Best Balance Transfers Discussion Area

Lucazade

Apologies if this is not the correct forum.


I'm new to BTs and today I went to Santander to transfer my Barclaycard to them. I then found out that not all my balance can be transferred since Barclays would set a limit on the amount. Moreover, Santander would further limit that amount to 95%.


I'm now wondering whether to a) go elsewhere or b) go ahead with Santander and do another BT with someone else for the remaining amount. Would it be worth doing that? As things stand, I would be leaving less than £2k in Barclaycard.

BeeHappy_2

Hi all, I have taken a loan back home to cover my study expenses (EUR 8.000 for 10 years, interest rate of 6.80). The loan is on my brother because I was too young to get one, but I`ve always been paying for it. I have had a UK account in Lloyds bank since 2011 and have been always paying the instalments from that account since then. The remaining sum is 4.600 eur, = cca 3.371 GBP to be paid until June 20, 2019. There is possibly a 4% fee for early repayment, but also a £10 for every transaction I make to pay the instalments, so that I actually overpay £120 a year on transfers only if I pay every month(sometimes I`d save money and send it to my brother in a lump sum to avoid more charges) . I have lived abroad for the last 6 years, out of which the last 3.5have been in the UK and I am planning on staying in the UK for another 2-3 years. My question is - can I apply for a credit card in the UK to pay off the debt back home, especially now with euro being a tiny it weaker, so that I could potentially use less money to pay it off? Is it possible for the banks here to take over a debt from a bank abroad? My thinking is, that if I got the credit card, I could leave my income on a regular account collecting some interests, which would help me pay back the credit card debt. I`m quite new to this and would be really happy to get any advise.
Thanks a lot!

MallyGirl

BeeHappy wrote: »

My question is - can I apply for a credit card in the UK to pay off the debt back home, especially now with euro being a tiny it weaker, so that I could potentially use less money to pay it off? Is it possible for the banks here to take over a debt from a bank abroad? My thinking is, that if I got the credit card, I could leave my income on a regular account collecting some interests, which would help me pay back the credit card debt. I`m quite new to this and would be really happy to get any advise.
Thanks a lot!

The trouble is that is you have little credit history here in the UK then you are not very likely to be accepted for a 0% card. Have you tried the eligibility checker on here that does a soft search and so leaves no mark on your credit file?

MallyGirl

Lucazade wrote: »

Apologies if this is not the correct forum.


I'm new to BTs and today I went to Santander to transfer my Barclaycard to them. I then found out that not all my balance can be transferred since Barclays would set a limit on the amount. Moreover, Santander would further limit that amount to 95%.


I'm now wondering whether to a) go elsewhere or b) go ahead with Santander and do another BT with someone else for the remaining amount. Would it be worth doing that? As things stand, I would be leaving less than £2k in Barclaycard.

This sounds a bit confused. Your new Santander account would only allow you to transfer 90% of its credit limit amount to BC - most providers are the same. The remaining 10% gets eaten into with the transfer fee if there is one.
BC won't limit the amount you can transfer to them to pay off some of the debt.
If the Santander limit is not high enough to pay off all of the BC debt you could try for a second card if you salary to credit ratio is good enough

grumbler

Lucazade wrote: »

I'm new to BTs and today I went to Santander to transfer my Barclaycard to them. I then found out that not all my balance can be transferred since Barclays would set a limit on the amount. Moreover, Santander would further limit that amount to 95%.

Santander, like all CC providers do set a limit on the amount you can transfer to them (they pay to other CC), but no way can Baclays set a limit on on the amount paid to them (balance transferred from them)

As things stand, I would be leaving less than £2k in Barclaycard.

What are the Barclaycard balance and the Santander credit limit? If the latter isn't big enough, transfer as much as you can, then consider getting another card for transferring the remainder.

grumbler

BeeHappy wrote: »

....I have lived abroad for the last 6 years, out of which the last 3.5have been in the UK and I am planning on staying in the UK for another 2-3 years.

MallyGirl wrote: »

The trouble is that is you have little credit history here in the UK then you are not very likely to be accepted for a 0% card. Have you tried the eligibility checker on here that does a soft search and so leaves no mark on your credit file?

Well, 3.5 years in UK can be sufficient for having some history.

If so, it's worth using the eligibility checker for cards that offer Money Transfers in the first place.
Alternatively it can be a Spending 0% Card allowing the cash 'saved' on UK spending to be used for paying the debt abroad.

local_hero

Hi, I'm new to MSE but it seems like a great site. I have a question I hope someone here can answer for me.

I've got £3400 credit card debt (barclaycard) and £2950 overdraft debt (natwest and santander). My annual income is approx £28,000.

I was going to apply for a loan to consolidate it all and finally start to get rid of it but after visiting MSE I see it's better to use a 0% credit card transfer. However I don't have any idea of the likelihood of getting a £6350 limit on a card. I've done the MSE credit card eligibility calculator and have 95% for MBNA, 70% for Virgin and I always pay minimum payment on my cards so as far as I know I'm a pretty good, profitable prospect for a bank.

My question is, are there banks more inclined to offer larger credit limits than others? And in general is a £6350 credit limit something which banks might offer to a new customer like me or am I being way too optimistic?

Thanks in advance for any help. I wanna get debt free!

grumbler

Just try - you have nothing to lose. If the limit isn't big enough, transfer as much as possible, then apply for another card or a loan.

Typically, you can transfer up to 90% of the new limit; so for £6350 you need a limit bigger than £7K.

Joy_Burke

Mutton_Geoff wrote: »

I've been looking at 0% BT cards over the last few days to build up my stooz pots. This is what I've seen on offer:

Capital One 0% 1st November 2008 1.7%
RBS 0% 13 months 2.5% (+£24 Quidco)
Natwest 0% 13 months 2.5% (+£24 Quidco)
Nationwide 0% 10 months 2.5%
Barclaycard Platinum 0% 14 months 2.5%
Post Office 0% 10 months 2.75% (+£20.50 Quidco)
Mint 0% to 1st March 2009 2.9%
Virgin 0% 15 months 2.98%
MNBA 0% 12 months 3% (+£8.50 Quidco)
Egg 0% 15 months 3%

Just a warning. Read all the fine print before you take on a loan with capital one, ok? :rotfl: Anyway, I worked with a company last year and a lot of my colleagues had issues with extra charges with them.

grumbler

What loan? And the post you quoted is 7 years old.
Are you OK?