Halifax Balance Transfer

Hippyer

Hi first time poster on this forum but I regularly post on the gambling loophole forum.

I just walked in my local bank to find a moneybookers reference and was asked whether I had a credit card and yada yada yada then said the computer says it's guaranteed I get one.

Do all the talky stuff and says he can offer me a limit of £1250.
I've been working to clear a £3k debt off my sainsburys bank credit card and failed to get credit cards from numerous other places in the past.

So my intention is to accept this one, bung £1250 off my remaining £2500 sainsburys bank credit card over to this new one and then continue to pay off my sainsburys one with lower interest.

Is there any do's and donts you guys can shout at me please.
I think I saw on it pays to watch once that once you have made a balance transfer not to spend on the card you've transferred it to or interest gets quite nasty.

Is that right?

dhassen

if there's a 0% balance transfer offer, you shouldn't spend on the card at all, unless you have a 0% purchases offer, of the same amount of time. If 0% purchases was 3 months and balance transfers was 12 months however, and you spent on the card, you would pay interest on the purchases after the 3 months. This is all to do with the allocation of payments. Your purchases would be 'locked in' by the balance transfer (which is normally a larger amount) and therefore you would pay interest on it until you had paid of the entire balance.

Somone can correct me if I'm wrong

NickX

dhassen wrote: »

if there's a 0% balance transfer offer, you shouldn't spend on the card at all, unless you have a 0% purchases offer, of the same amount of time. If 0% purchases was 3 months and balance transfers was 12 months however, and you spent on the card, you would pay interest on the purchases after the 3 months. This is all to do with the allocation of payments. Your purchases would be 'locked in' by the balance transfer (which is normally a larger amount) and therefore you would pay interest on it until you had paid of the entire balance.

Somone can correct me if I'm wrong

You are quite right - only ever use a card for Balance Transfers AND Purchases if the promotional deals run for the SAME length of time.

Hippyer

Thanks for your quick reply.
Balance Transfer and Purchases are both 0% for 10 months.

dhassen

cool, well you're OK to use it for either for 0% for the 10 months then, if you can, BT the balance to another 0% card before your current 0% runs out

Hippyer

How likely do you reckon I will be to be able to get a further credit card?
I was suprised when he told me the sum because I've always been declined in the past.
When the lady said I was guaranteed one I figured I'd get £200 or something daft.

dhassen

To be honest it's really hard to say how likely you'd be to get accepted for a new card in 9 months time, loads of things affect whether you'll get one or not, depends on income, electoral role, credit history, home phone (somtimes), how much credit you have vs how much they think you can afford etc. Loads of things!!

I suppose you should just keep being good, pay on time, don't apply for anything until you need to - 4-6 weeks before end of deal, and then just go for it

Hippyer

I tried to balance transfer this yesterday online but was given the error
Invalid card. We do not currently accept balance transfers from this institution.

My old credit card is Sainsburys Bank, who I am told are underwritten by halifax.
I am a bit stumped now as this was really my only requirement for a new credit card.
What are my options now?