Best Balance Transfers Discussion Area

gavinburgham

Sorry you also asked for cards with best offers - Virgin Credit Cards is best offer at the moment for 0% Balance Transfers

Moggles_2

kitten wrote: »

My husband and I have credit card debts which we are determined to repay asap. Between us, we have cards with MBNA (him), Halifax (him), Barclaycard (one each), Virgin (me) and Capital One (me). We have never missed a payment or paid late on any of them and we are both in regular work, home-owners, on electoral roll etc.Yesterday I rang round them all and switched the dearest balances onto the Halifax and both Barclaycards at rates of 7.92% and 6.99% respectively.

Congratulations on getting almost all your debts transferred to lower interest rates.
:beer:

... except for £4200 with Virgin which I have nowhere left to transfer to and is being charged at 29.9%. Obviously this is now my priority debt and I should apply for a new card. I applied for a Co-op Bank card but received an instant, automated refusal which has shaken my confidence a bit.

The Co-op deal has a minimum annual salary requirement of £25k. If you meet this requirement, your respective annual incomes in relation to your used and available credit could be one factor, but there are any number of possible reasons for rejection, unfortunately.

I would ideally like a life of balance transfer though if none are likely to accept us I would apply for a 0% short-term one. Can anyone suggest a lob card from a different supplier which might accept us? Or do you know if any of the cards we already hold would accept the other partner for one?

You can switch credit card balances from family, friends or Dave down the pub. You may be asked 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: you cannot transfer balances between cards underwritten by the same bank (this would be like trying to pay 'em off with their own money), so your OH could not shift your Virgin balance to his MBNA card. That said, there's a way round this as MBNA would allow him to route funds via his current account. There's a 4% fee for money transfers though.

Alternatively, there's no shortage of 0% BT offers. Have you considered Egg card? 0% on BTs is currently available to new customers until 1 Mar 2011

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

Moggles_2

kitten wrote: »

I would ideally like a life-of-balance transfer, though if none are likely to accept us, I would apply for a 0% short-term one. Can anyone suggest a LoB card from a different supplier which might accept us?

There's a dearth of decent, life-of-balance cards at the mo and credit limits tend to be on the low side. New Egg Money customers (not to be confused with Egg Card) get 8.9% APR for the life of balances transferred before 1 April 2010. There's no transfer fee, but conditions apply.

http://new.egg.com/visitor/0,,3_78868--View_1636,00.html?refer=PP4

... or do you know if any of the cards we already hold would accept the other partner for one?

Each applicant is scored individually, so the fact that your husband has a Halifax card, for instance, neither helps nor hinders your chances.

The Halifax Easy Rate credit card offers a typical rate of 8.9% APR (variable) on balance transfers.
Caution: this rate is not fixed, it's variable. This means the Hally reserves the right to raise the rate at any time. Also you may not be handed the typical rate. There are no guarntees.

http://www.halifax.co.uk/creditcards/easyrate.asp

mailmos98

I have been a customer of Barclaycard since 1990. As my balance is currently zero, I rang today to close the account.

I was transferred to the "Customer Loyalty Dept" where I was offered a BT rate of 0% until December 2010 with a fee of 1.25% (reduced from 2.5%)

I currently only have a credit limit of £1150 on my Barclaycard (as I have asked for this to be reduced myself over the years). However, with this offer, I've asked for this to be increased, but it will be Monday before this is approved due to the Bank Holiday.

I have today also successfully applied for a Virgin card and got a limit of £4000 with 0% BT's for 16 months.

I have a balance of £6900 on Capital One which I'm currently paying £70 per month in interest. I also have another £7000 debt on a Bank of Scotland card most of which is at 3.9% life of balance. However, I accidentally made a grave error and paid a holiday on this card so about £1600 of the £7000 is being charged at 12%+.

Any suggestions on how to managed this situation would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Mike

mailmos98

I have been a customer of Barclaycard since 1990. As my balance is currently zero, I rang today to close the account.

