Any advice on my balance t/f on existing card?

findmywayagain

Hello there

Basically I owe:

£6000 Egg card
£3000 overdraft

I also have an RBS Visa card with a £10,000 credit limit, but I owe nothing on it.

Top and bottom of it is that I have 1 month of 0% left on my Egg card, so I was hoping to t/f the whole £9000 debt onto my RBS card then cut them all up, reduce my overdraft to zero and pay back £500ish (or the max I can afford) off the whole debt until I owe nothing.

Now, my question I was hoping for help with is, what should I ask RBS for with regards to a life of balance transfer apr rate?

Do RBS even do this?

Or should I look for another card?, but if I do, will I get a £10,000 limit (I doubt it)

I don't really want cards all over the place, I want just 1 debt with a low apr so I can get all my debt sorted once and for all.

I have kerbed my spending to virtually nothing, so I need an apr to match so I can get on with my life without all this debt hanging over me.

Any advice will be greatly received.

Many thanks for looking.

smartsaver

This is only my view. Others may have better ideas. It might be as well to post this on the degts board.

Is your credit history good? If so I would ring RBS to see if they will offer you a 0% deal as an existing customer. If they won't I would cancel the card and apply to Virgin (as you can BT money directly ino a cuurent account without paying a fee). Take what Virgin offer and if it is lower than 10k, apply for any other 0% deal.

Although it is easier to have the debt in one place, it may be cheaper interest wise to have it spread around.

Paying off £500 per month will look good to any future lenders so should set you in good stead for further 0% deals until the debt is repaided.

PS Don't canx your EGG crad as they do an anniversary deal of 0% for 5 months 1 year on from the date you took the card out.


Good luck

mountainofdebt

about keeping your egg card.....very useful card even without the 0% each year!

This is because the egg card allows you to transfer balances from it to a bank account wthout any fees (I know virgin allows you to make a BT fee free but I think I am right in saying this only applies to transfers made within a certain length of time from opening the account)

Now I don't know your income so depending on this you may find it better to close the RBS card (bear with me here) and apply for say 2 cards that offer a 0% deal....virgin and natwest offer 9 month deals.

Now hopefully the limit on these cards will cover your egg balance and your overdraft.

Your problem may come in paying off your overdraft but it's not impossible! You can do the way that smartsaver has suggested (if the card company allows it) but if they won't then get them to transfer to your egg card (even if already cleared) and then you can transfer the (presumably) positive balance direct to your bank account.

The reasons I would consider closing RBS are

1.I've an RBS card and also have a £10K. Until I was 'selected' by the computer (think the computer says no!) I wasn't eligible for a promotional balance transfer rate and when I was I was offered 7.9% for 6 months.

2. If you close the account you are more likely to get a higher limit on the 2 new cards as your available credit/income ration is improved (someone tell me if this is total toss, please lol!)

3. when the 9 months are up and the 0% deals are coming to an end you can approach RBS (or anyother company come to think of it) as a new customer and get a 0% deal off them. Close the then unused accounts for the reasons given in 2.

Of course you would only need to pay the £500 for 18 months doing it this way as you aren't paying any interest just the debt back each month

findmywayagain

Thanks so far guys, really I was hoping that RBS could offer me say 3.9% or something like that so I don't need to re apply for cards etc, that's the reason I am in so much debt!, kept getting more cards to t/f debt, then built up the other debt again!

Does anyone know if I have a chance with RBS?, or am I barking up the wrong tree here?

TIA

mountainofdebt

Well if you don't ask you won't get will you, lol, and you may be lucky that the computer has 'selected' you.

Seriously though why not phone and ask them and if they say no then consider closing the account and applying for some 0% deals.......if the acocunt is closed you can't spend on it, can you?

However one thing I forgot to mention is that if you do transfer to a 0% card NEVER NEVER spend on it because any payments you make will reduce the balance attracting 0% leaving the purchases to attract interest.

YorkshireBoy

findmywayagain wrote:

...that's the reason I am in so much debt!, kept getting more cards to t/f debt, then built up the other debt again!

Whatever route you take to becoming debt-free, there will always be a temptation to spend and accumulate more debt. Whether you go for a "life of balance" deal or a series of "0%" deals this temptation will be there.

So, you need to have discipline. If you have discipline, the way forward is this...

1. I'm assuming you haven't made any applications for credit since the Egg card earlier this year.
2. Act quickly (the Egg 0% finishes in one month)
3. Fire off 2 applications simultaneously to Virgin and LTSB, each requesting a £6K BT from Egg.
4. If you get both, use the full £6K from Virgin and only 3K from LTSB to clear all your debts.
5. Ask LTSB to reduce your limit to £3K to remove the temptation to spend.
6. If you get a >£6K limit from Virgin, ask them to reduce it right down, leaving no room to spend after you've done the BT.
7. Cut up both the Virgin & LTSB cards.
8. Spend "WISELY" on the Egg card, always paying off in full each month - set up a "pay the full amount" DD online and keep an eye on what you're spending.
9. You say you have £500/month to make payments with. The Virgin minimum payments are only £5 - IGNORE this. Pay £250/month. The minimum with LTSB is 2% of outstanding balance (£60 on £3K). Again, IGNORE this - pay £250.
10. Swap the (much reduced) debt around in 9 months time (applying for 2 cards simultaneously again).
11. Drop the Egg limit down to £1K to remove temptation.
12. Review your situation regularly.

