Best Balance Transfers Discussion Area

Moggles_2

Barryjohn wrote: »

My partner's credit card 0% interest deal has expired and she can't get a new card, so has started paying interest. Is it possible for me to get a new card and transfer the balance from hers to my new 0% one or if this is no good?

You can switch credit card balances from family, friends or Dave down the pub. You should be aware though, that the person whose card her balance is shifted to, becomes solely liable for the debt. If you were to fall out, you couldn't ask the card company to charge her 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.

Caution: 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

Moggles_2

Barryjohn wrote: »

My partner's credit card 0% interest deal has expired and she can't get a new card, so has started paying interest. Is it possible for me to get a new card, get a cash advance at 0% rather than a balance transfer and use the cash to pay off her old card?

Take care with your terminology. If you ask a card company for a cash advance, the chances are you'll be charged cash withdrawal rates, which are very expensive :eek:

A few rather special cards will 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 need:

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

To maximise the 0% period, 16 months is currently available to new customers from Virgin. There's a 4% handling fee, but no other charges during the introductory 0% period

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

Rubyjones

I have been following Martin's credit card tarting for 5 years and have, thanks to him, reduced a £5000 debt to just £600 without having to pay interest over the last 5 years.

The last card I could get with 0% finance was only for 6 months and I applied for that from Abbey in December 08. It expires on the 9th June and I went on the web site last weekend to apply for another one and I tried 2 offers and was turned down for both - Tesco & Egg.

According to Martins self credit check I pass with flying colours. I have never defaulted on any of the payments on any of my credit cards and I have always cancelled the cards when I have cleared them.

I have not taken out any mortgages or applied for any loans in the last six months.

Does anyone have any idea why this would be the case? I am fully employed. I am flummoxed! I have never been turned down for a credit card or loan ever before. I didn't want to keep trying in case it made matters worse. Anybody got any advice?

Moggles_2

Rubyjones wrote: »

The last card I could get with 0% finance was only for 6 months and I applied for that from Abbey in December 08. It expires on the 9th June and I went on the web site last weekend to apply for another one and I tried 2 offers and was turned down for both - Tesco & Egg .... Does anyone have any idea why this would be the case? I have never been turned down for a credit card or loan ever before. Anybody got any advice?

Congratulations on reducing your £5000 debt to £600.
:beer:

Tesco is not known to score particularly harshly. Have you cancelled a card issued by the Royal Bank of Scotland in the last 10 months or so?

If not, I would check your credit reports to see what's on there. For help, see page 1 of the *How to obtain credit reports* sticky

Meanwhile, is it possible to move the balance to a new balance transfer card in your partner's name, if there is one?

comparetopcards

Hi gsy67,

Not sure if you are still looking at other balance transfer credit cards. We just beta launched our credit card comparision comparetopcards.co.uk site with calculators to help better analyze different cards. We are still adding more cards to the database so there's not a complete list, but maybe helpful in your search

Also if anybody on this forum has feedback/ thoughts on features or any cards we should add first we welcome it.

Moggles_2

comparetopcards wrote: »

We just launched our credit card comparision site with calculators to help better analyze different cards...

Unlike MoneySavingExpert, this is a profit-driven service that will list some, but not all best buys, due to its commercial relationships.

You can get unbiased balance transfer suggestions here on MSE if you click on Martin's *Best Balance Transfers* article.

For a comprehensive list of 0% balance transfer cards, updated regularly and not influenced by advertising commissions, the stoozing site (which is sponsored by Money Saving Expert) is hard to beat

http://www.stoozing.com/0fees.htm

ekilopter

Hello I am new to the forum, and after months of reading these very interesting posts i decided to jump in and try to save myself some money by doing a balance transfer, I have applied for and been accepted for a NW gold card I now intend to BT balances from 2 other cards at 0% for 13 months so far so good however when i did the online application i had to state how much outstanding balance was on each card, now for the question could i add more to the existing cards before doing the BT or can i only BT what was on the application? I would like to pay off asmall overdraft using 1 or both of the original cards to get the maximum BT benefit
Thanks

Rubyjones

Moggles wrote:
Tesco is not known to score particularly harshly. Have you cancelled a card issued by the Royal Bank of Scotland in the last 10 months or so?

If not, I would check your credit reports to see what's on there. For help, see page 1 of the *How to obtain credit reports* sticky

Meanwhile, is it possible to move the balance to a new balance transfer card in your partner's name, if there is one?

Thanks for your reply Moggles. I did a balance in January 2008 from Royal Bank of Scotland to this an HSBC mastercard and cancelled the card. But that was over a year ago. Why should this make a difference?

Moggles_2

ekilopter wrote: »

I have applied for and been accepted for a NW Gold card. I now intend to transfer balances from two other cards at 0% for 13 months, however when I did the online application, I had to state how much outstanding balance was on each card. Could I add more to the existing cards before doing the BT or can I only BT what was on the application?

Credit limit permitting, you can request a transfer for any amount you like.

I would like to pay off a small overdraft using one or both of the original cards to get the maximum BT benefit.

A few rather special cards will allow you to transfer an overdraft to them, (in other words, transfer cash from the credit card to your current account)

Which two credit cards - besides your NW Gold card - do you have at the mo?

Moggles_2

Rubyjones wrote: »

Moggles wrote:
Tesco is not known to score particularly harshly. Have you cancelled a card issued by the Royal Bank of Scotland in the last 10 months or so?

Originally Posted by Rubyjones
I did a balance transfer in January 2008 from Royal Bank of Scotland to an HSBC mastercard and cancelled the card, but that was over a year ago. Why should this make a difference?

Some lenders will not consider applications from former cardholders for various periods following closure.

The Royal Bank of Scotland stable (which includes Lombard Direct, Mint, NatWest, Tesco & Ulster Bank, as well as RBS itself) makes former customers wait eight months following closure of one of its accounts, so cancelling any of these cards in the past 10 months or so would explain why your Tesco application was unsuccessful, however it appears you've left plenty of time.