0% interest on balance transfers being WITHDRAWN!!!

For me this means a potential interest charge over the next 14 months of £1,724!!!!!

To be fair to Virgin, this is detailed in the credit card agreement as a "breach", but I had no idea that one late payment would constitute a breach!

FORTUNATELY for me, the nice lady at Virgin agreed (after MUCH begging by me, it must be said!) to reinstate the interest free period and (after more begging) the interest charged.

I have learned a valuable lesson! Please learn from my stupidity and CHECK THE SMALL PRINT!!! Especially on those dream-come-true interest free balance transfer deals.

Fortunatly they re-instated your offer there have been users on here that have never been able to get this applied again

flight1

Hi, this may be a stupid question but my husband had a virgin card on 0% due to end in June and we still have £2500 outstanding. The card is in his name only but I can't rememeber when applying if he had to put in my details. Does the fact that he have one stop me from applying and could I transfer his outstanding balance to a new account with virgin if I was accepted.

smoggie35

Hi MSE and all readers,

Can someone advise on little problem we have.
We opened up a new CC with 0% BT on it and transferred my wife's old cc balance onto it. However the request to transfer over her store card balance(Next) was refused by the store.

Our question is:

1. Can they do this legally? Surely this is just settling the account.

2. Is there any other way of moving the balance to the 0% CC.

We are aware that if she pays of the balance with the new card it will start earning interest straight away and we want to avoid this albeit this would be at a lower rate than the store card.

dylansmum

smoggie35 wrote: »

Hi MSE and all readers,

Can someone advise on little problem we have.
We opened up a new CC with 0% BT on it and transferred my wife's old cc balance onto it. However the request to transfer over her store card balance(Next) was refused by the store.

Our question is:

1. Can they do this legally? Surely this is just settling the account.

2. Is there any other way of moving the balance to the 0% CC.

We are aware that if she pays of the balance with the new card it will start earning interest straight away and we want to avoid this albeit this would be at a lower rate than the store card.

Hmmn. Is it an actual plastic store card (not the online Next catalogue?). If a store card, can your wife transfer it to her credit card (if live) then transfer across to your 0% one? Asking this in case Next are refusing because you are not the named customer on the store card.

Sorry this may not help. Someone will likely know more than me.

smoggie35

Thanks for the reply dylansmum,

It is the plastic store card that is linked to her account which she uses for both the shop and online.

I see where your coming from on using the old cc to pay of the store card and then seeing if i could transfer that to the new one.

Just raises one question:

Having already transferred the balance from the old cc I didn't think i would be able to request a second transfer from the card to the 0%.

It was my wife that requested the transfer when she applied for the new 0% card. :think:

NickX

gill_murray wrote: »

Does the fact that he have one stop me from applying and could I transfer his outstanding balance to a new account with virgin if I was accepted.

No problem with you applying separately and you could transfer your husband's balance to yours by requesting a Super Balance Transfer (SBT), i.e. request that Virgin send the funds to your current account and pay your husband's card off from there.

Happy Days :beer:

Moggles_2

smoggie35 wrote: »

We opened up a new CC with 0% BT on it and transferred my wife's old cc balance onto it. However the request to transfer over her store card balance (Next) was refused by the store.

Do you mean her request was refused by her new credit card?
(To arrange a BT, you approach the new card provider, not the account you would like paid off, in this case Next)

Is there any other way of moving the balance to the 0% cc?

You can transfer a credit card balance to another credit card. Transferring a store card balance to a credit card is not so straightforward.

What you can do is apply for a 0% balance transfer card and transfer an overdraft to the card, in other words shift cash from the credit card to her bank account. A handling fee applies, but there are no other charges during the introductory 0% period. She then has funds in her current account with which to pay off Next

Caution: you cannot use any old 0% BT card. A handful will do this at the 0% rate. Which new 0% BT card has your wife opened recently?

NickX

Moggles wrote: »

Caution: you cannot use any old 0% BT card. A handful will do this at the 0% rate. Which new 0% BT card has your wife opened recently?

I believe the only cards offering this SBT (Super Balance Transfer) facility are Egg, Post Office and MBNA run cards (including Virgin, Alliance & Leicester, Sony and MBNA itself).

In addition other providers such as MINT and Capital One occasionally issue Credit Card cheques that can be paid into a Bank Account at Balance Transfer rates. This is not an ideal option though, because the cheques cannot necessarily be requested so you don't know when they are going to drop through the letterbox. You should also take care to ensure that they are indeed Balance Transfer rate cheques and not Purchase rate or even Cash Withdrawal rate which are definitely not adviseable unless you have money to burn.

smoggie35

No the actual BT refusal came from Next and was submitted from the new CC operator (Tesco). The BT from her old card had no issues at all.

My wife chose this one as it was recommended on MSE and she was happy she would clear both balances within the 14 month 0% period.

What you can do is apply for a 0% balance transfer card and transfer an overdraft to the card, in other words shift cash from the credit card to her bank account. A handling fee applies, but there are no other charges during the introductory 0% period. She then has funds in her current account with which to pay off Next

She has only just taken out this new card (two weeks approx) so if she would have to take out another one to transfer over the Next balance I think it will be a no go-er.
But you never know I'll run it by her.

What about if I pay off the balance on my card then get the new CC to BT that amount from my card. I believe that is ok and would do the trick what do you think? :rolleyes:

Thanks for the suggestions though guys.

I suppose this serves as a warning about Next though!!!! :beer:

Moggles_2

smoggie35 wrote: »

The BT from her old card had no issues at all.

Right. A balance transfer between credit cards should not present any problems.

The actual BT refusal came from Next and was submitted from the new CC operator (Tesco).

As noted above, you can shift a credit card balance to another credit card. Transferring a store card balance to a credit card is not so straightforward.

Store cards ARE credit cards and they are usually operated by credit card companies on behalf of the retailer (with the stores being given back a % of the profits) but, for some reason, their account numbers are formatted differently from credit cards. I suspect that's the problem. There's a way round it, but you need the right 0% BT card

What about if I pay off the balance [of the Next a/c] on my credit card ...?

I was about to make the same suggestion.
Caution: Unless you hold one of the cards listed above, I suspect you'll encounter the same problem.

Just to recap, you need:

a card issued by MBNA (e.g. Alliance & Leicester, MBNA itself, Sony, Virgin), Egg card or the Post Office card

Which option is best depends, to some extent, on which cards you have at the mo or have held recently. To maximise the 0% period, 15 months is currently available to new customers from Virgin. There's a 2.98% handling charge

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