Best Balance Transfers Discussion Area

Moggles_2

britishboy wrote: »

I currently have 2 credit cards: 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 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).

To maximise the 0% period, 16 months is currently available from Virgin on BTs made in the first 60 days. A 2.98% BT fee applies.

Note: minimum monthly payments are the lowest in the UK, so I'd set aside enough per month to clear the balance by the end of the 16 month promotion

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

longwalks1

Thanks Moggles, have read a lot of your replies very helpful, I had the virgin money card before my post office/santader ones and cleared the Virgin card and closed it in April 2009, I'm guessing there a minimum period I have to be away from them before I can re-apply?

Any other cards worth looking at? Hopefully this last shuffle round will give me enough time to clear all debt, I pay off £200 to each card every month so meeting minimum

Thanks again Moggles and happy 2010

Moggles_2

britishboy wrote: »

Thanks Moggles, have read a lot of your replies very helpful, I had the Virgin money card before my Post Office/Santander ones and cleared the Virgin card and closed it in April 2009, I'm guessing there's a minimum period I have to be away from them before I can re-apply?

No experience personally (I like my Virgin card too much to close the account down), but feedback here suggests six months.

Any other cards worth looking at? Hopefully this last shuffle round will give me enough time to clear all debt. I pay off £200 to each card every month so meeting minimum. Thanks again Moggles and happy 2010.

Do you bank with NatWest or the Royal Bank of Scotland? A 0% for 15 months BT card is available to existing bank account customers at the mo. (HSBC has a similar deal for current account holders, but customer service is not so good, IME)

If you're not eligible for the above, the Halifax Plus card is a straight forward, no-strings deal which is not linked to your other cards.
13 months at 0% is currently available to new customers from the Hally on balance transfers made in the first 90 days. There's a 3% BT fee.
The minimum monthly payment is just 1% of the balance shifted.

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

mitcho_uk

Hi,

I was wondering if anybody can help me with the query below? I am trying to find away to raise a little extra cash for a mortgage deposit.

I currently have a Tesco credit card with a limit of £3k and a balance of just over £1k. I am looking to get a virgin card on 0% for 16 mths.

Once I have the Virgin card and know what my credit limit is, providing the limit is enough would it be possible to arrange a balance transfer for 3k from the Tesco card even though the balance is only £1k. This would effectively put the tesco card in credit by £2k, which i could then transfer into my current account and avoid any cash transfer interest charges.

I have worked it out and I can easily afford the monthly payments to clear the 3k in 16 mths, Does this make sense? Is it a bad idea?

Thanks

Dan

Poolie

I don't think Tesco will allow you to transfer to a bank account so the answer is you can only transfer the £1000 + trailing interest. If you transfer the £3k then Tesco may charge you for having a credit balance. I answered this on another thread for you last week.

Moggles_2

mitcho_uk wrote: »

I am trying to find away to raise a little extra cash for a mortgage deposit. I currently have a Tesco credit card with a limit of £3k and a balance of just over £1k. I am looking to get a Virgin card on 0% for 16 mths. Once I have the Virgin card and know what my credit limit is, provided that the limit is enough, would it be possible to arrange a balance transfer for 3k from the Tesco card even though the balance is only £1k?This would effectively put the Tesco card in credit by £2k, which i could then transfer into my current account and avoid any cash transfer interest charges.

I agree with Poolie. I wouldn't risk putting a credit card in credit. Credit cards - other than Egg Money - are not designed to carry a positive balance.

Most lenders are relaxed about modest sums that arise temporarily (due to a refund, for instance, or making a one-off manual payment too close to your direct debit payment date). That said, those same lenders may take a different view if your BT calculations were out by a four figure sum, as many forum users have discovered the hard way.

Moggles_2

P.S. A few rather special cards, like Virgin, will allow you to transfer an overdraft to them, (in other words, transfer cash from the credit card to your current account), at balance transfer rates. A 4% handling fee applies, as I think you realise, but there are no other charges for the first 16 months.

Once the card arrives and you have confirmation of your credit limit, you can request your money transfer. I'd do this when you call to activate. There's a dedicated, Freefone number. (Btw, you don't have to be using an overdraft facility to request a money transfer.)

