Questions about Balance Transfers

rob81_2

NickX wrote: »

Does the finance company take Credit Cards ? If they do (which I doubt actually) then I would think this would be treated as a Purchase rather than a Balance Transfer.

If you have a card with SBT (Super Balance Transfer) capability then you can transfer the funds from this card direct to your Bank Account and pay off the car loan from there.

Cards with this facility include Egg, Egg Money, Post Office Card and any card administered by MBNA (including the Virgin range of cards).

In addition MINT periodically issue Credit Card Cheques that can be paid into a Bank Account at Balance Transfer rates, however this is the least satisfactory option because these cheques cannot usually be requested and you never know when they are likely to drop through your letterbox.

I was looking at a Virgin card, simply because the 0% period was 15 months.

Sorry to be particularly slow around this topic, but I'm new to all this moving credit around. The balance of the car finance is £7500, so would Virgin transfer that amount into my current account for me to pay off the car finance, then I just pay Virgin as I would any credit card debt?

NickX

rob81 wrote: »

The balance of the car finance is £7500, so would Virgin transfer that amount into my current account for me to pay off the car finance, then I just pay Virgin as I would any credit card debt?

Pretty much yes. Just a couple of points to note :

(a) They usually only allow you to transfer up to 95% of the Credit Limit which means you really need a limit of around £7900, which is by no means guaranteed.

(b) You will have to specifically request that they transfer the funds to your Bank Account

(c) There will be a fee for the Balance Transfer - usually 2.98% of the Balance and this is added to your total debt, but is collected along with the first monthly repayment.

(d) The minimum payments with Virgin is usually set at a fixed amount of between £5 and £25 during the promotion period. Due to this the debt will not decrease by very much, so you need to get a plan in place to handle the debt in 15 months time, either by paying it off before the 0% promotion expires, or by transferring it on to another promotional deal.

MABLE

I did a balance transfer from Morgan Stanley card to Egg money on line on the 17th July. I phoned up to see if the transfer was succesful to be told there was no trace. The helpful advisor said he would do it manually.

Checked on line on Sunday 19.7 to find that the 17th transfer had gone through as well as the one done by the advisor. Because of this I am over £3,000 over my credit limit, overlimit fee of £12.00.

Brilliant!

NickX

MABLE wrote: »

Checked on line on Sunday 19.7 to find that the 17th transfer had gone through as well as the one done by the advisor. Because of this I am over £3,000 over my credit limit, overlimit fee of £12.00.

I think you have a good case to get this overlimit fee and any interest charged revoked. This was clearly their mistake. If they do not agree to this straight away there is always the formal complaints procedure.

MABLE

MABLE wrote: »

I did a balance transfer from Morgan Stanley card to Egg money on line on the 17th July. I phoned up to see if the transfer was succesful to be told there was no trace. The helpful advisor said he would do it manually.

Checked on line on Sunday 19.7 to find that the 17th transfer had gone through as well as the one done by the advisor. Because of this I am over £3,000 over my credit limit, overlimit fee of £12.00.

Brilliant!

Well checked today on line a further bt went through to EGG on 19.07 which now puts me over £5,000 over my credit limit. Despite of being assured the transfers had not been processed on line.

What I do not understand how their system will authorise transfers thousands of pounds over my credit limit.

NickX

MABLE wrote: »

Well checked today on line a further bt went through to EGG on 19.07 which now puts me over £5,000 over my credit limit. Despite of being assured the transfers had not been processed on line.

I take you are transferring the Debt from Egg Money to Morgan Stanley, hence your Egg Money card is ending up in credit and Morgan Stanley is ending up over your limit.

As I indicated above, this does not appear to be your fault and Morgan Stanley have processed Balance Transfers that they have informed you have been cancelled\not processed.

Morgan Stanley should be sorting this for you - what have they had to say about the matter ?

MABLE

NickX wrote: »

I take you are transferring the Debt from Egg Money to Morgan Stanley, hence your Egg Money card is ending up in credit and Morgan Stanley is ending up over your limit.

As I indicated above, this does not appear to be your fault and Morgan Stanley have processed Balance Transfers that they have informed you have been cancelled\not processed.

Morgan Stanley should be sorting this for you - what have they had to say about the matter ?

I appreciate your reply. They are going to recall the transfers and when back on the account all fees will be credited back. They advise me to make the min payment of over £2500 by 4 August.

However the correct transfer was for only £2400 and min payment is only £48.00. They are asking for min payment now of £114.00. Heavens know why.

I also said how could you put me £5,000 over my limit and they blamed the marketing dept at just pushing the transfers through without checking the account.

When all this is sorted out I will ask the bt fee back on the correct transfer of £2400 for compensation for the stress this has caused.

NickX

MABLE wrote: »

When all this is sorted out I will ask the bt fee back on the correct transfer of £2400 for compensation for the stress this has caused.

Sounds like you are getting there, although I can't see its fair that they expect you to pay a Minimum Payment on a balance that is over-inflated due to their mistakes.

Good idea asking for the BT fee to be refunded, at least that would mean you should be financially better off than you would have been if they had put the BT through correctly.

daz9643

rob81 wrote: »

Can anybody answer this question?

Is it technically a balance transfer if I pay off a car finance with a credit card?

I was wondering if I could transfer the balance of my finance to a credit card to make the most of 0% offers.
Any help would be gratefully received

Not sure theres any point Rob81, when i took out my ford finance deal i specifically asked if i could pay off lump sums of the loan to which the answer was yes. What the salesman didn't tell me was that it wouldn't make any difference to the amount of interest i would pay as all the interest for the term of the loan is loaded on when you take out the finance.

NickX

daz9643 wrote: »

What the salesman didn't tell me was that it wouldn't make any difference to the amount of interest i would pay as all the interest for the term of the loan is loaded on when you take out the finance.

I'm not sure they are allowed to do that now. I think they can only apply 1 or 2 months additional interest by way of "early repayment penalty".