Best Balance Transfers Discussion Area

Silaqui

Hi everybody.
I was wondering about everybody's opinions really. I have 2 cc's.

I have an A&L card, with a debt of about £2,100 and credit limit of £3000. The minimum payment is usually around £50, but I tend to pay £100 a month off (as much as I can afford). APR16.9%, monthly interest 2.2%

The other is a Barclaycard, which is clear, but has a credit limit of just £330. I've had this card for ages and can't find any of the original bumff, but it says on the front that the purchase annual rate is 24.9%, and the cash annual rate is 27.9%.

I have applied for a 0% balance transfer card, but doubt that I will get it. (For some reason my credit seems to be really low, even though I have never missed a repayment and am a reasonable earner).

I have looked at the Barclaycard loophole article, which looks really good and would save me a bit of money, but do you think they would be willing to take a BT of such a large amount on a card with a relatively low limit?

Katie789

I hope this makes sense...I am considering applying for a Virgin Card, mainly as in about 2 months time I will need to pay £1000 of a graduate overdraft (currently still interest free) back to Natwest and haven't got the spare cash to do pay it myself at the moment.

I currently have a tesco creditcard that was issued Sept 07 with a limit of £4000 which has a balance of around £3500.

I also have a hideous Aqua creditcard with a limit of £1600 but only a balance of around £400 which I'm trying to pay off asap (I can't transfer this to tesco as can only balance transfer to 90% of credit limit)

Over 2 years ago I got into a bit of a mess when I graduated and ended up with missed payments across several accounts. I've no defaults and these missed payments were Jan-March 2006.

Will I be likely to get a virgin card? I'm currently earning around £24k and have been at my current address about a year and a half.

Also I know that you can balance transfer storecards, but could I balance transfer a Next directory account to a 0% cc. I owe £500 on it but have a limit of £3600- should I ask them to reduce this?

Thanks

Silaqui

Actually saying that - I have just range Barclays and they said that although they can't increase my credit limit, they could take £290 of the debt at the lower rate.

Would this be worth doing? It would mean having different payments again which I wanted to avoid, but I would benefit from the lower rate even just on some of the balance.

I suppose I could keep paying it off, and then keep transfering more and more over as I pay it off? Would that work?

Moggles_2

Originally Posted by katie789
Will I be likely to get a Virgin card? I'm currently earning around £24k and have been at my current address about a year and a half?

Are you on the electoral roll at your current address?

Moggles_2

Silaqui wrote: »

I have just rung Barclays and they said that although they can't increase my credit limit, they could take £290 of the debt at the lower rate.
Would this be worth doing? It would mean having different payments again which I wanted to avoid, but I would benefit from the lower rate even just on some of the balance. I suppose I could keep paying it off and then keep transferring more over? Would that work?

Well, you haven't been using your Barclaycard lately. If you take up this offer, there's always the possibility of an increased credit limit, 6 months down the line, when you have built up a good payment history. I would wait for the outcome of your recent credit card application though, before you make a decision

Silaqui

Ok - so if I wait and see what happens with the 0% one, obviously if that gets accepted I'll go with it.

If not, would I be better off financially to have some of the debt (even if it's just £300's worth) on the lower interest card?

Obviously the overall interest on the debt would be lower,but would they take longer to pay off as I would be paying less on each card (having to divide my monthly amount between the two)?

Moggles_2

Silaqui wrote: »

Would I be better off financially to have some of the debt (even if it's just £300's worth) on the lower interest card?

Yes. You would also be rebuilding a good payment history with another lender. It's never a good thing, IMO, to have all your eggs in one basket, where credit cards are concerned.

With the online services now provided by Barclaycard and others, keeping track of transactions and making monthly payments has never been easier

Gary_Connor_1955

Hello.

I am new on this forum.

Two years ago I was paying a large amount of interest with HSBC, but cleared my credit card by doing transfer to Virgin Money.

Their 18 month interest free was a real saver and meant I paid it all off.

Maybe Virgin Money is an option for you?

Gary

Silaqui

Thanks Moggles (and for your reply on the other thread, I got a bit confused about what was supposed to go where - wasn't sure if this was the right place for it!)

That's probably what I'll do the if the other application gets declined - I have about £100 allocated to paying off my A&Lcard at the mo, I'll try and review it and see if I can keep paying that off and find a bit more to pay the Barclaycard off.

Would I be better off throwing everything at the bigger debt and just doing the minumum for the smaller one? Or should I try and pay a bit more on each so that I can then transfer more onto the lower rate card?

Sorry for all these questions - this money thing really confuses me and I don't want to make the mistakes I did before that got me into this mess!

Silaqui

Gary - I don't know if I would be able to get a new card. I have applied for one but not holding out much hope.