Balance transfer to Nationwide

HarryIb

I pay off my balance in full each month to my Nationwide credit card. If I do a balance transfer and then continue to use the card, will my payments pay off the fee, and then new expenditure, first? In other words - if a pay off new expenditure in full each month, I won't end up accumulating interest on the new expenditure - will I?

Thanks, H

Brie

Are you talking about doing the BT from your Nationwide card to some other? And still use it for purchases?

I've only seen one card where this has worked and that's my M&S card. Any other will start accruing interest on any purchases made from the day of purchase if the full balance hasn't been cleared each month. You'll need to double check with them to see if this is how they work things or if they are like M&S.

zagfles

They won't pay off the fee first, but that's got the same terms as the BT itself so no need to pay it off, treat it the same way as the BT itself.

They will pay off new spend provided you wait till they are statemented. Don't pay them off before the statement date. You can't automate this so you have to do it manually, or adjust a fixed DD each month after you get the statement and at least a week or so before the DD date to the higher of spending or min payment.

Be careful with refunds. Some providers treat refunds as negative spending (so reduces that month's spend), others as payments (so reduces the min payment of the previous statement if made in time), but it seems Nationwide treat them as neither! I got a refund which reduced the BT balance but not the min payment (it was well in time) or current month spending balance. So safest to accept refunds just pay off the BT.

HarryIb

Sorry, should have clarified. I intend to do a balance transfer from MBNA to Nationwide. Thereafter, I would use the Nationwide card for occasional spending (abroad), but pay off the occasional spending in full each month. Looking at various sources it appears that under these circumstances I would not pay interest. Payment timing and refund issues noted; thanks.

grumpy_codger

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82134365#Comment_82134365

I've only seen one card where this has worked and that's my M&S card.

Barclaycard is another one.

However, what I see at Nationwide is:

You will not pay interest on new purchases if you pay your statement balance, excluding any promotional balance transfers, in full and on time.

Brie

thanks @grumpy_codger for clearing that up.

what I found difficult with my M&S card was it didn't show on my monthly statement how much my BT balance was. So as a result I had to contact them every month to know how much I needed to pay to avoid interest charges. This was due to their obscure policies on how to deal with credits/refunds as well as me having to guesstimate my monthly payment and not know how that had affected the various bits of the balance owing.

When there's confusion like that I always have resorted to chatting online with the customer service, saving their response and if I got charged when they had said I wouldn't I would have proof that they needed to refund me the discrepancy.

surreysaver

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82134466#Comment_82134466

It tells you in the M&S app how much your balance transfer is.

Lloyds group (Halifax/Lloyds/Bank of Scotland) you can also spend without being charged interest.

If you keep spending within the same amount as your minimum payments, then it maximises the benefit of the 0% balance transfer

zagfles

Nationwide make it clear on the statements how much of the current balance is BT/fee/spending, the rates and expiry date

Nebulous2

For two out of the last three months Nationwide has offered me a decent balance transfer offer. I can't recall getting offers from them before, certainly not competitive ones.

I only have one continuous payment comes off the card, and it wouldn't be difficult to switch that - but I don't need a BT at this point.