Credit Card Balance Transfer Discussion Area 3

WaltD

I have just received a brand new Citi Bank Platinum VISA card. They allowed me £3500 credit limit and the introductory blurb said I would get 0% interest on balance transfers and purchases for the first six months.
When I rang on the 0870 number (!) to activate the card, the foreign-sounding girl tried to get me to transfer balances from my existing credit cards there and then. I said I preferred to wait until I received the next monthly statements from the other card providers. She then said "the 0% balance transfer offer is only valid for two weeks from the date your card was issued"!
Surely this is not right, and is against the terms of the Contract?

madeinengland

I also have an interest in getting a Citi card (see my earlier post)therefore I phoned them today on reading the post by WD.Another foreign sounding gent spoke to me- I was told that the two week comment was incorrect--NO BT fees applied--and you could transfer at 0% anytime during the intro period as we thought.Perhaps the lady earlier was short of a bit of commission!
By the way I have been offered 9 month @0% via a postal form.Maybe you could ask for this?

ps the application could take 28 days so be aware if you need to transfer another 0% deal-allow enough time.

dsmithmobile

Hello
just wanted a bit of advice if anyone could help?
im sure you have been over it lots of times before but im confused ???
basically what i want to do is to transfer my balance off my lloyds tsb gold card to another card to cut down on the interest
there is currently about £3300 on the card and im fed up of been screwed over each month
i have kept my spending down on the card and have been paying £500 a month off it but it never seems to decrease by much
just wondered which card was the best to apply for that i would allow a balance transfer of that amount and that im likely to be accepted for
thanks in advance for any advice given ;D

madeinengland

Hi DS,at least you have come to the right place to hopefully save some money in the future.This site should provide you with a number of opinions and all will be valid I'm sure.
My first thought is that you should not continue to spend a penny on this card,as you are paying interest on everything you buy and probably at a top rate.

Get youself an Egg card via their web site today-this is an easy application and will do a lot toward informing you of the credit you are likely to get as it gives an instant decision.
You will have to wait for the forms in the post however before you can make any transfers.

This will allow you hopefully to transfer your outstanding balance online at 0%-Do NOT spend on this card and pay the remainder off over the 0% period if possible-if not you can do another transfer in 5 months.

There are better deals and you may be given many options via the links on this site-but Egg is an easy quick option that allows SBT's if your limit is high enough.

If possible -and this is the hard bit-you may need to avoid credit for a few weeks and also apply for a good cashback card-such as amex blue(see the links under articles).This should then be used for all your spending and be paid off in FULL each month--You will get a cashback credit each year I think.No interest will be paid as the card is always settled.

Hope this makes some sense.

Reaper

This will allow you hopefully to transfer your outstanding balance online at 0%-Do NOT spend on this card

Egg actually give you 0% on purchases too until 1st July, so you could spend on this card. Generally, however, it is a good idea to use one card for spending and others for balance transfers.

Remember a cashback card is only useful if you can pay the full amount off each month, otherwise a 0% purchases card is better. However if you are hoping to pay off your debts you should be aiming to pay it off every month anyway to prevent the debts getting any bigger.

dsmithmobile

thanks for your quick responses ;D
i will apply for an egg card now and see what happens

edmundli

hmmmz loooking to balance transfer from my mint card, what would be good options at the moment.
thinking of a LloydsTSB Advance card, any good? or any better offers around?

Martinslovechild

hmmmz loooking to balance transfer from my mint card, what would be good options at the moment.
thinking of a LloydsTSB Advance card, any good? or any better offers around?

Yes - the Lloyds card offers the longest 0% deal at 12 months, followed by HSBC Gold (9 months) and Halifax One (9 months).

Northumbrian_2

Deep down, I feel that this might be a daft question, but I can't find any information around this thread which answers it for me.  Perhaps its even dafter than I first thought.... anyway, here goes:

I'm new to the whole BT thing, but am just transferring all my outstanding card debts to a new HSBC 0% for 9 months (and what a wonderful glow it gives me too).  My question is, what should I do with the cards I'm abandoning?  Do we all just accumulate useless plastic?  What if in 9 months time one of my existing card providers is the best one to jump to with my outstanding balance?  As an'existing' cardholder, I won't be able to access the 0% promo rate.  If I cancelled my card with them a few months ago, will they sign me up again as a new customer?  

What is an apprentice tart to do?

smartsaver

Hi Northumbrian and welcome  :)

You need to read Martin's article  http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1098274211,85485,

The has been a lot of discussion here as to whether or not to cancel old cards. I have cancelled some and regretted it but glad I have cancelled other to reduce my over all available debt. Only you can decide really. It's not a stupid question at all.

Good luck  ;)