Best Balance Transfers Discussion Area

Moggles_2

Pip123 wrote: »

I currently have 3 credit cards with HSBC, ASDA and Tesco and want to balance transfer in order to pay less interest and hopefully to throw more money at them in order to clear them!Which would be the best to apply for also taking into consideration i am on a low income? My credit rating is good in that i pay all 3 on time and my only other outgoing is a car on HP for around £8000.

Congratulations on having a flawless payment history. This is a great asset.
:beer:
Please be aware that to apply for 0% BT cards, you need an annual income of at least £8000. Just so you know.

For tips to improve your chances of credit card acceptance, have a look at the *Credit Rating: how it works and how to improve it guide* especially Martin's *Manage and Improve your credit score* article, to make certain there's nothing else besides a lowish income working against you.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/credit-rating-credit-score#improve

Have you considered the Post Office Classic card? 12 months at 0% is currently available to new customers on balance transfers made in the first 3 mths. There's a 2.98% BT fee.
Also, 5 months at 0% on new balance transfers requested in the month of your 1st and 2nd anniversary

http://www.postoffice.co.uk/portal/po/jump2?catId=19400177&mediaId=34100665

Moggles_2

royzer76 wrote: »

Ah yeah ... I knew that, ha ha!

Just testing, eh?

Think I'm probably gonna go for the Virgin or Halifax or would you go for the MBNA and then just switch again in 12 months?

If you need an incentive to clear more than the minimum required, the MBNA card is worth another look. Remember any extra payments you make, particularly in the first few months, will reduce the cost still further. OTOH, if you know you'll make the minimum payments regardless, I'd plump for Virgin. It's your choice really.

Very best
M

warehouse

Hi, I hope someone can help me here. I have £2000 on a Cahoot credit card and simply want to put it all on a 0% deal for the next 12 months with a view to paying it all off.

Last month I applied with Lloyds because they told me i could have 14 months at 0%, but AFTER the credit check they informed me that I had to spend £100 in the first 3 months which would have stayed on the card earning interest untill the transferred balance was cleared.

Can anyone recommend a card to transfer to that has NO hidden extra costs? Many Thanks.

Moggles_2

warehouse wrote: »

I have £2000 on a Cahoot credit card and simply want to put it all on a 0% deal for the next 12 months with a view to paying it all off. Last month, I applied with Lloyds because they told me i could have 14 months at 0%, but AFTER the credit check they informed me that I had to spend £100 in the first 3 months which would have stayed on the card earning interest until the transferred balance was cleared.

To be fair, the minimum spend requirement is clearly stated after each mention of the 0%-interest-for-14-months feature on the LloydsTSB website. The bank has been quite up front about it, IMO.

To avoid interest on the £100 spend accruing once the 0% on purchases expires, you would need to pay off the £100 balance, then request your balance transfer(s) within 6 weeks of account opening.

Can anyone recommend a card to transfer to, that has NO hidden extra costs?

Which deal is best depends, to some extent, on which credit cards - besides Cahoot - you have at the mo or have held recently.

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

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

Alternatively, you'd get until 1 October 2010 with Egg. A 3 % BT fee applies.

http://new.egg.com/visitor/0,,3_84106--View_1763,00.html

Moggles_2

needahol wrote: »

I have £7400 on an MBNA card and am nearing the end of my promotional period (0%). I am putting my house on the market this week and, once it's sold, I will be paying the cc off. In the meantime, I want to transfer the balance. I have the option of 0% for 12 months (3% fee) or 5.9% for the life of the balance (no fee) Am I right in thinking that, if I sell the house within 6-7 months, the 5.9% would be the better option but, if I don't I'd be better off taking the 0% option.

According to my back-of-the-envelope calculations, you'd still be marginally better off with the 0% BT card even if you sell within 6-7 months

Is this Barclaycard, by any chance?

Empty_pockets

Hi,

I'm currently paying £176 per month in interest payments on two credit cards (£11417/£318), both full rate.

I haven't transferred them before as I had a default on my Experian report. I've now dealt with that and had them 'removed'. There are no other defaults on my report.

I used the Experian credit scoring service and had a score of 725 (Fair) on 3rd sept.
E
Since I've cleared my report this has thankfully no risen to 999 (Excellent).

