Credit card balance transfer help!

[puppydogg14]

Hi all!
So I have two credit cards
One with a balance of £2500
And another with a balcnr of £2000

Barclaycard who I have the £2500 card with have just emailed me to offer a 0% balance transfer until November 2024.

So I can consolidate the two cards onto one and hopefully pay it off before the balance transfer period ends.

I'm trying to look online as to what my payments will be roughly each month but can't work it out?
Can anyone help!

Or will depend on what your interest rate is.

The balance with the highest interest will be paid off first, so Barclays will allocate your payment onto your existing balance first.

Assuming you want to clear all balances by Nov, you need to calculate how much interest you will pay first.

How much can you afford to pay each month is probably a better starting point.

Not enough info. But I suspect it won't work as you hope it will.

Are you paying interest on the £2500 with Barclaycard, or is this balance covered by a 0% offer already?

Ideally, you would have £0 balance on the card offering the transfer, then transfer a different card's balance onto it. Then, so long as you do not spend on this card, you can take advantage of the 0% offer to pay it off before the end date.

If you can confirm the interest rate(s) on your current balance it would be easier to say. If different amounts have different interest rates it will need a full breakdown.

And I would need to know the balance transfer fee.

So my interest rate on the Barclaycard one is 24.9%
The balance transfer fee is £58.

And would be 0% on the amount balance transferred until November 24.

So by my rough calculations, if the next payments after the transfer is in March, paying £250 a month would settle your current Barclaycard balance in January 2024. Giving you 10 more payments to clear the transferred £2000. Which at 250 a month will work with a bit of leeway.

That is a rough calculation, and will rely on you not making any additional purchases on the card.

Right. However, you'll still be paying 24.9% on the £2500 balance, plus you'll have the additional £2k.

How do Barclaycard allocate your monthly payments? What is the rate on your £2k card? Are you still spending on either of these cards?

Neither cards are being used now.
The other card is on 25.9% currently.

Payments on the Barclaycard will be allocated onto the higher interest part first

I'm currently paying £230 across both cards each month, so just thought if my payments out were roughly the same, it would make sense to have at least a section of the balance on a 0% and not incurring more interest until I can pay it down more

How much credit do you have available on the Barclaycard? It is possible that borrowing the full £4.5k as a Money Transfer would work - if this is available and you have enough credit available. Then you could use the money (paid into your bank) to pay off the £4.5k on both cards. But this would only work if Barclaycard allocated your £2.5k payment to the current balance. I think they do, if they allocate to the highest interest balance first, but you would need to be certain.

If you were able to do this and not spend on the Barclaycard, you could pay £230 or so per month and pay off the balance in 20 months approx. You would need to be disciplined and not use the Barclaycard though, as different types of balances can mess up the payment allocation and trigger interest.

I've just looked at my Barclaycard offers. I have Balance Transfer until Nov 24, or Money Transfer until May 24.

Assuming you could borrow the £4.5k, plus £162 in fees, you could pay it all off in 14 months for £333 per month. 15 months for £310. I don't know how much your monthly interest charges are, but it is certainly worth considering.

£230 should do it, assuming your interest does not increase.

At 25.9 APR, paying £230 a month would clear your existing Barclaycard balance of £2500 in March 2024.

Then the following 9 monthly payments of £230 would cover your 0% balance transfer.

As long as you are strict on no card usage it will work, and will reduce the interest you pay overall.

You can't usually transfer to a 0% deal with the same provider, so might not be able to move the Barclaycard balance to this deal.

Minimum payment will be between 1 and 2.% of the balance, so less than the amount required to pay the balance off before the end of the 0% period, so not a huge consideration.

However, that's not a great deal, so you might want to look on Moneysaving Expert to see if you can beat it, and get one with a new provider that you can transfer the Barclaycard balance to.

I make use of 0% deals to make money by offsetting against savings, and I've never paid a fee to do a balance transfer (or certainly nowhere near as high as 2%) and the interest free period is usually at least 2 years.