Virgin allows you to borrow up to 95% of your credit limit and the money arrives in your bank account in about 6 days

jfl981

Moggles wrote: »

Virgin periodically issues credit card cheques, which can be paid directly into your current account. Obviously, cheques take a little longer to clear than if you were to request a money transfer over the phone (when the funds arrive in your bank account in about 6 days.)

Unfortunately, the cheques cannot be ordered and you never know when the next ones will turn up in the post. If you've been sent some, check Ts & Cs carefully, as these tend to vary with each promotion

Moggles, thanks for your reply (quoted above) to my post at the bottom of page 141 of this thread. Something to note in case you or others are interested that I've discovered now having applied for and received the virgin money cc.

You can order credit card cheques from virgin for this card at any time. This is actually spelled out in the T&C booklet for the card. All you have to do is call, and in fact I received some automatically with the opening of the account.

Having received these cheques, one of them can then be used to put money directly into your bank account at 0% for 16 months by writing them out to yourself. This involves the 2.98% handling fee for credit card cheques rather than the 4% fee for a money transfer or 'super balance transfer', saving you 1.02%. This was confirmed by customer service over the phone, by an agent after she checked with her supervisor.

The only drawback to this approach, therefore, is the possible extra day or two it takes for the cheque to clear. (I didn't go through with this in the end as I was able to pay off my loan with cash, and thought it better to eliminate interest completely rather than pay a handling fee to prolong the debt even if it would be at 0%.) Therefore it seems to me this would be the absolute best route to take if looking for a 'super balance transfer' as it effectively achieves this with a 2.98% fee, and with the 0% for 16 months--well, overall no other card can match those numbers for a money transfer, am I right?

I PM'd MSE Dan about this initially but he's never responded, so I'm not sure this will ever be incorporated into the main article even though I think it should be, if we're going to be serious about moneysaving!

As for me, I'm hanging onto the card for now. 0% at 16 months (well now it would be 14-15 months) seems like a good option to have and I'm thinking about stoozing; however with the handling fee--even at 2.98%--it is difficult to decide on the best place to put it to make this really worthwhile. Any suggestions? I have just over a month more to make up my mind. The amount I would have to play with is 95% of £13,200, but one also has to consider the effect on my credit score of going from £0 of credit card debt to over £12,000. What would you do?

nichmcg

I have just posted this but in the wonrg place so have moved it for extra help, thanks.

Hello I am new to this.

Could someone tell me, can my husband get a 0% balance transfer card then have a balance transferred form one of my cards?

Also is ir best to get the card and then ask for a balance transfer or to apply for the card saying it;s for a balance transfer purposes?

I appreciate your help.

Moggles_2

jfl981 wrote: »

Moggles, thanks for your reply (quoted above) to my post at the bottom of page 141 of this thread.

Thanks for your feedback about Virgin credit card cheques.

0% at 16 months (well now it would be 14-15 months) seems like a good option to have and I'm thinking about stoozing; however with the handling fee - even at 2.98% - it is difficult to decide on the best place to put it to make this really worthwhile. Any suggestions? I have just over a month more to make up my mind. The amount I would have to play with is 95% of £13,200, but one also has to consider the effect on my credit score of going from £0 of credit card debt to over £12,000. What would you do?

Stoozing was feasible up to 15 months ago. In the present climate, unless you have an offset mortgage or fixed-rate savings accounts taken out before interest rates dived, there's no money to be made from these introductory deals, IMO.

This calculator should help you estimate how much your profit/loss is likely to be with Virgin and any other deals that come your way.
http://www.stoozing.com/calc.php

Existing customer offers are sometimes a better bet. If you're prepared to negotiate over the phone, some providers are prepared to waive BT fees to retain business :cool:

The Virgin deal is still an inexpensive way to borrow funds in the short term and, in the current climate, is probably quite a good hedge against inflation. If you're intent on making a few quid using credit cards though, the 0%-on-purchases cards are probably the way to go. There are no associated admin fees, so these offers are truely interest-free