Best Balance Transfers Discussion Area

jamesd

desco, one approach if you spend £300 or more per month on things you can buy with a credit card is to get a 0% for purchases card. That will avoid the need to pay a balance transfer fee because all you do is spend on the new card and pay the amount you spend off the old one. Once you've spent the £1,000 on the new card yo stop this because you'll have transferred enough to the 0% for spending balance to eliminate the Barclaycard balance.

If you don't spend £300 or so a month then a balance transfer card would probably be cheaper, with a 3% fee.

kolin_2

okay, need help on picking a balance transfer card, and how much i can transfer....
I have a HSBC credit card £5,500 limit (closed by HSBC, can no longer use this), 24.9% APR, min payments/mont ~£120, actual payments made/month ~£140.
1)Can I actually transfer the balance (seeing as though the credit account is closed) ?
2)If so, bearing in mind that 80% of the balance (i'm guessing) is cash, and 20% purchases, can I transfer cash and purchase, or the purchase only?
3)Which card can i get? (eg, is the one i have an MBNA or what?)

jamesd

You can transfer the balance. You can't choose to do only the cash or only the non-cash part, the payment order for the card determines that and cash is usually last. HSBC is an independent bank and not part of the MBNA set. Virgin would be one candidate.

Also worth phoning HSBC to verify with then that a normal balance transfer to the card will work. It's not the sort of thing you want to leave to general rules.

byebyedebt

kolin wrote: »

2)If so, bearing in mind that 80% of the balance (i'm guessing) is cash, and 20% purchases, can I transfer cash and purchase, or the purchase only?

It doesn't matter how the original debt was formed. If its 5K in total, and you pay 5K its paid off. If you are paying less than the whole card balance, payments will be allocated as per normal HSBC allocations. You can transfer Virgin / MBNA to HSBC. You cant transfer M&S to HSBC as HSBC run the M&S card (or did).

However, just something to think about. If you get a virgin card, you will pay a card fee of 2.8% of every pound you transfer, although you will get 0% for a year, but after that the current typical rate for balance transfers is 21.9%. After paying 2.8% andling you will be effectivly about the same. Be warned that one late payment will result in penalties and loss of the interest free deal. Virgin regularly review and put up rates. If you want to risk paying more in the long run go ahead!

Meanwhile, although the HSBC card is closed as long as you pay the minimum you can't be forced to pay it off. If you could raise your payments, and pay as soon as the statement arrives you could save a small fortune.

jamesd

Just upping the payments isn't the way to go in this case unless you can clear the balance in less than three months. Better to transfer and then go with another transfer in a year or fifteen months if you still need that. It'll be cheaper than continuing with the 24.9% rate.

mlynarf

TheDan wrote: »

For the CC companies it's all about affordability.

Yes, thank you - you prompted me to remember I also downplayed my salary because I've recently changed to an hourly rate and got a bit ditzy and I also thought 'credit card payments' included my full balance payments which I now remember it doesn't

Letter hasn't arrived yet but I think I'll phone them tomorrow just to see what they say.

Thanks both for your comments.

sandira

Does anyone know if there's any more CC providers of 0% BT with no fee other than Santander / A&L? Thanks, Sandira

Henny_Penny

Hi I'd like a bit of advice we have just done a balance transfer for 2600, but I'm now thinking we should pay this straight off, which would clear us out but leave us with no debt apart from our mortgage.I have set up a standing order to our savings account, this money comes from DS rent, If we don't pay off credit card I will have to use this money to pay CC, which is o.k at the mo but he is due a major op and will not be earning money for a couple months. So are we better off paying off the card and Maybe not paying into our saving while he's out of work or struggling to pay the card payments with the little spare cash we have?

jamesd

sandira, none. A 0% for purchases card may be an option but if you're paying lots of interest it is likely to be better to accept the balance transfer fee.

Henny Penny, it would be imprudent to pay it off:

1. You've already paid the fee and I'm assuming you are now at 0% interest for some months. You'd just be throwing away the fee you've already paid.
2. You can make some money by putting it into a savings account and recover some of the fee that way.
3. The operation and loss of earnings suggests that it's more sensible to keep the money to hand now you have it, because there's no certainty that you'd get another offer later.

Given the operation I'd be strongly inclined to cut back payments to minimum payment plus one Pound and accumulate as much as possible in savings accounts. You'll pay some avoidable interest but that beats not having money available when you need it. Just a cost for having the funds available to you, worth paying for a while.

You can take care of higher payments once the op is over and things are stable again.

The extra Pound is because many credit card companies report whether you make only minimum payments. This can be taken as a sign of financial difficulties. You can avoid that and probably improve your credit rating by making the extra Pound payment.

max7

Not a gripe, whinge, moan or question: just a simple thumbs up...

Recently had to put a wadge of money (£2k+) on our existing credit card and had no immediate way of repaying it.

Read Martin's advice page on credit card loans (http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/plastic-loans) and opted for a 0% card deal to help save some cash.

Chose a Natwest platinum card as it appeared to be one of the best deals. Having not applied for a new card for a few years, was amazed at how quick and easy the whole application process is now!

Balance now transferred, one-off transfer fee paid and a number of clear months to pay the balance off. Natwest would have let us set up a DD, but only for the minimum payment, not a specified amount...so have set up a standing order from our bank account so that we'll make a regular fixed payment (and avoid any unwanted 'missed payment' fees!!)....

Quick, easy, money saving. Sorted!