Best Balance Transfers Discussion Area

Tixy

LashedOut wrote: »

. Depending on the length of 0% I can look to free up more money to pay this off.

If you have an overdraft you are in/maxed all the time you might find it fairly hard to get a 0% bt or purchase credit card.

Even if you do watch what the minimum payment % is, some could be higher than the £37 you are currentlly paying. Obviously if you can afford to pay more then thats shouldn't be an issue, you do really need to try to free up more to put towards this debt whether an overdraft or on a credit card.
Does the account have a monthly account fee, is that the £20? - if so you should be able to downgrade to a free account to at least save that money.

If you did go for a tesco credit card you don't need to do the spend on the card option, you can buy sterling travellers cheques at 0% and pay them into your overdraft. The fee is just 1% (I think).

LashedOut

I've just done a few sums, and I can put £150 - £200 a month in to it. So which should I go for? Tesco (and get the club card benefits of doing my shop there anyway) or Virgin (where I can transfer the 1500 straight in to my current account)?

I'm doing this now because, at 24, I'm going to want to start saving a deposit for a house soon.

danski37

Hi folks,

Hoping that some of you canny credit card shufflers will be able to offer some guidance.

I've recently found myself the (less than) proud owner of three Barclaycards, having seen my two Egg cards rebranded.

One of them had a neat 0% offer for six months for existing holders. I've made use of £1200 of that to clear balances from other cards (Virgin and Capital One), but my total limit on that card is £2400, so I'd like to be able to make the most of it.

However my only other outstanding balances - each of around £4K are now on two other Barclaycards. One an ex-Egg card, has a particularly high interest rate and is the priority; the other my old Barclaycard Platinum card is offering the much discussed 6.9% lifetime deal for transfers. I tried switching some of the balance from the former to the latter, but, predictably enough, was knocked back.

I do have an unused limit of £7K on my Capital One card. So my question is this: can I transfer all of the balance off the ex-Egg/Barclaycard (around £4K) and most of the balance off the Barclaycard Platinium (£3K) onto the Capital One card, and then do an immediate switch back to use up the rest of the 0% on the first Barclaycard, and then put the rest on the 6.9% deal on the other one?

Will Capital and Barclaycard allow this?

Any advice and guidance much appreciated...

Cheers,

Danski

nastybutler05

Hi all,

New to the forum so hello.

Im thinking of getting a credit card with a limit of £9k or two that will equal £9k but cant find anywhere that will tell me if i can get a card up to that much. I know that the limit is decided by the bank based on various things but id like to be able to get some sort of indication of whether i could get up to that much.

Reason for the £9k limit is to buy a car and do a balance transfer over to the new card(s) at 0%. Dont know whether most cards have a maximum limit for a balance transfer if anyone knows?

Look forward to any advise.

Cheers
R

dickie211

My first post here and thought I would warn others of this scam as this card is rating highly for long term 0% balance transfers.

First off, the credit limit on this card is £500 for the first six months so a balance transfer (unless lower than this figure) is a non starter.

This effectively reduces the 0% period by 6 months so it is not really 22 months but only 16.

There is no guarantee the credit limit will be increased after 6 months.

Credit rating affects whether you will be succesful in application but has no bearing on the credit limit.

The credit limit is fixed at £500 regardless of your income or financial status.

If you are looking for a quick 0% balance transfer on a sum larger than £500 then steer clear of this card as you wont have it for at least 6 months.

Tixy

nastybutler05 wrote: »

Hi all,

New to the forum so hello.

Im thinking of getting a credit card with a limit of £9k or two that will equal £9k but cant find anywhere that will tell me if i can get a card up to that much. I know that the limit is decided by the bank based on various things but id like to be able to get some sort of indication of whether i could get up to that much.

Reason for the £9k limit is to buy a car and do a balance transfer over to the new card(s) at 0%. Dont know whether most cards have a maximum limit for a balance transfer if anyone knows?

Look forward to any advise.

Cheers
R

Well as you know you'll be assessed by the bank based on your financial position, how much you earn, how much you owe in existing debts, how much credit you have access to etc.
As a rough guide in the current climate people find it difficult to get new credit that will take them to over 50% of their annual income.
In addition to that a lot of card providers now tend to start with much lower limits than they used to and then if an account is run well then consider increasing the limits.

