Best Balance Transfers Discussion Area

Tixy

Barclaycard do some okay cards, better still unlike a lot of lenders if the do decline you for the card you apply for you they'll sometimes suggest alternatives, such as the classic or initial.

You can even do a pre application check with barclays, which doesn't result in a full credit search.

littlemiss22

is this available on their website for online banking? its ok if you dont know. thankyou for all your help though

Tixy

I know you can apply for a card via online banking, but don't know if they do the pre-application soft search option that way, I'd imagine they do but don't bank with them.

Mr_Fishy

To littlemiss22,

You can apply for a Barclaycard via your online banking. I bank with Barclays and have just had a look and there are links within your account to the Barclaycard site. However, they don't appear to offer all the products that are currently avaiable, either that or those presented to me were tailored to my profile.

If you take a look at the Barclaycard website, you will see the whole range. Of those currently available, and given that you only really want the card as back up in an emergency, I would say either the Platinum Purchase or the Platinum Simplicity would be the one to go for.

The difference between the two is the Purchase card has a 0% interest introductory offer on purchases for 14 months, after which it reverts to 18.9%, whereas the Simplicity card has single interest low rate of 7.9% for both purchases and balance transfers.

If you think you will need to use the card in the next 14 months, then go for the one that offer the lowest interest rate (Platinum Purchase), but if you are thinking more long term it would be better to go for the one with the lower rate overall (Platinum Simplicity) - but that's just my opinion and shouldn't be taken as sound financial advice.

Miss_Spendalot_2

jasonwatkins wrote: »

wants to transfer the balance to an interest free card but thinks that the £13k would be too much.

So Sorry for your friends predicament, I would suggest he applies for a credit card to transfer some of his £13k debt so if he did get one that allowed him to at least transfer some of it then it would be something, I have heard people applying for more then 1 card (not at the same time though) and transferring the debt to different cards, at least it will give him some respite to start paying money off of the debt card instead of just interest, I know that applying for credit cards etc ruins your credit worthiness but it seems he is not going to be applying for anything big anytime soon, his priority at the moment is to get rid of some of that debt and start to see some light at the end of the tunnel. I wish him all of the best. And he is lucky to have a friend like you..

jasonwatkins

Miss_Spendalot wrote: »

So Sorry for your friends predicament, I would suggest he applies for a credit card to transfer some of his £13k debt so if he did get one that allowed him to at least transfer some of it then it would be something, I have heard people applying for more then 1 card (not at the same time though) and transferring the debt to different cards, at least it will give him some respite to start paying money off of the debt card instead of just interest, I know that applying for credit cards etc ruins your credit worthiness but it seems he is not going to be applying for anything big anytime soon, his priority at the moment is to get rid of some of that debt and start to see some light at the end of the tunnel. I wish him all of the best. And he is lucky to have a friend like you..

Thankyou

I've known him 35 years so I tend to be almost as stressed as he gets when things like this happen . I've suggested trying to apply for a couple of cards to split the balance but he's not completely sure it'll work. I do tend to think that with the level of debt he has, his credit rating won't be great and, as you say, he won't be applying for anything big for the foreseeable future.

I think if he can get it down to £10k though, he might be better placed to apply for two £5k 0% balance transfer cards as it might make him a slightly better prospect.

LashedOut

Hi everyone. First time post, so please be nice!
I currently have a £1,500 overdraft with Lloyds TSB that I have been maxed out on for ages now. It is costing me £36.94 a month (inc. £17 account charge) just to have it, and I'm not paying it off at all. From reading through various articles on here, I think my best solution would be to get a credit card with 0% on balance transfers, pay off the overdraft and close the account (I have a Classic account with Lloyds for every-day use) then use the £37ish a month to pay off the credit card.
I was going to go for the Barclays Platinum credit card with 22 months at 0%, but now realise it can't be done.

The only alternative I can see is to take the Tesco card with 15 months 0% on spending, use that for day to day purchases, and use my wage in my Current Account to pay off the overdraft. However I'm not sure how good of an idea that is.

Can anyone confirm if this is the best way to go about it? Or can anyone offer any alternative suggestions?

Thanks!

ejc81

LashedOut wrote: »

Hi everyone. First time post, so please be nice!
I currently have a £1,500 overdraft with Lloyds TSB that I have been maxed out on for ages now. It is costing me £36.94 a month (inc. £17 account charge) just to have it, and I'm not paying it off at all. From reading through various articles on here, I think my best solution would be to get a credit card with 0% on balance transfers, pay off the overdraft and close the account (I have a Classic account with Lloyds for every-day use) then use the £37ish a month to pay off the credit card.

The only problem with that is, £37 per month is only £555. Therefore you will not be able to pay off the £1500 credit card balance in 15 months unless you can pay more money per month.

Virgin were offering 20 months at 0% and they let you transfer into a current account, but they charge 4% so £60 on £1500. However 20 months at £37 per month is still only £740 so you really need to look at a way to pay more per month if you want rid of the debt

ejc81

LashedOut wrote: »

The only alternative I can see is to take the Tesco card with 15 months 0% on spending, use that for day to day purchases, and use my wage in my Current Account to pay off the overdraft. However I'm not sure how good of an idea that is.

Just wondering, is your wage currently going into the platinum account or the classic account?

LashedOut

ejc81,
My wage is currently going in to my classic account. A while back I buried my head in the sand and let my finances slip out of my control, but I got my self a basic classic account and started again. I can afford to pay more, but really I'm just looking for a way to stop having to spend £20+ on charges and £17 for an account who's 'benefits' I'm not using. In truth, I only had a platinum account because it gave me the largest overdraft limit. Depending on the length of 0% I can look to free up more money to pay this off.