Credit card balance transfer

[Marvtec]

Hoping someone may know as Google isn't helping...

My bank are offering me a credit card balance transfer with 0% interest for 32 months at only a 1.4% fee. That's ~0.51% p.a which is fantastic.

This seems a good way to get extra cash for a Golf GTI/Megane RS without touching savings. Or even to invest it (snoozing?) as I'm sure I could get a higher return than 0.51%!

However, can I balance transfer to a card with a nil balance then just ask for that to be refunded into my current account?

[Nickbrapp]

No, they would dictate that you have to transfer a minimum amount from the other card. The only way you could stooZe cash is to get a money transfer account and do it that way

[ArsE92]

MBNA let me transfer cash to my bank account from a credit card. Interest free for ages with a 3% fee.

[Marvtec]

My thinking is that the new cc co. has no clue how much balance is on the old cc. They simply send an amount via BACS or whatever- they don't care?

And if my old cc co. end up with a credit of £10k, all above board, why can't I get that refunded?

[Marvtec]

Ok. Then the method of attack is to pay the balance of a car purchase on old cc and get balance transfer after that.

Cheers

ETA - they definitely allow 'plus' balances on cc's though which means I wonder if you know what you're talking about.

Edited by Marvtec on Sunday 17th April 22:41

[xRIEx]

Strange, you're the one who had to ask the question in the first place.

Any which way, you know best.

Edited by xRIEx on Sunday 17th April 23:06

[Sarnie]

the receiving company will NOT send you the cash, they will send it back to where it came from......

[nikaiyo2]

Why not buy the car on the initial credit card, then balance transfer to the new card?

[33q]

A couple of points

I suspect there is a limit on the amount the garage selling the car will allow you to pay by CC. My guess £1k or £2k max.

I have played the balance transfer game for years.From experience Natwest readily allowed me to refund the excess credit on my NW CC....did it twice but decided not to push my luck again. Marks and Spencer would only refund excess credit back to the other CC company....so i just spent up the credit.As Marks and Spencer CC is really HSBC I suspect this is their policy.

[hunton69]

If you make new transaction on the CC that you have transferred the balance to remember that the payments you make will go against the balance transfer and therefor you will be charge interest on the new transactions.

[rsbmw]

Pretty sure the rules changed some time ago so payments always come off the highest interest portion of the balance

[bugmenot]

Correct. The payment would be allocated to higher interest portion first.

However, when you've done a balance transfer any purchases you make will accrue interest from the day of the purchase as interest is only waived if you pay your statement balance in full (which you won't if you've just done a balance transfer) OR you have a 0% interest offer on purchases too.

[MrChips]

Slightly on topic, but i've just managed to do a balance transfer to a new Halifax card, 0% fee, and 0% interest for 23 months. It's paid off both my other cards, one of which was coming to the end of a 33month 0% offer.

I should probably plan my finances a bit better but at a total cost of £0 in order to spread out a major payment for almost 2 years, it's a no brainer at the moment!

[andyjo1982]

Having never done a balance transfer, is it really as straightforward as it sounds? I have a bit of money (about 2k) on a Barclaycard, and am interested in a bal transfer, if I done what the above poster did, 0 fee, 0% for two years, can I then switch again in two years if I haven't paid it all off? Do they have high min payments? Is it all easy to do online regards to the transfer or how does the money actually move?

Thanks in advance and sorry for sounding dumb.

[xRIEx]

andyjo1982 said:

Having never done a balance transfer, is it really as straightforward as it sounds? I have a bit of money (about 2k) on a Barclaycard, and am interested in a bal transfer, if I done what the above poster did, 0 fee, 0% for two years, can I then switch again in two years if I haven't paid it all off? Do they have high min payments? Is it all easy to do online regards to the transfer or how does the money actually move?

Thanks in advance and sorry for sounding dumb.

Yes, pretty much as you've said - that Halifax deal with £0/0% looks very good, just don't use it for purchases (at least, not after 6 months).

You can switch cards as often as your credit rating will allow - two years will not cause any issue (6 months would probably be fine, as long as the total credit you have doesn't go too high - remember to cancel any credit cards you don't use).

That Halifax deal has a 1%/£5 minimum repayment (whichever is higher) - they don't want you to pay off too much, because they'll only make money if you forget to shift (or pay off) the balance before the end of the interest free period. If you intend to pay it off, remember to have some money in your bank to cover it. A quick Excel calc shows at 1% repayment for 24 months on £2k, there would be a balance of about £1570.

Online applications are very easy, you enter the card number of the existing account to transfer the balance from, the card companies then talk amongst themselves; it usually only takes a few days.

[andyjo1982]

xRIEx said:

andyjo1982 said:

Having never done a balance transfer, is it really as straightforward as it sounds? I have a bit of money (about 2k) on a Barclaycard, and am interested in a bal transfer, if I done what the above poster did, 0 fee, 0% for two years, can I then switch again in two years if I haven't paid it all off? Do they have high min payments? Is it all easy to do online regards to the transfer or how does the money actually move?

Thanks in advance and sorry for sounding dumb.

Yes, pretty much as you've said - that Halifax deal with £0/0% looks very good, just don't use it for purchases (at least, not after 6 months).

You can switch cards as often as your credit rating will allow - two years will not cause any issue (6 months would probably be fine, as long as the total credit you have doesn't go too high - remember to cancel any credit cards you don't use).

That Halifax deal has a 1%/£5 minimum repayment (whichever is higher) - they don't want you to pay off too much, because they'll only make money if you forget to shift (or pay off) the balance before the end of the interest free period. If you intend to pay it off, remember to have some money in your bank to cover it. A quick Excel calc shows at 1% repayment for 24 months on £2k, there would be a balance of about £1570.

Online applications are very easy, you enter the card number of the existing account to transfer the balance from, the card companies then talk amongst themselves; it usually only takes a few days.

Thanks for the reply, I have seen deals on Money saving expert, I'll perhaps investigate this a bit more, just never really knew how much hassle it was shifting the balance from one card to another.