Virgin still top the interest-free balance transfer market with their credit card offering.
Product Details
Virgin - Credit Card
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What's the deal?
The Virgin Credit Card offers interest-free balance transfers for a market leading 15 months (2.98% handling fee) and 0% on new purchases for 6 months.
What makes it great?
With its 15 month 0% balance transfer offering, the Virgin Credit Card still stands out from the competition, despite having a handling fee that's 0.08% higher than an otherwise equivalent balance transfer deal from HSBC.
Largely this is because, rather than simply allowing card-to-card balance transfers like the majority of their competitors, they offer something a little different. Referred to as 'money transfers', Virgin allow you to use their 0% balance transfer offer to move any debt you hold as, say, an overdraft or personal loan, onto the card in addition to any existing credit card debt you want to transfer.
The Virgin Credit Card also offers 0% on purchases for 6 months and while the general rule is that you should never spend on a balance transfer card (because of something called negative order of payment), Virgin give you a little leeway.
While they clearly state that they will allocate repayments to your cheapest debts first, unlike other providers they also state that for balances which attract the same promotional rate (i.e. 0% in the case of this particular purchase and balance transfer offer) they will assign your repayments to the promotional offer that ends first. This means that if you make new purchases on your credit card within the first 6 months, providing you pay off enough to clear this new balance completely by the end of the promotional period, you escape the perils of the negative order of payment trap.
It is important to note, however, that if you fail to clear the full balance of your new purchases by the time the 6 months are up, the outstanding will become trapped on your card accumulating interest at the standard purchase rate (currently 16.6% APR) until you pay off your balance transfer completely. As such, by taking advantage of this loophole you're playing a risky game with the interest free offer.
Who would it suit?
This card is best suited to individuals who are looking for an interest-free opportunity to clear their unsecured debts and are confident that they can repay the whole amount within 15 months.
What's the catch?
The 0% interest free offer is only extended to balances transferred within the first 60 days of your card application being approved and a balance transfer fee of 2.98% will be charged.
You will also need to ensure you meet the required repayments in full and on time otherwise you may forfeit the interest-free offering and Virgin may switch your outstanding balance to a higher APR.
The Virgin Credit Card is actually issued by credit card providers MBNA. Consequently, if you already hold an MBNA-issued card you may not be approved for the Virgin Credit Card. Additionally, it also means that you're unlikely to be able to transfers any outstanding balances you hold on an MBNA-issued card to your Virgin Credit Card under the interest free balance transfer offer.
What's the alternative?
The HSBC Credit Card offers an equivalent 15 months' worth of interest free balance transfers and only charges a 2.9% handling fee. It is, however, only available to existing HSBC customers.
The Abbey Credit Card also offers 0% for 15 months on balance transfers, doesn't restrict its availability to existing-customers and only charges a slightly higher balance transfer fee of 3% making it a more accessible option than the HSBC equivalent.
If you aren't sure that you'll be able to clear your outstanding balance within the 15 month interest-free period it may be worth looking at a lifetime balance transfer card instead. You will pay interest on your debts with this type of card but it will usually be at a much lower rate than most lenders' standard purchase APR.
The lowest-rate life of balance transfer card currently available is the Barclaycard Simplicity credit card that charges a flat 6.8% APR on all balances.
We have done our very best to make sure that the information included in this Deal is accurate. However, sometimes offers can be withdrawn or changed at the last minute so please do check that you're able to redeem this Deal before parting with any money, or going out of your way to take advantage of the offer.