Finally, if your credit rating is reasonable, I would definately not go down the life of balance route.

Post back if you need clarification, or have any other questions.

EDIT: Forgot a couple of things...

1. Someone suggested a Natwest card - they're part of the RBS group.

2. The £10K "available credit" with RBS will be a problem. If you go down my route you'll have to close this card and wait for its closure to be reported to the CRA's first before applying for any new cards as it will hinder the limits somewhat. This could mean you drop onto 14.9% with Egg for a short period.

3. You may decide to do a combination of things - drop onto a LOB scheme now, sort all your "available credit" issues, and then drop onto my suggestion.

Best of luck, and remember - DISCIPLINE is the key.

smartsaver

YorkshireBoy wrote:

Whatever route you take to becoming debt-free, there will always be a temptation to spend and accumulate more debt. Whether you go for a "life of balance" deal or a series of "0%" deals this temptation will be there.

So, you need to have discipline. If you have discipline, the way forward is this...

1. I'm assuming you haven't made any applications for credit since the Egg card earlier this year.
2. Act quickly (the Egg 0% finishes in one month)
3. Fire off 2 applications simultaneously to Virgin and LTSB, each requesting a £6K BT from Egg.
4. If you get both, use the full £6K from Virgin and only 3K from LTSB to clear all your debts.
5. Ask LTSB to reduce your limit to £3K to remove the temptation to spend.
6. If you get a >£6K limit from Virgin, ask them to reduce it right down, leaving no room to spend after you've done the BT.
7. Cut up both the Virgin & LTSB cards.
8. Spend "WISELY" on the Egg card, always paying off in full each month - set up a "pay the full amount" DD online and keep an eye on what you're spending.
9. You say you have £500/month to make payments with. The Virgin minimum payments are only £5 - IGNORE this. Pay £250/month. The minimum with LTSB is 2% of outstanding balance (£60 on £3K). Again, IGNORE this - pay £250.
10. Swap the (much reduced) debt around in 9 months time (applying for 2 cards simultaneously again).
11. Drop the Egg limit down to £1K to remove temptation.
12. Review your situation regularly.

Finally, if your credit rating is reasonable, I would definately not go down the life of balance route.

Post back if you need clarification, or have any other questions.

EDIT: Forgot a couple of things...

1. Someone suggested a Natwest card - they're part of the RBS group.

2. The £10K "available credit" with RBS will be a problem. If you go down my route you'll have to close this card and wait for its closure to be reported to the CRA's first before applying for any new cards as it will hinder the limits somewhat. This could mean you drop onto 14.9% with Egg for a short period.

3. You may decide to do a combination of things - drop onto a LOB scheme now, sort all your "available credit" issues, and then drop onto my suggestion.

Best of luck, and remember - DISCIPLINE is the key.

Agree with every bit of this very good advice

If you think you can avoid temptation keep your EGG card at it's current credit limit for the anniversary offer. DO NOT SPEND ON IT!!

YorkshireBoy

smartsaver wrote:

If you think you can avoid temptation keep your EGG card at it's current credit limit for the anniversary offer. DO NOT SPEND ON IT!!

There is nothing wrong with light "necessary" spending on the Egg card between now and the anniversary month, providing it's paid off in full every month.

However, there's a bit of a catch 22 situation with the Egg limit. I suggested lowering the limit so as to remove the temptation to spend vast amounts, but I concede that a high Egg limit would be great to have next spring to transfer the debt to from Virgin and LTSB towards the end of their respective 9 month 0% periods.

The OP doesn't say what the Egg limit is now. If it's much higher than £6K, this needs dropping prior to applying for the Virgin & LTSB cards.

By the way, I've checked the RBS website and there doesn't seem to be any offers for LOB deals listed - just a choice of 3 cards dependant on annual income. May need a specialist card provider, rather than a high street bank, for LOB deals - such as Capital One, Morgan Stanley, etc?

Milarky

MINT [part of RBS] had a standing offer of 7.9% life of balance. Not great, but the Egg cash [etc] could be moved there until something else is worked out. [I take the point about cancelling unused cards in the expectation of being able to apply for new 0% cards however]. In principle you could move back to the Egg anniversary offer when that next becomes available and then see if RBS are doing further life of balance deals after five months of that. If they are not, you then go on to apply for other cards [having maybe reduced your RBS credit limit by the amount moved to Egg?]

findmywayagain

Thanks for all the advice.

I have had one idea, based pretty much on all the info above.

What if I transferred the £9000 debt at the end of August to RBS for say 7.9% (If they indeed offered me that rate).

Then, in January when my 5 months anniversary offer kicks in again, I can transfer £6000 (My Egg limit) back onto Egg card and forget about it on min payment only for 5 months, while I tackle paying off the last £3000 on my RBS card.

Would that work?, or would I have to pay anything for keep moving the cash around? I.E are there fees to do this?

Thanks

mountainofdebt

I wasn't charged a BT fee when I recently did a transfer.