Getting myself confused as to how to shuffle the debt...

Little_Miss_Penny_Less

Hi all,

I am about to book a holiday, for which I want to put the cost on my Virgin credit card so I get the 15 months 0% interest on the balance...

Trying to avoid the travel agents credit card fee, I am getting myself confused thinking over the possible ways I could do this...

If I pay using my egg card and transfer the balance to the virgin card, I still incur the cc fee with TA, but could I get egg to pay (balance transfer) my current account the cost of the holiday, pay for the holiday with my debit card and then balance transfer the egg debt to the virgin card?

Or can I just get the Virgin card to balance transfer the cost of the holiday straight to my current account? Would this work the same as a normal balance transfer and be on the 0% offer?

Any advice from more experienced balance transfer fiends??

NickX

I think it is going to be difficult to do this without incurring some sort of fee.

(a) You could just pay using your Virgin card. This will incurr the travel agents fee (bunch of theives, I never understand why travel agents add this charge but other businesses do not, does not seem fair). You will then ofcourse benefit from the 15 month interest free deal.

(b) You could get Virgin to transfer the funds directly to your current acount and pay the travel agent from there. The travel agent should not charge a fee but Virgin will charge a Balance Transfer fee. This transfer is treated by Virgin as a normal Balance Transfer and the 15 month interest free deal will apply.

(c) If you get Egg to transfer the funds to your current account, again this would be treated as a normal balance transfer. Now, I'm assuming that you don't have a promotional rate on your egg card, so want to transfer the balance to Virgin for the 15 month interest free deal. Unfortunately Virgin will again apply the balance transfer fee as in (b) above.

So, I can't see a way without paying some sort of surcharge, but remember you are getting 15 months interest free to pay for it so the deal isn't too bad.

Maybe someone else can see if there is any other ideas that would avoid the fee.

Little_Miss_Penny_Less

Thanks NickX, that kind of clarifies what I was trying to say...

I think I will incur the balance transfer fee any way I do it to get the cost onto the Virgin cc (will check my terms for paying direct). Basically if I have to pay a bt fee then I'm just trying to get around paying the Travel Agent a credit card cost as well, so I think I will need to get funds transferred to my current account either via egg or from Virgin.

CannyJock

Little_Miss_Penny_Less wrote: »

Thanks NickX, that kind of clarifies what I was trying to say...

I think I will incur the balance transfer fee any way I do it to get the cost onto the Virgin cc (will check my terms for paying direct). Basically if I have to pay a bt fee then I'm just trying to get around paying the Travel Agent a credit card cost as well, so I think I will need to get funds transferred to my current account either via egg or from Virgin.

Yup, no way to avoid the credit card balance transfer fee - Virgin is 2.98% for 15 months, Egg Card is 3% for 14 months so I'd go with the Virgin card.

Do as you say, put money directly into current account, or if you've still got your Virgin cheques write them one - unlike other cheques, they count as a 0% balance transfer and not a cash withdrawal.

If you've got 0% balance offers on both of them then you should have a look at the stoozing articles and see how to make some money from them that will more than cover the BT fees

EDIT: Infact, the only way to get it totally fee free would be to get the travel agent to waive the fee and then use a 0% purchase card - HSBC have a 0% for 12 month offer on - apply through Quidco and you get £ 20 cashback too