Best Balance Transfers Discussion Area

VeeW

I have made a terrible mistake. I transferred a balance to a card at 0% that there was a small balance on not realizing that the company who charged a fee of £41.86 for this 0% actually will not be providing this service as they clear the cheapest debt first, therefore thru'out they'll be charging me interest on the original balance - I THINK! Reason I'm unsure is that this balance is not on current statement but is due to be on the same statement as the balance transfer. Am I in trouble? I've paid this balance today before the statement has even been issued but don't know if that counts. I'm extremely worried. can anyone advise/put my mind at rest?

johninessex

Hi
I'm just wondering if it's sensible to make a 0% balance transer for a card which already has a balance
I owe £3300 to Virgin CC and £3800 to Lloyds TSB. I have a £7350 limit with lloyds TSB and was thinking of doing a BT from virgin to lloyds as they are offering a 0% on BT. BUT I will be paying off the BT money first, so will I actually be saving any money. I don't know how to do the maths.
My monthly virgin rate is 1.873
My monthly Lloyds rate is 1.38
It will cost me £100 to transfer the balance at 3%

can anyone help with the maths...
thanks

sallyjones_3

James thanks for advice

jamesd

VeeW, what is the card? Different cards have different terms. Also check how the balance transfer fee is handled, if that was charged before the purchase it might block use of the payment for the purchase and put it towards the balance transfer fee instead.

For all cards, starting in the new year your repayment money will first go to clearing off the highest interest rate money. So at worst you'll pay interest on it for only six months.

Best bet is to give them a call. No need to worry during the call, they are used to this sort of thing and will be able to tell you exactly what to do if you describe your problem as you described it here.

jamesd

johninessex, do you have an overdraft facility you could use temporarily to clear the whole Lloyds balance, then balance transfer to Lloyds? After clearing them, Virgin will probably give you a balance transfer offer and you can use that to clear the overdraft.

Instead of an overdraft you could get an Egg Money card and transfer a balance from that to Lloyds as well as from Virgin. Egg Money lets you withdraw in credit balances to your current account so that will clear the overdraft.

Iand1

Just logged onto Virgin online banking, 2 new offers today.

0% till April 2011 on balance transfers at 2.98% fee

0% till April 2011 on money transfers at 4% fee

So thats a maximum of ten months at 0%. Not bad I thought..... now if only the fee was lower..................

jamesd

Iand1, nice existing customer offer there.

marshyrob, MBNA will pay directly into your bank account with a 4% fee. If you have an Egg Money card you can do a balance transfer from MBNA to that and pay a 2.98% fee instead, then withdraw the credit balance from Egg Money to your current account.

You get the money then when the deal is coming to an end you apply for another balance transfer deal and transfer the balance to the new deal to keep the 0% rate. Or you transfer to a low cost life of balance deal. Or if you can't get card deals you try a personal loan instead. At present it's reasonable to expect to get unsecured credit that combined is about half of your annual income. So for repeat deals you'd want to try to borrow no more than a quarter of your before tax income to be fairly sure that you could get a replacement deal.

No need to get a loan first.

The new job may temporarily restrict your ability to get good balance transfer deals. No harm to try a couple of applications to see how you get on, though.

rolo1_2

I have £4700 Balance on Virgin and need to shift it as 0% is running out soon. I used to have a Barclaycard but closed it approx 9 months ago.

Is there any point applying to Barclaycard again??.

I also noticed RBS have a good 0% rate. Anyone any idea what there approval rate is and average credit limit?.
My credit rating is very good.
Oh and I also have a Post Office Credit card, Limit £4000 - Balance Nil. They don't have any good BT offers, so would you suggest that I close it before applying for a new card?
I also have a Tesco CC for general use and balance is paid of in full each month

I've got in a bit of a flap over this, as I don't want to pay interest (I know, who does!) and want to get this next (and hopefully last) BT right, and not blow it by applying and getting rejected.

Any advice received with Thanks..............

donaldvonk

From the Santander site the balance transfer for the Zero would now appear to be only 6 Months.

I'm guessing this is new considering the MSE article states 12 months and is updated regularly.

CannyJock

donaldvonk wrote: »

From the Santander site the balance transfer for the Zero would now appear to be only 6 Months.

I'm guessing this is new considering the MSE article states 12 months and is updated regularly.

Is showing as 6 months on the stoozing site http://www.stoozing.com/0fees.php (sponsored and supported by MSE)