Best Balance Transfers Discussion Area

Joyful

After helping my children out they did not manage to pay off my Virgin interest free card so I have just transferred the remainder to Lloyds Platinum for 14 months interest free! All you have to do is spend £100(interest free) on the card over 3 months. I thought only Virgin did the 14 months so thought I would pass on the news about LLoyds Tsb.

Sorry if this is already known.

CannyJock

Joyful wrote: »

After helping my children out they did not manage to pay off my Virgin interest free card so I have just transferred the remainder to Lloyds Platinum for 14 months interest free! All you have to do is spend £100(interest free) on the card over 3 months. I thought only Virgin did the 14 months so thought I would pass on the news about LLoyds Tsb.

Sorry if this is already known.

You'll be charged interest on the purchase after the 3 months is up iirc. Was a lot of discussion about this for potential stoozing on the stoozing site. Still not a bad deal though and beats paying standard APR on the balance.

therandomsurfer

Just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone on this board and Moggles in particular for all your help in guiding me through the maze!

I've just been accepted online by Halifax, 0% for 13 months with a £2,500 limit, which has basically saved me after a few months of agony. This was after I was declined by Virgin a month ago, and followed that up with a long appeal letter which was also declined. I'm saying this just to say that don't get too caught up with the idea that you shouldn't apply after being declined - yes they will see the search on the credit report, but some providers are less strict than others, and as Moggles has said, Hally seems to be pretty generous. I was so close to not applying, paying a large APR on my debts for a few months before applying to Halifax... I can now relax and be building up my credit score in case I need to tart again next time! :j

Charski

Hi guys,

I need a bit of help. Myself and my partner are now looking to start saving for our own house and a wedding and we need to get a handle of our finances - including our loans and our credit cards. We have been hiding our heads in the sand about it up to now but we need to sort it out.
We have two credit cards - balances are around £3,000 and £1,000. I have tried to apply for the Leeds credit card to hopefully transfer the balances. I didn't receive automatic acceptance, but the more info request. Hopefully we haven't been declined! We have a feeling that we might be stuck in that we're being declined because we have been declined before...
We have two loans - one with around £4,000 and the other around £2,000.
We think it would be best to transer the balances of the credit cards to one low interest card and pay off the minimum, while paying off as much as we can on the loans until they are clear - then tidy up the credit card.

What do you guys think? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

CannyJock

Hi Charski, if you reply back with the specific cards you've got balances on, we might be able to point you in a direction. Why did you go for the Leeds card, what was the offer you saw that appealed to you?

As you're both starting out on evaluating your finances, you should both get a copy of your credit reports and check that everything on there is okay - it's what the credit card people see so you should know what's on it. See the sticky on obtaining credit reports.

Full list of 0% offers on the stoozing site (supported by MSE): http://www.stoozing.com/0fees.php

Only rule is that you can't transfer a debt between cards from the same provider (e.g. Natwest and Mint because they're both backed by RBS).

The plan to move the debt onto lower APR makes sense. With your loans you'll need to ask for a settlement figure and then compare the amount you'll save against the balance transfer fee on a card like the Virgin Money card (some cards you can use to clear a loan). The basic rule of clearing debt is to tackle the highest APR first, pay the maximum off that and pay the minimum on the lower APR debts, so you'd definitely thinking in the right direction.

Apart from that, it's just a case of working out what the minimum repayments are and making sure you're comfortable with that amount.

Charski

Hi, thanks for your response
The cards are with Amazon and Tesco.
The Leeds card offered 0% on balance transfers for the life of the card, and this appealed to us as it meant that our monthly repayments would go down A LOT and make it easier for us to clear the loans quicker - we have spoken to the loan companies and they are allowing us to pay our normal loan amounts plus any extra we want on top of that each month - so we thought it would make sense to get the credit cards into one, where we pay less interest then pay off as much of the loans as we can.

Moggles_2

therandomsurfer wrote: »

Just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone on this board and Moggles in particular for all your help in guiding me through the maze! I've just been accepted online by Halifax, 0% for 13 months with a £2,500 limit, which has basically saved me after a few months of agony. This was after I was declined by Virgin a month ago, and followed that up with a long appeal letter which was also declined. I'm saying this just to say that don't get too caught up with the idea that you shouldn't apply after being declined - yes they will see the search on the credit report, but some providers are less strict than others, and as Moggles has said, Hally seems to be pretty generous. I was so close to not applying, paying a large APR on my debts for a few months before applying to Halifax... I can now relax and be building up my credit score in case I need to tart again next time!

Congratulations on getting accepted by the Hally & thanks for the feedback
:beer:

Cheers
M

Moggles_2

Charski wrote: »

I have tried to apply for the Leeds credit card to hopefully transfer the balances. I didn't receive automatic acceptance, but the more info request. Hopefully we haven't been declined! We have a feeling that we might be stuck in that we're being declined because we have been declined before...

Most lenders give instant decisions and credit limits online or by telephone (provided that they can verify your ID electronically via the credit reference agencies, which in turn collate data from public records.

Are you on the electoral roll at your current address?

As above, I would check your credit reports. For help, see page 1 of the *How to obtain credit reports* sticky. Once you know what lenders will see, you are in a better position to improve their opinion

Let us know how you get on with the Leeds application. (Btw, if it's the Leeds Building Society credit card, I think you'll find the BT deal is 5.9% APR for the life of the balance.)

Very best
M

CannyJock

Charski wrote: »

Hi, thanks for your response
The cards are with Amazon and Tesco.
The Leeds card offered 0% on balance transfers for the life of the card, and this appealed to us as it meant that our monthly repayments would go down A LOT and make it easier for us to clear the loans quicker - we have spoken to the loan companies and they are allowing us to pay our normal loan amounts plus any extra we want on top of that each month - so we thought it would make sense to get the credit cards into one, where we pay less interest then pay off as much of the loans as we can.

Amazon is part of the HBOS family. Old Tesco cards were part of the RBS family.

I'd check the credit reports, see if there's anything that can be done to improve it from a lenders point of view (electoral register, unused cards not settled). You and your fiance can check it today using the free 30 day trial option.

The extra payments (including early full repayment?) without any additional fees or penalties I'd be tempted to get in writing if you've not already.

Then it's just a case of you and your fiance starting at the top of the 0% balance transfer table and putting in the applications. List your debts in APR order and deal with them in that order. You can use the cards flagged "Super Balance Transfer" to clear the loans if they're the highest interest.

Remember regardless of who has the liability for the loans and cards just now, it's whoever ends up with it on the new cards that'll be liable for it going forward. Also be aware that blitzing the applications to get the debt moved onto 0% promotions can cook your credit report for up to a year, so don't be surprised if there's a short-term effect on future credit applications.

Charski

Thanks for all the advice - will look into our credit ratings, etc now :A