Credit card advice..

[okgo]

Hi chaps,

You may recall my thread on debt, thankfully most of it has now gone, I am still waiting for that inheritance to be signed off, so for now I have to make plans with my remaining 3k credit card debt.

I have a plan (which I have already half actioned)

At the minute I have 1k debt on a lloyds card @ 4.9% until xmas, and 16% therafter.

Credit Limit £1000

I have a virgin card with 2k on it @ 26% (!!!) Virgin are offering a fixed rate of 10.9% on all balance transfers untill Christmas.

Credit limit £3600

So my thinking was this..

I have transferred balance of the Lloyds card onto the virgin (so technically 1k of the 2k already on there should now be at 10.9 as opposed to 28) although I am not sure how this is displayed..

What I wanted to do was now cycle the bad debt (28%) onto the Lloyd's card 1k at a time (2 transfers in total as I will leave 1k on the Lloyds) and then transfer it back to virgin to make use of the 10% offer..

Does that work?

In an ideal world I would just get a 0% card for a year, but I can;t get accepted despite a decent credit rating and score. I think its age, and current climate.

[Big Bad Ben]

okgo said:

Hi chaps,

You may recall my thread on debt, thankfully most of it has now gone, I am still waiting for that inheritance to be signed off, so for now I have to make plans with my remaining 3k credit card debt.

I have a plan (which I have already half actioned)

At the minute I have 1k debt on a lloyds card @ 4.9% until xmas, and 16% therafter.

Credit Limit £1000

I have a virgin card with 2k on it @ 26% (!!!) Virgin are offering a fixed rate of 10.9% on all balance transfers untill Christmas.

Credit limit £3600

So my thinking was this..

I have transferred balance of the Lloyds card onto the virgin (so technically 1k of the 2k already on there should now be at 10.9 as opposed to 28) although I am not sure how this is displayed..

What I wanted to do was now cycle the bad debt (28%) onto the Lloyd's card 1k at a time (2 transfers in total as I will leave 1k on the Lloyds) and then transfer it back to virgin to make use of the 10% offer..

Does that work?

In an ideal world I would just get a 0% card for a year, but I can;t get accepted despite a decent credit rating and score. I think its age, and current climate.

I think that Virgin's terms are that they remove the cheapest part of the debt from the bill first, so as you say, when you tfr the £1k from Lloyds you'll have £1k at 10.9% and £2k at 26% on the Virgin card. But when you do the balance transfer onto the Lloyds card, you'll still have £2k at 26% left on the Virgin card, as they remove the 10.9% debt first...

Also, depending on how fast you're thinking of paying off the debt, the balance transfer fees may cost you more than the interest on the cards. ETA: Sorry, my brain must've come unplugged when I wrote that (unless you're going to pay off the Virgin CC within a month)!

Will Lloyds increase your credit limit on that card?

Edited by Big Bad Ben on Wednesday 20th May 12:29

[okgo]

Barstewards.

I don't think they will no.

[Big Bad Ben]

okgo said:

Barstewards.

I don't think they will no.

Might be worth a phone call to them to double check this is their policy for your account, it might be different from mine.

Do you think Virgin would reduce the interest rate? It's always worth an ask, according to the moneysavingexpert forums.

Could you sign up for a third credit card with a £3k limit and a low introductory offer on balance transfers and move all the debt onto it?

[okgo]

Won't get another card, for some reason I don't get a look in these days. As said I am only young though. So probably not the greatest candidate in these times.