I've very wary of appling for credit after being turned down so many times (before I knew I had the default).

I want to apply for a balance transfer card (have virgin/egg currently) but want to know who is the most likely to give a big credit limit. Will my own bank, HSBC give me more leeway as I have a good history with them?

Thanks

biological

Hi
I'm trying to decide on my best course of action & was hoping someone could advise me.

I'm currently juggling my credit card balances as follows -

Abbey (Santander) Balance £4500 (Limit £12000) - coming to end of 0% in October. (then apr 24ish%)

Hsbc - Balance £2500 (Limit £3500) - also coming to an end of 0% in october - then apr 17%)

Barclaycard - just cleared it & transferred £5000 to my then empty MBNA card (limit £15800)- 0% til June 10 - this offer is open for another couple of months.

I earn just over £20kpa & have good credit history as far as no late payments, on electoral roll, same job for 15 yrs etc - although i imagine the amount of credit i have used & available must be counting against me now.

So - my question is (and well done if you've got this far) - should I
- transfer everything to Mbna & hope that in June next year Abbey/Bcard & HSBc let me transfer it back - I'll be lucky if i've paid more than £1500 of it off by then.
- or apply for a new card with a longer 0% period - & if so does anyone know which one is more likely to give me a generous credit limit & not reject me - considering the no of cards i've got already.?

btw - last time i applied for credit was a year ago for the hsbc card.

Any advice would be great.
Thanks

Moggles_2

Empty_pockets wrote: »

I want to apply for a balance transfer card (have Virgin/Egg currently), but want to know who is the most likely to give a big credit limit. Will my own bank, HSBC, give me more leeway as I have a good history with them?

Sorry, only HSBC knows the answer. Banks do not disclose the criteria they use to decide, but your annual income is likely to be an important factor.

Unlike Egg and Virgin, HSBC is not renowned for particularly generous credit limits.
That said, 0% for 15 months is available exclusively to HSBC current account holders on balances transferred within 30 days of opening your account. A 2.9% BT fee applies.

http://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/personal/credit-cards?ad=A00001

This is a good deal. Provided that you haven't applied unsuccessfully to HSBC in the last 6 months, I would give it a go.

Moggles_2

biological wrote: »

I'm juggling my credit card balances as follows: Abbey (Santander) Balance £4500 (Limit £12000) - coming to end of 0% in October. (then apr 24ish%), Hsbc - Balance £2500 (Limit £3500) - also coming to an end of 0% in october - then apr 17%), Barclaycard - just cleared it & transferred £5000 to my then empty MBNA card (limit £15800)- 0% til June 10 - this offer is open for another couple of months. I earn just over £20kpa & have good credit history as far as no late payments, on electoral roll, same job for 15 yrs etc. Should I transfer everything to Mbna & hope that in June next year Abbey/Bcard & HSBc let me transfer it back or apply for a new card with a longer 0% period &, if so, does anyone know which one is more likely to give me a generous credit limit?

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

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

Alternatively, you'd get until 1 October 2010 with Egg. A 3% BT fee applies.

http://new.egg.com/visitor/0,,3_8410...w_1763,00.html

It's not an exact science of course but, IME (and from feedback here), Egg and Virgin tend to hand out more generous credit limits than some other lenders I could name

koru

biological wrote: »

Hi
I'm trying to decide on my best course of action & was hoping someone could advise me....

...So - my question is (and well done if you've got this far) - should I
- transfer everything to Mbna & hope that in June next year Abbey/Bcard & HSBc let me transfer it back - I'll be lucky if i've paid more than £1500 of it off by then.
- or apply for a new card with a longer 0% period - & if so does anyone know which one is more likely to give me a generous credit limit & not reject me - considering the no of cards i've got already.?

Depends on the BT fee for MBNA. You need to compare the BT fees taking into account the length of the interest free period. The Virgin card is 2.98% for 16 months, which is equivalent to an annual interest rate of 2.98x12/16=2.23%. The MBNA card is only interest free until June, so that is 9 months. Therefore, you should prefer the Virgin card unless the MBNA card has a BT fee of less than 2.23x9/12=1.67%. If the MBNA card BT fee is less than 1.67%, I would use this for now, then find a new interest free deal next June.