It sounds like you already have a card with a £9k limit that you intend to buy the car on and then do the transfer to a new card or 2, is that right?
If you do have an existing card with more than a £9k limit, and assuming you had no other debt, I'd guess you'd need to be earning in excess of £40k to be very likely to be successful in new card with a high enough limit (as well as having a spotless credit file).

Most card providers do not have a blanket maximum balance transfer amount, as long as the limit is high enough usually you can transfer up to 90% of that limit (95% with some cards).

Tixy

dickie211 wrote: »

My first post here and thought I would warn others of this scam as this card is rating highly for long term 0% balance transfers.

First off, the credit limit on this card is £500 for the first six months so a balance transfer (unless lower than this figure) is a non starter.

This effectively reduces the 0% period by 6 months so it is not really 22 months but only 16.

There is no guarantee the credit limit will be increased after 6 months.

Credit rating affects whether you will be succesful in application but has no bearing on the credit limit.

The credit limit is fixed at £500 regardless of your income or financial status.

If you are looking for a quick 0% balance transfer on a sum larger than £500 then steer clear of this card as you wont have it for at least 6 months.

There are people who post on this forum who have been given higher initial credit limits than £500 for this 22months bt halifax card.

dickie211

Tixy wrote: »

There are people who post on this forum who have been given higher initial credit limits than £500 for this 22months bt halifax card.

When I rang to activate the card, the advisor read from a script which included a statement to the effect of the credit limit is fixed to £500 for new cardholders and would be reviewed after 6 months. Why would they not just say I did not meet the requirements for a higher credit limit if this was the case? The time limit for transfers is 90 days so the card is useless for purchases and/or transfers

I am in the higher tax bracket and have excellent credit status with debt less than 30% of annual income so my financial status cannot be the reason for the low limit.

I receive offers of pre-approved credit limits in excess of £10k regularly in the post and by email but they rarely offer more than 12 months for 0% BT's.

The reason I took this card was because it is rated no 3 on this site with 22 months free. I have the top two cards already and they are the cards I am looking to transfer from.

I only made this post to warn others as I understand each application makes a dent on your credit rating. I applied for an alternative which was declined and I assume this is because I have just taken the new card with Halifax rather than any financial reason and to prevent people from getting several new cards all at once in a short period of time. I don't know how long this lasts for.

dickie211

jojo2211 wrote: »

I'm not sure if it was a different Halifax 22 mth 0% interest, but I signed up for it and I was instantly accepted and I was given a credit limit just under £3000

I guess something has affected my rating that I am not aware of.

I have a tenant that I recently started to rent to that was declared bankrupt last year. I wonder if it has had a negative effect because of the common postal address?

udydudy

dickie211 wrote: »

I guess something has affected my rating that I am not aware of.

I have a tenant that I recently started to rent to that was declared bankrupt last year. I wonder if it has had a negative effect because of the common postal address?

Unless the person is financially associated it should not affect your credit file. Though your case of £500 credit limit may not necessarily be only because of your credit file. £500 credit limit is not a halifax standard practice for new card holders as lots of us have got higher initial limits including in five figures.

But we have encountered similar situation where in my OH when she opened a current account with halifax she was given a low measly £250 O/D for the promotional period (i think 3 months interest free period for authorised o/d). She had requested £3000 as she was transferring her account from another bank and she had a similar o/d limit there. Once the 3 months were up she was reviewed and then voila she gets the £3000 limit but the promotional period is over!!. I can think of no other reason than that it was simply a matter of low limit during promo and then increase it. not that it mattered but the problem was that we prefer a high O/d to cover our monthly expenses just incase one of us(or both) loses their jobs and it takes time to get the money out of other sources of savings to pay for direct debits.

Same has happened to me with co-operative recently. will keep you guys posted once the promotional period is up. I expect to get what i asked (existing with other bank £4000, requested £4000 got £500).

Banks are a law unto themselves anyway, they refuse to give you a direct answer as to the reason for their underwriting decision other than simply saying check your credit file!!!.. FSA should insist the banks are legally bound to answer every decision that is questioned by the customer with precise details. This is not commercially sensitive stuff and the customer has the right to know. I am not saying that customer has a right to credit limits but surely has a right to know the correct reason.
Sorry for the long rant....