What should I do??

rae25_2

I transferred my cc balance to virgin last month and had 3 months for purchases at 0% interest. Myself and partner had to buy a car and quick, old one died and we have two children. Partner works 18 miles away. Anyway we put the car on the the credit card as we didn't want finance. Should we take out a loan to pay the card off as I now have the time to find a good deal or should I try balance transferring again in April or is this too soon? Also I have 3 cards with 0 balance should I close these or leave them open? I have a good credit rating and another loan. Any advice?

dylanuk

Hi Rae,

Credit cards offering shorter 0% purchase periods (in this case 3-months) do so to make money out of you!

The allocation of payments clause (ref: What is the allocation of payments clause?) sets out the order of which payments will be applied...

To cut a long story short (read the FAQ above if you're unsure) your car will start costing interest at 15.9% APR in 3-months and any payments you make to the Virgin credit card will go to the balance transfer amount until repaid in full first.

So if you can get another 0% balance transfer credit card with a credit limit to cover the whole lot - you should probably switch it all over to a 0% balance transfer deal in April as you suggest.

With regards the other 3 credit card accounts with a zero balance - it's entirely up to you, it won't adversely affect your credit rating, but if they are unneeded and unused it can be 'tidier' financially not to have them - you won't have to worry about fraud or anything happening on those accounts then. On the other hand, having a spare credit card is never a bad thing for emergencies.

Phantom_Flan_Flinger

The only issue you may have is that having 3 unused cards increases your 'available credit' on your credit file.

Shouldn't stop you getting a new card, but it may affect the limit your given.