Best Balance Transfers Discussion Area

molley

BadgerFace wrote: »

hi there,

I just got a HSBC BT card with 15 months, only it also says on the promotional rate box that cash advances are 0% for 15 months also. I've not come across this before and am wondering whether to just use it to get cash out the machine as opposed to BT'ing it around to withdraw. Has anyone done this?

Bummer that you need to have an HSBC Current a/c and dump a minimum in to it every month . Might be worth trying for a current a/c and shifting my income to them from Santander .

Moggles_2

BadgerFace wrote: »

I've just got a HSBC BT card with 15 months, only it also says on the promotional rate box that cash advances are 0% for 15 months also. I've not come across this before and am wondering whether to just use it to get cash out the machine as opposed to BT'ing it around.

Are you sure? I've not seen this advertised anywhere and an offer as exceptional as that would have attracted lots of comment here, surely.

Using a credit card to borrow cash from ATMs is a bad idea. Not only are you charged a high rate of interest from the date of the transaction plus handling fees, the payments you make afterwards are allocated to other transactions first, leaving cash withdrawals trapped on the card attracting interest.

As a general rule, I would avoid mixing cash advances and BTs on a credit card, except as a very last resort.

If you must withdraw cash, it would be better to put all your cash advances on one card, which you reserve entirely for cash transactions. That way you would be able to repay these higher-rate transactions without having to pay off the entire balance

BadgerFace_2

I agree with the above, but it does quite clearly say on the T&C's that the 15 month period applies to both BT's & Cash Advances. I may call them, as I don't want to get interest on the account, makes the card useless!

Moggles_2

BadgerFace wrote: »

I agree with the above, but it does quite clearly say on the T&Cs that the 15 month period applies to both BTs & cash advances. I may call them, as I don't want to get interest on the account, makes the card useless!

Absolutely.

Sorry I can't explain this, despite holding an HSBC card in the recent past.

Quite a few balance transfer CC providers [eg. Barclaycard, Capital One, Citi, HBoS, RBS] issue 0% credit card cheques periodically (which I suppose you could class as a cash advance) but HSBC is not known for this.

Please let us know how you get on.
M

rmhvr6

Thanks Moggles. I have another barclaycard which is a platinum, and I also bank with Barclays. I have looked at those tips you suggest, but can't really see anything outstanding. Perhaps Virgin considered I had too much credit, however I don't have any store cards, no loans apart from a manageable mortgage and a reasonable income. My outstanding credit is around 6 1/2 K and I haven't defaulted on payment and I normally pay more than the minumun per month! Blooming annoying! Any further recommendtations would be gratefully received.

Guapito

I have a Lloyds Platinum Card which is coming to the end of it's 0% Balance transfer and intended to transfer the calace to my MBNA Card. A few months back (January) they were offering me 0% to transfer balances online but foolishly I decided to wait until this month to get an extra 2 months. When I went online, a note on my account told me to ring then to get a "good deal".
When I rang them they went thru the usual security procedures then informed me that currently they could not offer me a balance transfer, nowt, zilch and to try in a few weeks!
I asked them why this was as I have a credit limit of £7800 and am £26 in credit and that my circumstances haven't changed but all the agen could say was "sorry but that's whats on the system here".
I told the agent that I have always paid all my bills on time, have never defaulted any payments and have a mortagge and above-average income and found it odd that they could not offer me anything. She said MBNA had done a recent review and decided not to offer me anything. I mentioned that only 2 months previous they were offering me 0% but all she said "sorry but that's what is says here. Try in a few weeks".

No I don't know what to do. Through my Lloyds Premier account I can access my credit file anytime I like and did so a few weeks out of curiosity and it gave me a very good credit scoring.

Any ideas?

lucy604

woofwoofwoof wrote: »

I know you can't balance transfer between cards owned by the same company so who should I avoid when applying for a balance transfer FROM a Halifax Credit Card. Thanks for all your help.

Best at the moment is Barclaycard 15m, also if you copy this link with www. (I can not post links yet) you will get £30 of House of Fraser vouchers as well

barclaycard.co.uk/landing/platinum600em b.html

CannyJock

Guapito wrote: »

I have a Lloyds Platinum Card which is coming to the end of it's 0% Balance transfer and intended to transfer the calace to my MBNA Card. A few months back (January) they were offering me 0% to transfer balances online but foolishly I decided to wait until this month to get an extra 2 months.

Is that the introductory offer that's only valid for 60 days from opening the account?

Guapito

CannyJock wrote: »

Is that the introductory offer that's only valid for 60 days from opening the account?

No, it was a note on my account. ALSO, I had to ring them up back in Jan as I had lost my card and they offered it to me over the phones as well.

Moggles_2

rmhvr6 wrote: »

Thanks, Moggles. I have another Barclaycard which is a platinum and I also bank with Barclays. I have looked at those tips you suggest, but can't really see anything outstanding. Perhaps Virgin considered I had too much credit, however I don't have any store cards, no loans apart from a manageable mortgage and a reasonable income. My outstanding credit is around 6 1/2 K and I haven't defaulted on payment and I normally pay more than the minumun per month! Blooming annoying! Any further recommendtations would be gratefully received.

Have you considered Halifax? 13 months 0% on balances transfers made in the first 90 days of account opening is currently available to new customers. There's a 3% handling charge

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