Best Balance Transfers Discussion Area

jeannieblue

Moggles wrote: »

Yes, this deal is open to existing RBS customers only. Perfect timing!
:beer:
The main thing to remember is NOT to spend on the card.
Martin's golden rule: never, EVER spend on a credit card after transferring a balance to it. Definitely not money-saving.

The other minor irritation is that RBS treats BT fees as purchase transactions, so you will incur a small amount of interest if the fees are not paid off before your 0% rate on purchases expires 3 months from account opening.

I'm never normally lucky......... I also get a lower apr due to being a gold account customer, but I really want to pay it off completely and then pay it off each month in full when I do use it.

I've checked and I owe nearly 1200, not as bad as I thought. Just want to clear it off. I will cancel existing one when the deed is done.

Thank you so much Moggles for your help!

Moggles_2

jeannieblue wrote: »

I'm never normally lucky. I also get a lower APR due to being a Gold account customer, but I really want to pay it off completely and then pay it off each month in full when I do use it. I've checked and I owe nearly £1200, so not as bad as I thought. Just want to clear it off. I will cancel existing one when the deed is done.

Everyone should have at least one back-up card, IMO. No credit card is 100% reliable and sadly there's the ever-present possibility of fraud, which means your card could be blocked temporarily through no fault of your own or the provider. What's more, if your lender varies your Ts & Cs or cuts your limit without warning, you have an alternative to hand. From a credit rating point of view, it makes sense too.

Once you've paid off your Halifax account, courtesy of an RBS balance transfer card, there may be some residual interest to pay the following month. From there on, if you only ever used your Hally card for shopping and always settled the statement balance in full by the payment due date, there would be no interest charges. Your shopping would be interest-free. Just a thought. It's your choice really.

seven-day-weekend

I have been allocated a credit limit of £3k on a LTSB credit card, despite having no income.

There is an offer of 0% balance transfer for 14 months PROVIDING I spend £100 on the card.

I know any money I pay off will go towards the 0% first, not the £100.

U
I have transferred £500 (the only credit I have) because I could do with spreading the repayment out until I get my Pension in January. I will pay the card off in full before the 14 months.

Is this a good deal or not ? (not that I can pick and choose anyway with no income!)

Thanks.

lily10

Hi
Thought I would let everyone know about a balance transfer that I have just been offered by Sainsbury's. I have a Platinum Mastercard and actually phoned up to close the account - this is how I then found out about the balnce transfer. They offered me a higher credit limit ( without my asking) of £8500 and a life of balance transfer rate of 5.9% with a 3% arrangement fee. Think that's a pretty good deal and am using it to pay move an exisitng card debt of c. £7000 on an MBNA card which has just gone onto a rate of 16% +.
Mighe be worth considering for anyone who has a Sains card!

Moggles_2

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

I have been allocated a credit limit of £3k on a LTSB credit card, despite having no income. There is an offer of 0% balance transfer for 14 months PROVIDED that I spend £100 on the card. I know any money I pay off will go towards the 0% first, not the £100. I have transferred £500 because I could do with spreading the repayment out until I get my pension in January. I will pay the card off in full before the 14 months. Is this a good deal or not? (not that I can pick and choose anyway with no income!)

Congratulations!
:beer:
I would think it's a good deal, provided that you spend £100 (on things you would have bought anyway, obviously), settle your credit card bill and wait till your balance is zero, then request your BT. A 3% handling fee applies.

If you haven't cleared the retail transactions before requesting your BT, you'll pay interest on those at your standard rate after the first 3 months plus the 3% BT fee. Your standard rate for purchases (whatever that happens to be) is not fixed, it's variable, so I'd watch out for possible interest rate hikes

Moggles_2

gekkohq wrote: »

Barclaycard Gold Visa

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

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

seven-day-weekend

Moggles wrote: »

Congratulations!
:beer:
I would think it's a good deal, provided that you spend £100 (on things you would have bought anyway, obviously), settle your credit card bill and wait till your balance is zero, then request your BT. A 3% handling fee applies.

If you haven't cleared the retail transactions before requesting your BT, you'll pay interest on those at your standard rate after the first 3 months plus the 3% BT fee. Your standard rate for purchases (whatever that happens to be) is not fixed, it's variable, so I'd watch out for possible interest rate hikes

I was going to do that, but only had a limited time to do the balance transfer, so it hasn't worked out that way.

I have spent so far £75 (on things I would have bought anyway), and will stick £25 of diesel on it in the next few days.

I'm a bit miffed actually about the spending, they only told me that bitwhen I rang to do the balance transfer. But it works out OK for me because I did have the £500 worth of credit I wanted to spread out anyway. I will only pay interest on £100, not the whole lot, they assured me the interest would be 'minimal'.

I'll keep an eye on it and if there is too much interest, I'll just pay it off from savings (something I was trying to avoid).

Thanks for your advice.

jeannieblue

Moggles wrote: »

Everyone should have at least one back-up card, IMO. No credit card is 100% reliable and sadly there's the ever-present possibility of fraud, which means your card could be blocked temporarily through no fault of your own or the provider. What's more, if your lender varies your Ts & Cs or cuts your limit without warning, you have an alternative to hand. From a credit rating point of view, it makes sense too.

Once you've paid off your Halifax account, courtesy of an RBS balance transfer card, there may be some residual interest to pay the following month. From there on, if you only ever used your Hally card for shopping and always settled the statement balance in full by the payment due date, there would be no interest charges. Your shopping would be interest-free. Just a thought. It's your choice really.

That actually makes perfect sense! You've brought up a scenario there that hadn't occurred to me. I will take that advice. You never know, do you?

Thanks again!

Moggles_2

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

I will only pay interest on £100, not the whole lot. They assured me the interest would be 'minimal'.

That's right and the first 3 months from account opening is interest-free. It's still a pretty good deal.

Obviously, I don't know the standard rate you've been handed, but whatever that happens to be in your case, just be aware of possible interest hikes.

There's some variation in the way lenders calculate interest, but if you plug some numbers into this credit card calculator, you can then estimate the time it would take to clear the balance at different interest rates. You can also see the effect of increasing your payments by a few pounds

http://www.whatsthecost.com/creditcard.aspx

Very best
M

seven-day-weekend

Thanks Moggles for al your help.

Just as an aside from this, can you answer me another question as you appear pretty knowledgeable? I was offered this credit card when I opened a new Regular Saver with LTSB (I am a long-standing existing customer). My credit check was approved straight away, in spite of me having no income (I did tell them this). My husband's however, was queried and the LTSB advisor had to make an extra phone call. he has an income of £10k a year (although they didn't ask this) and has been a customer as long as I have.

We live in Spain (which they know), but were in the UK when I opened the account.

Why was my credit check accepted and his queried when he is the one with the income?

The only thing I can think of is that I do have some direct debits in my name connected with my UK house; also if we use a credit card to spend on (infrequently), we always use mine as he can never remember his PIN. Do you think that could be the reason?

Just interested!