Help with a balance transfer card

kinger8938

kinger8938

kinger8938

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Joined
23 Mar 2011
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hi there! I've been meaning to do it for ages, I have a credit card with about £2k on it and I pay minimum more than half of which comes off as interest each time

So basically I want to sort it out and pay it off using an interest free BT card.

I've looked on money supermarkets comparisons based on basic information I have given them I have been preapproved for a 37month interest free period on Bts.

So what happens? How do I know they will give me a big enough credit limit to allow for what I need to transfer?

It says it's based on an assumed £1200 limit, which of course wouldn't be enough so I'm wondering if they just take what I have and set the limit a bit higher to allow for leeway?

Any advice given would be much appreciated sorry for the big read!
 
kinger8938 said:
So what happens? How do I know they will give me a big enough credit limit to allow for what I need to transfer?

It says it's based on an assumed £1200 limit, which of course wouldn't be enough so I'm wondering if they just take what I have and set the limit a bit higher to allow for leeway?

Any advice given would be much appreciated sorry for the big read!
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Basically, you don't. Normally when you apply for a card they will ask you what credit limit you want, or what balance amounts you want to transfer on to the card. You won't always get a sufficient limit though, which can be annoying. They could offer you a lower limit, a higher limit, or completely decline. It can be quite frustrating (been through this many times over the years!)
 
You don't know if they'll give you a big enough limit but you'll know the limit they're offering before you confirm you want the card.
 
I think usually when you apply you put in the amount you'd like to transfer over, this goes towards the decision to approve / reject.

Then, they will offer you a credit limit for you to accept / reject.
 
tom_e said:
You don't know if they'll give you a big enough limit but you'll know the limit they're offering before you confirm you want the card.
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Ah right this is fine then, I was worried it would be like a standard finance agreement where you either get accepted and your in, or declined. So they will tell me what I am accepted for and I can then say yes or no, that's fine then!

My credit rating is fine; never had issues and my current limit on this card has just been increased (by them) to 4.5k so I imagine it may be ok
 
I usually have a look on MSE or whatever and find out what the best card is - longest period for transfers, with lowest (or 0%) transfer fee. Then apply for that.
Never had a problem doing so, but I only make purchases once I've got the card/been approved.
 
Worst case scenario (assuming you are approved) you get a lower limit and you can only transfer part of the balance, which is better than nothing, since you'll then only be paying interest on what's left.
 
Not sure if it helps but just did a transfer to a Tesco credit card, got about 3 years interest free and no charge on the transfer either, worth looking at.
 
When you've got it sorted, divide the amount by the months interest free and set that as the payment amount. Otherwise you might just put it on pay minimum and forget about it until the interest free period ends.
 
MonkeyMan said:
When you've got it sorted, divide the amount by the months interest free and set that as the payment amount. Otherwise you might just put it on pay minimum and forget about it until the interest free period ends.
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Good tip thank you, I aim to pay off a good amount each month all going well! Will try and apply tonight and see what happens!
 
Tesco is a good shout.
If you have a ok credit history you will get near enough 2k.
If you don't, at least you will be able to put most of that 2k on it

Just go for one with no fee and a high chance of gett it (various tools for this)

Unfortunately you cannot know your new credit limit before you have a credit search applied to your credit report.

It's also worth signing up for clearscore/mse credit club/noddle before you apply.

These cover the 3 credit report providers. And are all free
 
SixTwoSix said:
Not sure if it helps but just did a transfer to a Tesco credit card, got about 3 years interest free and no charge on the transfer either, worth looking at.
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A few years ago I did that with a Santander card, they gave me a £4000 limit, even though at the time my BT was only £1500 (which you put on the application at the time) - £0 fees and 0% APR on the tranfer for 3 years.
What I then did was not ever open the letter with the pin code on it. And shredded it. This is a great way to ensure you don't use the card and can just clear the balance at 0% APR. I have the card still in my wallet, even though I cleared the balance over 18months ago.
 
413x said:
It's also worth signing up for clearscore/mse credit club/noddle before you apply.

These cover the 3 credit report providers. And are all free
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Noddle annoys me, as they list me as 2 out of 5 on my score rating, and this was during the time I was paying for a credit-expert account, and I had 966/999 score with them (experian). Their results are rather 'peeing in the wind'
 
The only thing those sites are good for is keeping a general eye on making sure you've not got someone setting up random things in your name and to check your history and electoral roll status apart from that any numbers they provide are generally totally meaningless.
 
Ace Modder said:
Noddle annoys me, as they list me as 2 out of 5 on my score rating, and this was during the time I was paying for a credit-expert account, and I had 966/999 score with them (experian). Their results are rather 'peeing in the wind'
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Could be a misslink

Have a problem with my clearscore where my score is bad as somehow they have lost all trace of all my accounts
 
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