The Barclaycard Credit Card with Balance Transfer now offers interest free balance transfers for 15 months.
Product Details
Barclaycard - Platinum With BT (22 Mths)
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What's the deal?
The Barclaycard Platinum credit card with Balance Transfer offers interest free balance transfers for 15 months (subject to a 2.9% handling fee), interest free purchases for 3 months and applies interest at a rate of 15.9% APR thereafter.
It's also fitted with contactless payment technology so you can pay for purchases under £10 without entering a PIN.
What makes it great?
The card's 15 month 0% balance transfer offer is one of the longest available - beaten only by Virgin's 16 month deal. However, for those who can cope with a month less to pay off their balance, the reward is a cheaper handling fee that will help you to save a little more overall (2.9% vs Virgin's 2.98%).
As an added bonus, Barclaycard will text you a reminder 5 days before your next payment is due - and it doesn't cost you a penny. This is a service well worth opting in for (if you've not set up payment by direct debit) so that you never forget to pay on time and get stung with fees and, in the worse case scenario, lose your interest free privileges.
Who would it suit?
The card is most suited to those who are looking for a long term balance transfer and are reasonably confident that they could pay off their balance within the 15 month time span. Handling fee-wise it's the most competitive balance transfer card available that's accessible .
Barclaycard are quite specific about who will, and who won't get approved for a card. This is really helpful from a potential applicant's perspective as it gives you a good idea as to whether your application will be approved, or whether it'll fall at the first hurdle.
You'll need to be aged 21 or over, earn at least £20,000 and have had a permanent UK address for the last 3 months. You'll also need to have a good credit rating, at least 4 years' worth of credit experience (be it managing a credit or store card, a loan, overdraft, mortgage or some other kind of borrowing) and a history of making payments on time. It's also worth noting that the card is only available to those don't already have a Barclaycard.
What's the catch?
The first thing to point out is that you will need to transfer any balances within 60 days of getting approved for them to be included in the 0% deal. Leave it too late and you'll miss out on the interest free offer.
Next, you need to be aware the you won't be able to transfer any balances currently on credit cards, loans or overdrafts held with Barclays as part of the 0% deal. So, if this is what you're looking to do you'll need to look elsewhere.
You'll be able to transfer up to £5,000 (or 90% of your credit limit) under the interest free balance transfer offer. So, if you're looking to move more than this you'll need to have a contingency plan for the remainder. The minimum amount you can transfer under the 0% deal is £250.
Finally, once you're approved for the card it's really important that you use it for balance transfers alone (if that's what you plan to do with it of course - if you just want it for spending then go right ahead but bear in mind there are cheaper purchase deals out there).
While the 3 months' interest free on purchases is there tempting you to splurge, bear in mind that it'll also mean that your new buys are likely to work out far more expensive in the long run. This is because of the way your repayments are allocated to your outstanding balance.
So, if you opt for this card with the intention of making a balance transfer, just make sure you do your spending on another card.
What's the alternative?
As mentioned above the Virgin credit card offers the longest balance transfer deal available with 16 interest free months on offer. It does however, apply a slightly higher handling fee of 2.98% to any amount you move on to the card.
Alternatively, NatWest, RBS, HSBC and First Direct all offer balance transfer deals that are identical to the Barclaycard credit card with Balance Transfer. The difference being that they are only available to their existing customers. However, while this does restrict their availability significantly, if you're an existing customer of one of these banks and you already have a Barclaycard, they're worth a look. Do bear in mind though that the Typical APR applied to standard balances is higher for these cards than for the Barclaycard.
Santander are also running a '0% for 15 months' offer on balance transfers but they levy a handling fee of 3%, making it a more expensive option comparatively.
If you envisage taking longer than 15 or even 16 months to pay off your balance and can't see yourself switching to another 0% deal when this one expires, then it's worth looking at the lifetime balance transfer and low standard rate credit cards on offer.
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.
