Money Transfer fees

Don't get hung up on your mythical credit score.

A card where you utilise it and pay no interest will look good to most lenders.

Scores are pretty much random number nonsense.

They should scrap the scores altogether or clearly advise that they are purely for entertainment purposes.

They could add in your horoscope while they're at it.

Fleur52 wrote: »

Thanks again everyone.
I am someone who plays safe and manage with what I have and do not have any debts. Have ISA and savings and only a couple of years ago was brave enough to change bank accounts to a one with rewards/interest.

The reason I was asking about the credit card was that I would like to bring my credit score to a higher level. I had a credit card for several years and it had zero balance and was not used for a while. Recently I asked the CC Company to cancel and close the account. I had no idea that it would impact my scoring and recent check on CR file revealed that my score was low and had a negative remarks to show that I have no credits. Further research into it showed that getting a new CC would improve the score hence the reason for getting a new card.

Secondly, I would like to redecorate the house and thought getting a 0% would be good as opposed to using the savings.

The fee gets added to the balance (which is why they say you can only use 95% of your limit), it is one off but you may want to double check the interest free period includes the fee. I took up HSBC with a BT offer years ago and found that whilst the transfer was interest free, the fee wasn't and incurred the monthly interest. That said all the other cards I have taken out since include the fee in the 0%, its just worth checking

Taking a MT for a year and putting it in the Nationwide account would mean you pay 2.75% on the transfer but get 5% if its there for the full year. You would need to remember that Nationwide have conditions, DD & minimum monthly income to ensure you get the rate (you could simply transfer wage in and out or do a £100 transfer several times over the month in both directions with the same £100 to meet this), and its only on £2500, so balance above this gets 0% and if you dip into the £2500 it means earning less interest.

How much of the money is being used for redecorating, as a 0% purchase card would mean you could use it for the redecorating fee free. You could also use it for normal spend and divert the cash you would have used to pay for the shopping etc into the bank account.

They shouldn't do that either. Remember that the CRAs don't know lender criteria, or your financial situation. CRAs don't make any lending decisions.

They basically guess at ratings, and quite badly at that.