Credit Card Balance Transfers Etc

[carlingman]

Any advice as ever greatly appreciated.

As we are now emerging from the festive period and like many others I have to endure a 5 week month before payday which is Monday thankfully.

Like many others over the year and festive period my credit card has got the better of me.

My question is can anyone recommend some good companies to do a balance transfer to.

The best so far I have seen is EGG who offers a 0% balance transfer until September.

I am not looking to pay the balance off in this time but seriously reduce it.

Currently I have a Nat West Card and had a call from my Branch asking me to pop along for a chat to discuss my credit card balance.

On attending this visit as they implied the loan rate would be far better than a credit card interest rate of 1.385% per month and then suggested the following –

Borrow £4000 over 36 months
APR 16%
Monthly Payment with Loan Protector £162.39
Total Payable £5846.04

As you can guess I politely told them to go and whistle as within minutes found the following with Nationwide –

Borrow £4000 over 36 months
APR 6.7%
Monthly Payment with Loan Protector £133.65
Total Payable £4811.40

Having been with Nat West for 18 years as a loyal customer and must admit have not found a fault with their current account services etc it does make me wonder how they compete in the world of loans etc.

Anyhow back to the topic raised anyone have any good experiences of transferring to Egg or can anyone suggest any better deals.

Thanks

[Escapee]

I did transfer to Egg, but had a lot of trouble with their site. I phoned them up later on because I had actually forgotten the password, they wispered the new password that had to be activated within 48 hours.

Guess what, their bl**dy site was down for a couple of days!

I have also spent heavily over the last 6 months on my credit card, it was mainly for the house I have just bought, and I knew I would be paying it off when the mortgage surplus money arrived. I moved the balance over to Virgin recently becaue of the 0%, I had to phone them up with a question and found them a lot easier to deal with than Egg.

Thats my only experience if it's any help.

[etccarmageddon]

virgin money offer 0% for 9 months and have an excellent on line service. but their credit card only offers it on the balance transfer.

sainsbury offer 0% on all purchases for 12 months but not on balance transfers.

this is the one for you:-
http://www.halifax.co.uk/creditcards/one.shtml

The Halifax One Card offers 0% interest on balance transfers and purchases for the first 9 months.

they also have a good on line service. also some companies - e.g. mbna and virgin are putting a 2% charge clause on any balance transfers - they say they 'may' charge this. halifax dont have the 2% charge which is why I recommend them along with the fact their site allows on line payments and is bordering on excellent.

with regards to taking out a loan - you can get "5.9% p.a. for the life of all balances transferred before 30th April 2005" from tesco.com or take out a loan with northern rock at 5.7% apr.

Originally Posted by carlingman

Any advice as ever greatly appreciated.

My question is can anyone recommend some good companies to do a balance transfer to.

Visit and sign up to the mailing list at http://www.MoneySavingExpert.com for all the information you need!

[Escapee]

Originally Posted by Graham

Visit and sign up to the mailing list at http://www.MoneySavingExpert.com for all the information you need!

So your'e a credit tart as well then Graham

Originally Posted by Escapee

So your'e a credit tart as well then Graham

Damn right!

[susie r]

Have to agree with ectarmageddon on this one.especially as I work for the Halifax , it is one of the best cards on the High street,and you can choose to have either the One card with o.5% cashback or go for a charity card where all the cashback earned goes to your chosen charity, the Halifax will even donate £25 to that charity when you open the account.

[Scarlett]

Originally Posted by carlingman

Any advice as ever greatly appreciated.

Anyhow back to the topic raised anyone have any good experiences of transferring to Egg or can anyone suggest any better deals.

Thanks

I'd actually suggest keeping clear of Egg, they recently reduced there benifits and increased there interest rates in an amusing letter that tried to convice me that I'd got the better end of the deal! As others have pointed out, there are some da*n good offers availible out there at the mo.

Scarlett

Originally Posted by Scarlett

I'd actually suggest keeping clear of Egg, they recently reduced there benifits and increased there interest rates in an amusing letter that tried to convice me that I'd got the better end of the deal! As others have pointed out, there are some da*n good offers availible out there at the mo.

Scarlett

EGG are pants, try to get through to them is like trying to slice a stone in two.

[etccarmageddon]

Halifax had a good deal 18 months ago - sign up via and exclusive deal with moneysupermarket for a balance transfer credit card plus they gave me £50 credit. Very nice!

Originally Posted by Nidge

EGG are pants, try to get through to them is like trying to slice a stone in two.

I've had an Egg credit card and got an Egg savings account and never had problems contacting them.

[carlingman]

Thanks all.

Halifax looks promising option.

[seaneeboy]

I've always had lots of luck with egg, they have increadibly good customer service.

I'd also reccommend checking www.fool.co.uk for info on how to keep the interest rates down.

DO NOT Get "Loan protectors" - they are a complete rip off. Chances are they provide little more cover than your pension or home insurance does already.

[Shaun]

Originally Posted by susie r

Have to agree with ectarmageddon on this one.especially as I work for the Halifax , it is one of the best cards on the High street,and you can choose to have either the One card with o.5% cashback or go for a charity card where all the cashback earned goes to your chosen charity, the Halifax will even donate £25 to that charity when you open the account.

If you want to give to charity through your card then I'd suggest like Graham you try martins site at www.moneysavingexpert.com as he has an article on exactly how to go about it to give the most to charity (and as you can guess it doesn't involve a charity card ).

[Dave Stones]

dragging up an old thread here..... was leafing through the T&Cs of my credit card (like you do) and found out that the interest rate for my HSBC student mastercard is 17.9%APR.... now i know where they get the money from to give us all £100 worth of railcard...

anyway so i am looking for a balance transfer to somewhere cheap. currently i have a ISA savings account with IF, their credit card claims to be

Enjoy 0% p.a. on purchases and balance transfers for your first 9 months, typical 12.9% APR (variable) This account offers:
12.9% APR standard rate for purchases and balance transfers
Apply for additional card holders free of charge
Accepted in over 24 million locations and 130 countries worldwide Withdraw money from cash machines across the world wherever you see the Visa sign

which seems fairly good, compared to what i already have. my credit limit is low, but almost maxed out and i dont like paying off just the interest every month . is a balance transfer something which would work in my favour?

(my credit rating is fairly shabby though, just like all students )