Best Balance Transfers Discussion Area

Laura_Figel

Could also be worth it

blitzboy

Haven't quite paid off the new windows and doors as quickly as I'd hoped so applied and got accepted for an RBS card with 13 months 0% interest, with a BT fee of only 1%. Fantastic BT fee for me as 13 months should be more than enough time.

leew

Advice needed if anyone can be bothered!

I owe just over £3000 on a catalogue account, currently paying just over £220 a month (min payment) but £100 or so is interest due to the apr being 30 odd per cent.

I have a couple of credit cards that I don't owe anything on plus one with a 0% balance transfer fee offer which I was hoping to use but since found out you can't on catalogues

Any ideas how I can lesson the impact of having to pay £220 a month with £100 of it being interest?

I was thinking about paying it off with one of my credit cards and then using my other 0% balance transfer fee one and paying the 3% transfer fee.

Any ideas?

scott_lithgows

leew wrote: »

Advice needed if anyone can be bothered!

I owe just over £3000 on a catalogue account, currently paying just over £220 a month (min payment) but £100 or so is interest due to the apr being 30 odd per cent.

I have a couple of credit cards that I don't owe anything on plus one with a 0% balance transfer fee offer which I was hoping to use but since found out you can't on catalogues

Any ideas how I can lesson the impact of having to pay £220 a month with £100 of it being interest?

I was thinking about paying it off with one of my credit cards and then using my other 0% balance transfer fee one and paying the 3% transfer fee.

Any ideas?

Or get a credit card with a purchase deal eg Tesco or M&S and pay it off using that.
Some BT deals can be used but only with cards that allow a SBT (super balance transfer)

leew

scott_lithgows wrote: »

Or get a credit card with a purchase deal eg Tesco or M&S and pay it off using that.
Some BT deals can be used but only with cards that allow a SBT (super balance transfer)

I would get another card however I really have too many and I need to pay it off asap before the next due payment (in a few days)

I thought I could use one of my existing ones although it doesnt have 0% on purchases but i'd transfer the balance from that card to my 0% balance transfer card - hope that makes sense!

I know i'd incur a 3% fee for the balance transfer however i'm not sure what fee I would incur on the purchase card seeing as it's not 0% but i'm pretty sure when added up it wouldn't total 39.7% APR that the catalogue is

grumbler

leew wrote: »

I thought I could use one of my existing ones although it doesnt have 0% on purchases but i'd transfer the balance from that card to my 0% balance transfer card - hope that makes sense!

I don't think that you can use a CC directly to pay your catalog debt.
You'll need to draw cash or (if this card offers this option) to use 'money transfer' to get money to your current account first. This will cost you extra ~3% on the top of the BT fee that you'll pay on the next step.

leew

grumbler wrote: »

I don't think that you can use a CC directly to pay your catalog debt.
You'll need to draw cash or (if this card offers this option) to use 'money transfer' to get money to your current account first. This will cost you extra ~3% on the top of the BT fee that you'll pay on the next step.

Correct, it states can't be used for catalogs amongst a few other others. It does offer money transfer however the fee is 4% which is a bummer.

I have used my 1.5% a mth credit card on purchase's to clear the debt on the catalog and I have immediately used my 0% 12mths balance transfer card and transferred the full amount of that, all gone through ok.

It should work out a bit cheaper in the long run seeing as i've rid myself of the scandalous 39.7% APR.

Happy days. :beer:

jowie

Hi there!

Does anyone know of a good calculator for working out if transferring a balance is a good deal or not? I know there is a calculator on the article page, but it only deals with a single debt and a fixed monthly repayment... I want to work out if I should transfer any of my old cards onto one of these cards, and see if it will save me money in the long run.

Currently I have:

• about £1900 on a Lloyds TSB card (some is at 0%, some is at 15.9%)
• about £2700 on a First Direct card (all at 0% for another 10 months)
• about £6300 on a Barclaycard (lifetime rate of 6.7%)

I can afford to pay off about £500 of debt each month, which is currently split between the three cards. Should I keep things as they are, or switch to new 0% card? In about 4 months time, I will be able to pay off more a month, and I've calculated I can be debt-free in about 18 months. I'd obviously like to save as much on interest as possible!

Thanks

auntyp_2

Hi there! I have a dilemma and am hoping someone has a better answer than the one I currently have.

We are retired, very blessed to be comfortably off and debt free apart from a manageable mortgage. For years we have been in the habit of paying off our cc each month. Our son, who moved to live and work in the far east some years ago teaching english as a foreign language, found himself unable to have a cc because he is not considered a permanent resident either in his first destination, S Korea, or currently in Japan - to resolve this and we gave him a card on our MBNA account to use as a) an emergency source of security and b) a little credit flexibility as the pay is not at all brilliant - he sends us funds towards payments but with difficulty as he lives month to month. Over the years he has accumulated about 8,000 of debt which is on the card (we still clear ours every month) and the interest is overtaking his ability to pay. I have been trying to organise a balance transfer to give him some breathing space to clear it but here is my problem... we currently live in France and although our bank account and MBNA cards are UK accounts no one I have found will allow us to take advantage of a balance transfer. Any ideas for a way around this anyone?

thanks for reading and thinking about this for me

auntyp

sfax

jowie wrote: »

Hi there!

Does anyone know of a good calculator for working out if transferring a balance is a good deal or not? I know there is a calculator on the article page, but it only deals with a single debt and a fixed monthly repayment... I want to work out if I should transfer any of my old cards onto one of these cards, and see if it will save me money in the long run.

Currently I have:

• about £1900 on a Lloyds TSB card (some is at 0%, some is at 15.9%)
• about £2700 on a First Direct card (all at 0% for another 10 months)
• about £6300 on a Barclaycard (lifetime rate of 6.7%)

I can afford to pay off about £500 of debt each month, which is currently split between the three cards. Should I keep things as they are, or switch to new 0% card? In about 4 months time, I will be able to pay off more a month, and I've calculated I can be debt-free in about 18 months. I'd obviously like to save as much on interest as possible!

Thanks

Use an APR calculator to compare them. You can easily compare different deals over different periods by calculating each deal's APR where the handling fee represents the total interest paid.

E.g. a 12 month 0% interest CC with a 3% handling fee is APR equivalent 5.5%. The same deal over 24 months is 2.85% APR