Balance Transfer Tips

The UK credit card market has a wide number of credit cards available with an introductory balance transfer offer so here are our tips on choosing a balance transfer credit card to suit your needs.

Almost all credit cards offering 0% balance transfer offers now come with a balance transfer handling fee of between 2% and 3% of the value of the amount transferred. When comparing credit cards you should not only compare the length of the balance transfer offer but also the cost of the handling fee. Ideally you want the longest balance transfer period for the lowest fee.

Read the small print of your new credit card agreement carefully, yes we know it can appear as mumbo jumbo but you need to know what to look out for. In many cases if you are a late, even by a day with your monthly repayment on your card the credit card company can withdraw the balance transfer offer, costing you money.

If you do transfer a balance to a credit card to take advantage of an introductory transfer offer, then we would recommend that you do not also use that credit card for purchases during the length of the balance transfer offer, but have a separate credit card for use when making purchases.

In most cases your monthly repayments will be set against the lowest cost debt first, i.e. the balance transfer, whilst any credit card purchases will continue to accrue interest at the standard interest rate of around 15.9%. These purchases will not begin to be repaid until the transferred balance is cleared in full.