I was transferred to the "Customer Loyalty Dept" where I was offered a BT rate of 0% until December 2010 with a fee of 1.25% (reduced from 2.5%)

I currently only have a credit limit of £1150 on my Barclaycard (as I have asked for this to be reduced myself over the years). However, with this offer, I've asked for this to be increased, but it will be Monday before this is approved due to the Bank Holiday.

I have today also successfully applied for a Virgin card and got a limit of £4000 with 0% BT's for 16 months.

I have a balance of £6900 on Capital One which I'm currently paying £70 per month in interest. I also have another £7000 debt on a Bank of Scotland card most of which is at 3.9% life of balance. However, I accidentally made a grave error and paid a holiday on this card so about £1600 of the £7000 is being charged at 12%+.

Any suggestions on how to managed this situation would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Mike

kitten

Thanks very much for your help and advice Moggles. It is much appreciated and I will get straight onto it.

Happy New Year to you. Linda

Moggles_2

kitten wrote: »

Thanks very much for your help and advice Moggles. It is much appreciated and I will get straight onto it. Happy New Year to you. Linda

You, too.

Very best
M

longwalks1

Hi

I currently have 2 credit cards, the following:

Post Office (£8,000 limit) with £2,300 outstanding, 0% offer ends 12 Mar 2010

Santander (£6,000 limit) with £3,000 outstanding, 0% offer ends 30 June 2010

I am looking to apply for either 1 or 2 cards to transfer the balances to, I know you cant apply to the same ‘lender’ as what the current cards are with, are there any good deals out there at the moment? I earn a good wage, never defaulted on any payments and have only ever been declined for a card once (Barclaycard, last year as I got my dates of moving mixed up)

Thanks in advance

Moggles_2

mailmos98 wrote: »

I have been a customer of Barclaycard since 1990. As my balance is currently zero, I rang today to close the account. I was transferred to the "Customer Loyalty Dept" where I was offered a BT rate of 0% until December 2010 with a fee of 1.25% (reduced from 2.5%) I currently only have a credit limit of £1150 on my Barclaycard as I have asked for this to be reduced myself over the years.

That's a pity. It can be difficult to get a credit limit reinstated, since credit files do not record the former more generous limits, or differentiate between reduction(s) requested by customers and those imposed by lenders.

However, with this offer, I've asked for this to be increased, but it will be Monday before this is approved due to the Bank Holiday.

Unfortunately, you're unlikely to be handed a sufficient credit limit for your current needs, but there's no harm in asking. Every little helps

Moggles_2

mailmos98 wrote: »

I have a balance of £6900 on Capital One which I'm currently paying £70 per month in interest. ..... I have today successfully applied for a Virgin card and got a limit of £4000 with 0% BTs for 16 months.

Congratulations on getting accepted.
:beer:
Virgin will allow you to transfer up to £3800 from your expensive CapOne card.

I also have another £7000 debt on a Bank of Scotland card most of which is at 3.9% life of balance. However, I accidentally made a grave error and paid a holiday on this card so about £1600 of the £7000 is being charged at 12%+.Any suggestions on how to managed this situation would be appreciated.

This is exactly the poo-trap calculating cc providers expect some customers to fall into and it's one of the main ways they offset the cost of these promotions. Those taking up a life-of-balance offer, are often bombarded with advertising aimed at persuading them to spend on the card as well.

Generally speaking, it's wise to keep special offers on separate cards, as I think you now realise. This is because under the terms of these promotions, monthly repayments are allocated to the low-rate balance(s) first, while other transactions sit on successive monthly statements attracting interest at the standard rate, which is variable. Currently, Bank of Scotland charges you circa 12.9% APR on purchases and by December 2011 this rate may have soared even higher. The only remedy is to pay off the entire balance ASAP either yourself or courtesy of another BT card.

There's a dearth of decent, life-of-balance cards at the mo and credit limits tend to be on the low side. There's no shortage of 0% BT cards though. To maximise the 0% period, 15 months is currently available to new customers from First Direct Gold on BTs made within the first two months. There's a 2.9% BT fee.

http://www2.banking.firstdirect.com/1/2/creditcards/gold-card