Best Balance Transfers Discussion Area

thenudeone

moneysaving_help_wanted wrote: »

unsure where to post this. basically i have a loan at a credit union (northern ireland) with a 4.5k balance approx. i have a credit card with a 4.5k limit with only a £700 balance. would it be possible somehow to transfer a 'credit card balance' to a new card for like £5k, pay off the credit union loan and thereby avoid interest for the duration of the interest free period of the new card?

thanks

Only if:
a) the credit union will accept a credit card for payment (very unlikely)
OR
b) the credit card offers a transfer to your bank account (often called money transfer or funds transfer) which you can use to pay off the loan. MBNA-issued cards (including virgin, amazon etc) offer this, sometimes with a 0% promotion, although these are usually reserved for those with good credit records.

BUT after the promotion ends you'll be paying the standard interest rate on the remaining balance, which is usually higher than the rate for purchases and may be much higher than your credit union loan is costing you. There will also be a fee (often 4%) so unless you can pay off most of the £4.5k balance you'd probably be better off staying with the credit union.

thenudeone

Footy68 wrote: »

is it normal for Barclaycard to request sort code and bank account number to complete the process (they say it's to complete credit checks) but I never give out my sort code and account number .... am I just being too cautious or is this common practice

CC companies usually request details of your main bank account for credit checking purposes, and it's another piece of information an identity fraudster would need to know in order to make a false application.

As long as the site begins https: and points to the genuine barclaycard site, you should be okay.

Do you never pay anyone by cheque or direct debit? You sort code and account number are known to all of these people.

thenudeone

Mr_Fishy wrote: »

I transferred a balance from one card to another on a 12 month 0% promotional rate. Throughout December I continued to use the card for standard purchases, which has an interest rate of 17.9%. There was no outstanding balance on this card before then as I pay it off in full at the end of the period.

At the end of the month, and before the Payment Due By date on the December statement, I then paid off all the new spending as normal plus a sizeable wedge against the balance transfer amount.

The first advice is never to put purchases on a 0% balance transfer card, because if you do, you will always pay interest on the purchases from the day you spend til the day it's paid off.
You'd be much better using a different card for purchases and paying it off in full every month, then you will never pay interest on purchases. If you don't have another card but have money in your current account, just use a debit card (unless the item is over £100 and you want s75 protection)

To answer your question - the payment will be used to reduce the balance of the highest interest rate items first, which is the purchases in this case. On the next statement you will be charged interest on the purchase balance from the date of the previous statement til the date of the payment, plus interest on any new purchases from the date of each one til the statement date. Interest will continue to be charged on those purchases until you pay them off.

angiesavemoney

Hi, just some advice, i have had an 0% offer from Barclaycard for a balance transfer, i have some money on this card already due to an existing offer coming to an end. could i transfer this amount to another card which has no balance on and then transfer back to Barclaycard so that i can us the offer.

I have looked at their terms and conditions and could not find anything that would relate to this or says i can't do this.

AMILLIONDOLLARS

Why not contact Barclays and ask to be put on the offer you want? Someone I know had a barclaycard which was paid off but had not cancelled the card, they had balances on other cards, they applied for Barclay's 0% for 24 months offer and got it, so sometimes they can be flexible, so its worth asking

AMD

Austin00

If anyone has good credit history and is worthy to apply for 0% balance I would definitely go ahead with it.Thanks to MSE Dan for this useful post.

DBR57

Hi all, another newcomer here with a question, I have done a balance transfer to Barclay card with the 0% interest, I just want to use this card to purely pay off what I owe and nothing else, is it necessary to 'activate' the new card just to pay back.

Sorry! but I really am clueless...thankyou

udydudy

DBR57 wrote: »

......... balance transfer to Barclay card with the 0% interest, I just want to use this card to purely pay off what I owe and nothing else, is it necessary to 'activate' the new card just to pay back............

IMHO you would be better off activating the card and then if you want to avoid spending on it you can just put the card away or be more drastioc and cut the card up.

This is safer than not activating the card and then the card company using that as an excuse to not put the promotional offer on it citing soem T&Cs. better to be safe than sorry. along with the hassle of arguing with the lender at that point in time.

DBR57

udydudy wrote: »

IMHO you would be better off activating the card and then if you want to avoid spending on it you can just put the card away or be more drastioc and cut the card up.

This is safer than not activating the card and then the card company using that as an excuse to not put the promotional offer on it citing soem T&Cs. better to be safe than sorry. along with the hassle of arguing with the lender at that point in time.

I was wondering if there would be any implications......thanks for the advice

LauraLeah91104

im trying to get savy with my finances, but with a poor credit history this is proving rather difficult. i know my credit profile with experian is poor as ive checked it after i got knocked back for a argos card online.
I have a vanquis credit card with an awful apr of about 50%, and a capital 1 one which is less traumatic at around 27%.
The vanquis is £500 limit and cap 1 is £1000, both almost maxed out . i always pay more than minimum payment, normally do minimum payment added with the approxiamted interest round up to the nearest £10.
My vanquis min payments are around £16 but normally pay £35 and cap one is around £20 but pay £50.
would i be better lowering my cap one payment to closer to min payment and use money to up vanquis payment, thus thinking more money been paid off most expensive debt first?