Best Balance Transfers Discussion Area

Moggles_2

jodilye wrote: »

I have a credit card with Lloyds at 15.9%. I was given it when I changed accounts as an emergency card (yeah, right, I'm 21). I have a balance of £450 and a limit of £750. I won't pay this off for 3 or 4 months and at the moment the interest is about £8 a month. I'm wondering whether to bother transferring to a Virgin card at 0%. I always said I would never have a CC, so juggling them around and switching seems even more scary. Am I on the right track?

You don't say how long you've held your LloydsTsb card.

If more than 12 months and you've built a nice string of zeros on credit files, I'd apply to Virgin. Everyone should have at least one back-up card, IMO.

0% for 16 months is currently available on BTs made in the first 60 days. A 2.98% transfer fee applies.
Note: minimum monthly payments are the lowest in the UK, so you'll need to set aside £30 per month (in round figures) to clear the balance by the end of the promotion.

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

If you meet the LloydsTsb statement balance on time for two consecutive months, the interest charges will stop. From that point on, if you only ever spend what you can afford to pay back on time each month, you'll never pay interest again and you'll be building a better credit history in the process

jodilye

I thought I had paid it off for more than two months...maybe I'm wrong, I'll have to check. I've had it...I'm not even sure, about a year and a half, two years. I wouldn't trust myself with a backup card at all! Do you know (vaguely) what the min.payment is on virgin then? Unless I run up a particularly high bill mine are usually about £5. Is this because it's a bank's own card or something?

Moggles_2

jodilye wrote: »

I've had it...I'm not even sure, about a year and a half, two years. I wouldn't trust myself with a back-up card at all.

The alternative is to stop spending on the card, if you haven't already, and concentrate on paying as much as possible each month off the £450 balance. Clearing this debt ASAP will reduce the interest you pay and you'll be building a better credit history in the process. You'll then be in a better position to apply for 0% BT cards

Your post raises some other issues and you may want to post again on the *Debt-Free Wannabe* board. You'll get lots of advice and support there from users who have faced similar situations

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=76

lifeback

Can I ask for some quick advice? I've got £990 on a card with 19% interest and £600 on a card with 16% interest - I'm thinking about trying to transfer all or some onto a 0% on balance transfers card but worried it wouldn't be worth it with a 2.5% fee - I'm aiming to pay it all off within a year - any advice on whether I should try to transfer?

Thanks!

Moggles_2

lifeback wrote: »

I've got £990 on a card with 19% interest and £600 on a card with 16% interest - I'm thinking about trying to transfer all or some onto a 0% on balance transfers card but worried it wouldn't be worth it with a 2.5% fee. I'm aiming to pay it all off within a year. Any advice on whether I should try to transfer?

A 0% BT card would definitely save some money.

If you plug some numbers into this credit card calculator,
http://www.whatsthecost.com/creditcard.aspx
you can 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.

To help you further, we would need to know which cards you have at the mo or have held recently, also whether you've applied for any unsuccessfully.

lifeback

I have a Tesco Bonus card and a MINT card, I haven't applied for any recently but was thinking about the Barclaycard Platinum as it's interest free til next December which should give me enough time to pay it off I think. I took out the MINT card to transfer the balance from the Tesco card but I didn't get enough of a limit so (back in the days before my LBM) I bought stuff on it instead!

Also - MINT have increased my rate as of next month. Grrr.

Moggles_2

lifeback wrote: »

I have a Tesco Bonus card and a MINT card, I haven't applied for any recently but was thinking about the Barclaycard Platinum as it's interest-free till next December which should give me enough time to pay it off I think.

Barclaycard practises a rate-for-risk policy. This means that the bank reserves the right to issue the credit card it deems most suitable from its range. In the worst cases you can be sent a totally different & unsuitable card, leaving you with a wasted search on your credit file. Judging from posts on this board, this happens frequently, so it's important to consider first whether you’ve a realistic chance of being accepted.

Alternatively, the Halifax Plus credit card is a straight forward, no-strings deal.

13 months at 0% is currently available to new customers on balance transfers made in the first 90 days. There's a 3% BT fee.
The minimum monthly payment is very low (just 1% of the balance shifted), so you'll need to set aside a further £100 per month, in round figures, to clear the debts by the end of the promotion

http://www.halifax.co.uk/creditcards/pluscard136.aspifaxith

MinniMe_2

Hi all,

Just read Martins weekly adn saw Sainsbury's 0% deal, then had a look at teh article on CC and noticed the deal on PO. Has anyone had experience of either of these - i.e. instant answer on online application etc etc. I'm looking to Balance transfere about £5K, I have 10K of CC debt across Haliofax, Mint and Tesco.

Thanks

Moggles_2

MinniMe wrote: »

Just read Martin's weekly and saw Sainsbury's 0% deal, then noticed the deal on PO. Has anyone had experience of either of these i.e. instant answer on online application? I'm looking to balance transfer about £5K. I have 10K of CC debt across Halifax, Mint and Tesco.

Most credit decisions are computerised and both Sainsbury's and the Post Office give instant decisions and credit limits to online and telephone applicants, provided that your identity, available credit and so on can be verified electronically via the credit reference agencies, which in turn collate data from public records such as the electoral register.

Note: you cannot transfer balances from Halifax to Sainsbury's as both cards are underwritten by the same bank, HBOS. (You would be trying to pay 'em off with their own money.)

bgarnish

@Moggles.

So would you recommend someone, me, who's just been refused from Virgin for a credit card due to having too many address, I know this is what the lady said on the phone. To apply for a post office credit card online?

B