After some poor planning and bad luck I have ended up with a sizable cc bill and the interest is about half of what I can pay off every month so how easy would it be to transfer to a new provider with 0% interest.

If you’ve got an OK credit rating it’s very easy. Fill the forms in on the website, tell them how much you want to transfer and they sort the rest of it out. Obviously the transfer amount will need to be less than the new credit limit etc

Did it a couple of years ago and all done on line. Was far too easy. Think I used creation and then paid it off over 12 months.

You’ll need a decent credit rating to get a deal and then you’ll pay 2% of the balance/transfer as a fee so you need to look for the longest interest free period and work out what it’ll all cost. MoneySupermarket et all are good for comparing.

Pretty easy, the new guys make it so. I think they are a bit wiser these days to balance surfing, in the past people shifted around their debt like this every 6 months. Be aware that every new £1 you spend will attract interest from the day you spend it on the new card. Best way to shift the debt is balance transfer then pay off some each month and use debit card or cash for new purchases.

Very easy indeed. Use the moneysaving expert credit card eligibility tool to find the right card for your rating – refused applications don’t just disappoint, they knack up your score.

For multiple cards use a snowball calculator spreadsheet to work out who you owe, how much and most importantly how long it’ll all take to pay off. Lots of these online.

Good luck!

Do it over the phone or even online with a few clicks. Easy as pie.

Depends on the amount you need to transfer but a lot of new applications give pretty small credit limit’s initially. But when you do get the card it is very easy.

You’ll need a decent credit rating to get a deal and then you’ll pay 2% of the balance/transfer as a fee so you need to look for the longest interest free period and work out what it’ll all cost.

Fee will vary.

Martin Lewis is always banging on about this, IIRC Barclaycard currently have the longest – 34 months I think it is. But yes, all contingent on getting a suitable credit limit. Even if you can’t cover the whole debt it may make sense to transfer what you can onto it and pay the minimum, obviously you’re pretty screwed if you can’t even cover the interest each month, so I’m guessing big sums?

Very easy but good advice above, especially the bit about not actually using the 0% card to buy anything as your payments will go against the 0% part and then incur interest at the normal rate on whatever you spend.

They changed the rules a while back – you pay off the highest interest debt first these days.

you’re pretty screwed if you can’t even cover the interest each month

He says the interest is half what he can afford, not double.

He says the interest is half what he can afford, not double.

Ah yes, learn to read posts properly before replying, I read he could only pay off half the interest each month! In which case I’d not get too worried about the potential of a small credit limit.

Even if you only transfer (say) £1k of a £3k debt you’ll incur less interest on the £2k remaining.

I have another question. Imagine I had two cards with the same credit limit, both say 2/3 full. I could use the 1/3 free balance to swap 1/2 of each balance over.

Assming the transfer offer rules allow, and I did this again – the incoming money from the second balance transfer would have to pay off the interest incurring part, wouldn’t it? Rather than the interest fee part?

Isn’t it a rule that any payments you make have to pay off the highest interest balance first? Is that also applicable to balance transfers?

I thought you couldn’t get free balance transfers any more, they charge a fee to stop you indefinitely switching to 0% deals?

I thought you couldn’t get free balance transfers any more, they charge a fee to stop you indefinitely switching to 0% deals?

Indeed, but even at the higher fees (some charge 3-4%), if you get interest free for 12-18 months, it’s still very cheap, even better if you can get longer than 18 months.

They’re not free but you can get ones with a small charge, barclaycard is 1.9% at the moment.

Cheers all looks like I’ll be sorting that tonight and as said any amount I can transfer is less I have to pay interest on.

stumbled upon a cheeky rouse by a credit card company
They never show on the statement what the balance transfer amount with 0% only the combined credit amount.
So you can pay your monthly transaction every month and get whacked with full interest over the outstanding balance every month if you dont keep your own running total over overpayments / underpayments.

This means you never know how much to pay off each month to ensure you keep within the credit for 0%

Obviously not all credit card companies do this only the unscrupulous ones 🙂