Best Balance Transfers Discussion Area

Psuedonym

Hi to all,
Newbie on this forum but have read this site for a while.
Anyway I was refused a BS card from Virgin this morning and 3 minutes later was approved one from Capital One - 0% until Nov 2009.
Considering the amount of waste through the incurred charges I should be on the way out of a hole now.

So many thanks to Martin & team :beer:

Next on the agenda - CC charges claim and buy to let mortgage.

JimmyTheWig

Agree with YorkshireBoy that the answer is above. I appreciate that you are both new users and so may not have thought to look for the answers here.

Two extra pieces of information for endofanera...
1. To pay off the loan you just need to follow Moggles' advice to get the money into your current account (as if paying off an overdraft) and then use that to pay your loan. Note that you don't actually need an overdraft to do this transfer.
2. If it is a joint loan then you are joinly responsible for all of it rather than singley responsible for half of it. If you pay off your half and the other party doesn't pay off theirs then misses repayments it will still count against you and you could be chased for the missed repayments. You should only do this is you are both paying off your halves or you trust the other party.

Moggles_2

endofanera wrote: »

I have the remains of a joint loan that I now want to split and pay off my share individually. Is there a way to transfer loan debt onto a credit card?

Not directly. What you can do is apply for a 0% BT card and transfer an overdraft to the card, in other words shift cash from the credit card to your bank account. A BT fee applies, but there are no other charges during the introductory 0% period. You then have funds in your current account with which to pay off your share of the loan

Caution: you cannot use any 0% BT card. A handful will do this at BT rates (Please see #758 above)

Roop

I have got my new Virgin card approved and I can do a balance transfer from other cc or overdraft a/c of upto £9k. Does anyone has recently been able to get the BT fee of 2.98% on Virgin card reduced or waived?

Moggles_2

Roop wrote: »

I have got my new Virgin card approved and I can do a balance transfer from another cc or overdraft a/c of up to £9k. Has anyone been able to get the 2.98% BT fee reduced or waived recently?

Not on a new card, no.

If, at the end of the 0% period, you were to shift any remaining debt to another card, you would be in a better position to negotiate. Depending on your credit history, Virgin may then offer you a balance transfer at a promotional rate and agree to waive/reduce the handling charge in order to retain your business

Amy83

Moggles wrote: »

Mint periodically issues credit card cheques, which can be paid directly into your current account. Unless you already have them, this is the least satisfactory option, as Mint cheques cannot be ordered and you never know when the next ones will turn up in the post.
Note: other lenders (eg. Barclaycard, Halifax) issue credit card cheques from time to time. These can be used to settle bills, but if you paid one into your bank account, you'd be charged for a cash withdrawal - not recommended, not unless you have money to burn :eek:

Hi Moggles, your post was very informative and just about answered everything I was looking for, thanks!

I have Mint and Barclaycard and I never realised that the cheques could be paid straight into a current account. As you say Barclaycard charges a cash fee for it I'll give them a miss. Does Mint not charge anything to use one of their cheques to credit a current account?

I'd started the process recommended by Martin of using LOB balance transfers as a loan, I've opened an Egg Money account and was about to apply for a CitiBank card to get the 5.9% before I transfered it to the Egg Money account, and then into my Natwest current account from there.

With what you've mentioned above, can I miss out transfering it to Egg Money and put it straight in my Natwest Current Account? (if it makes any difference, I'll either be doing this with a Mint card I already have, or with a CitiBank card that I'm yet to apply for)

Moggles_2

Amy83 wrote: »

I have Mint and Barclaycard and I never realised that the cheques could be paid straight into a current account. As you say Barclaycard charges a cash fee for it. I'll give them a miss. Does Mint not charge anything to use one of their cheques to credit a current account?

Mint periodically issues credit card cheques, which can be paid directly into your current account. This allows you to transfer an overdraft to your card (in other words, transfer cash from your Mint card to your current account) at balance transfer rates. The normal BT fee applies.

Moggles_2

Amy83 wrote: »

I'd started the process recommended by Martin of using LOB balance transfers as a loan. I've opened an Egg Money account and was about to apply for a CitiBank card to get the 5.9% before I transfered it to the Egg Money account and then into my Natwest current account from there.

With what you've mentioned above, can I miss out transfering it to Egg Money and put it straight in my Natwest Current Account?

Unfortunately, not. Mint belongs to the same stable as NatWest.

In addition, only a few rather special cards will allow you to transfer an overdraft to them, (in other words, transfer cash from the credit card to your current account), at balance transfer rates (Please see #758 above)

ninnoodle

I got a new Virgin cc and transferred a balance of around £5k from a Natwest cc to it, but still notice that NW are charging me this month's minimum payment of £120. When I called to verify it said that the direct debit wasn't clever enough to recognise the balance had been paid in full on 1st July. Fair enough, however when I asked for my money back the customer services said there was an interest payment still to be paid on 29th July of £32. I don't understand how this can be if I am now in credit? He said the payment of £32 would come off my credit of £120 and a cheque for the remaining credit would be sent out to me.
This has also left me £70 overdrawn when I would have been in credit until payday. Does anyone know why I am making interest payments on a balance that is in credit?

YorkshireBoy

ninnoodle wrote: »

Does anyone know why I am making interest payments on a balance that is in credit?

It's 'residual', or 'trailing', interest and has accrued between the date of your last statement and the date they received the money from Virgin.

The moment the positive balance was created the interest stopped accruing.

If you have an interest bearing balance there are two ways to stop the interest...

1. Pay off two consecutive statements in full by the due date, or

2. Overpay to create a positive (as you have done with your BT to Virgin).