Credit card balance t'fers and interest

[Roger Dodger]

Morning all,

I have a couple of grand split between 2 CCs which I'll be paying off over the next 6 months.

Card A = £1.5k
Card B = £500

Now...

Card A have just offered 0% on balance t'fers, so, could I pay off £500 on card A, then t'fer the balance from card B onto card A. Rather than just paying off the balance on card B, this should effectively save me the interest on the £500 which I'll be paying off in the coming months.

Does this make sense and sound feasible?


Thanks,

[PulsatingStar]

Presume Card A is at the limit then with no headroom to transfer the £500? You could ask them for a credit limit increase to transfer the £500 over.

You probably still have some fees to pay to do the balance transfer so check the print on the offer to find out how much. Probably about 3%. You might want to know the order of payment allocation on the card youre transferring too. Chances are everything you pay will come straight off the £500 at 0% before you start denting the original balance.

[Roger Dodger]

PulsatingStar said:

Presume Card A is at the limit then with no headroom to transfer the £500? You could ask them for a credit limit increase to transfer the £500 over.

You probably still have some fees to pay to do the balance transfer so check the print on the offer to find out how much. Probably about 3%. You might want to know the order of payment allocation on the card youre transferring too. Chances are everything you pay will come straight off the £500 at 0% before you start denting the original balance.

I'll check, Cards A & B are well below 50% of their limits. I'm going to drop the limits as I don't like the idea of having enough credit on a card to buy a new car!

[mcflurry]

Roger Dodger said:

Card A have just offered 0% on balance t'fers, so, could I pay off £500 on card A, then t'fer the balance from card B onto card A. Rather than just paying off the balance on card B, this should effectively save me the interest on the £500 which I'll be paying off in the coming months.

Does this make sense and sound feasible?

Yes, as you're getting 0% on the £1500

[Chris_]

Or you could look at getting card C with a £2000 limit and 0% on transfers. Clear both A & B, pay 0% on the whole lot. Important to cut-up/close down Cards A & B to remove any temptation to add to those again.

[Kudos]

Chris_ said:

Or you could look at getting card C with a £2000 limit and 0% on transfers. Clear both A & B, pay 0% on the whole lot. Important to cut-up/close down Cards A & B to remove any temptation to add to those again.

No, as you'll pay 2 sets of fees instead of one

[cuprabob]

Kudos said:

No, as you'll pay 2 sets of fees instead of one

Fees tend to be a percentage of transfer value so cost will be the same

[Kudos]

cuprabob said:

Fees tend to be a percentage of transfer value so cost will be the same

Yes, but 3% (assuming this is the fee) of £500 is less than 3% of £2k i.e. moving both cards to a third

[Chris_]

Kudos said:

Yes, but 3% (assuming this is the fee) of £500 is less than 3% of £2k i.e. moving both cards to a third

Yes, but paying a one-off transfer fee on £1500 is likely to be less expensive than paying interest on that amount for several months