Changing one barclaycard for another?

windswept

We have a gold Barclaycard, had it for probably 20 years - £14k limit, ( no balance at the moment as everything is on 0% cards) I saw on the barclaycard website that there is now a low apr card - simplicity at 6.9% for life, transfers and purchases.
We have a 0% Virgin card that is up in November and by then will have about £6k on it - we have been around all of the 0% cards now and I think getting the simplicity will be the easiest long term option.
How are Barclaycard on changing a high apr card for a low one, has anyone managed this?
We are in a position to say "OK then, we'll close the account" if they say no, so with any luck they will say yes - obviously we'll tell them that there wil be a largish BT in a few months time, but are there any other tips?

Moggles_2

How are Barclaycard on changing a high apr card for a low one? Has anyone managed this?

I haven't exchanged Barclaycards, but as a longstanding customer, I recently applied successfully for Barclaycard Breathe in addition to my Gold card. This lender doesn't discourage customers from holding more than one Barclaycard.

We are in a position to say "OK then, we'll close the account" if they say no, so with any luck they will say yes

A zero balance puts you in a strong negotiating position, certainly

Moggles_2

Obviously we'll tell them that there will be a largish BT in a few months time ...

I think you'll find that BTs must be requested within 60 days of account opening.

I'd wait until 6 weeks before your Virgin deal ends and research the credit card market then. Of course there's no guarantee this particular offer will be available on the same terms in 6 months time.

Note: under Barclaycard's current balance transfer terms, you are restricted to amounts between £250 and £5,000 so you would need to pay off/park any remaining balance elsewhere.

CannyJock

Moggles wrote: »

I think you'll find that BTs must be requested within 60 days of account opening.

I'd wait until 6 weeks before your Virgin deal ends and research the credit card market then. Of course there's no guarantee this particular offer will be available on the same terms in 6 months time.

Note: under Barclaycard's current balance transfer terms, you are restricted to amounts between £250 and £5,000 so you would need to pay off/park any remaining balance elsewhere.

You can BT more than that onto a Barclaycard, the £ 5000 is the maximum for 0% though. I got a card with a £ 10000 limit and the CS people were quite happy for me to transfer over the £ 5000 because it would mean that I would be paying interest on it.

Fortunately I'd read the small print I did a BT for £ 4878, got a BT fee of £ 121.95 to bring me up to a balance of £ 4999.95. Once they'd done that I phoned them a week later to ask them to reduce my credit limit from £ 10000 down to £ 5000 which they've now done.