0% balance transfer credit card snags

[CoolHands]

I've got about 5 grand on my credit card that I can't pay back for a few months (handing in my PH director card as I type) racking up about 70-odd quid a month interest. So for the first time ever I decided to have a quick look at 0% balance transfer credit cards and do that (as is so often mentioned in financial pages).

All fine and dandy I have excellent credit score so applied online and it went through no probs.

1st hitch) - credit limit given only £3200 which wouldn't matter I thought as I don't intend to use the card but...
2nd hitch) - I hadn't realised that limits the amount you can transfer. I naively assumed you would be given whatever balance transfer you wanted / needed to clear your original credit card! ie the whole lot!
3rd hitch) - for whatever reason anyway, the amount given to my actual balance transfer was only £3k?! not £3.2k. Don't know why as no explanations are given.

and I don't really care as anyway it reduces my interest outgoings quite a lot so I'm not bothered, but it's interesting to see the reality behind the rosy adverts if you know what I mean (as someone who hasn't previously been down this type of road)

[aquarianone]

I think you can usually only BT 90% of your available credit limit or something like that.

Generally works pretty well, but def makes sure you set up a DD to pay the monthlies (and don't use the card!!)

[CoolHands]

ah ok thanks. If it goes through I assume I could take out another bank's 0% card to pay the remaining amount? (dodgy road ahead, I can see!)

[bugmenot]

Most lenders only permit you to balance transfer 90-95% of your available credit limit. The reason for this is so that you don't go overlimit as there is normally a fee for a balance transfer which is added to your statement.

You can indeed take out another BT card to move the remainder to a better rate.

[Marcellus]

You also need to check if there are any charges in making the transfer, the last one I saw wanted 1.9% as a transfer fee..

[Lemming Train]

I had £8k to BT a few years ago. HSBC had a long BT offer on with no transfer fee so applied for it and told them how much I was wanting to transfer. App approved, card turns up, £1500 limit! Neither use nor fking ornament! They don't tell you what the limit is until it arrives in the post which is stupid imo as they could save everyone a lot of hassle if they told you that you've been approved, but we can only offer you x amount, at which point you can choose to cancel and look elsewhere.

As it happened, Barclaycard had just started a long BT offer so I applied there, instant approval and £9k limit straight off the bat so I can only assume that HSBC don't like me.

[Danm1les]

Have you had a look at Barclays?

https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/barclaycard-up-to...

I recently applied and they gave me £10k and transferred the balance i needed to very quickly, you actually detail the transfer in the application.

[G0ldfysh]

Santander have Credit card available at moment with 0% on transfer, for 27 months with no transfer fee.
They do have the limit of 90% of your allowable credit limit to be aware of on what you can transfer.

[CoolHands]

cheers I will try another for the remaining balance then

[GregK2]

Applying for multiple cards in a short space of time may lead you to be rejected just be aware.

[Powerkiter]

I also took out a Barclaycard recently with 0% for 2 years. They had an offer on where they refunded the balance transfer fee, if you transferred the money to the card within a set period. I also took the card out through the Moneysavingexpert web site, who did a check to make sure I could get the card first and then offered £20 cash back, which Barclaycard promptly refunded to my card.

I transferred £6,500 to the Barclaycard to cover my divorce costs!

[CoolHands]

Damn!