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Beware the Balance Transfer Fee!

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Balance transfer offers have been an incredibly popular feature of credit cards in recent years, offering the chance to save a decent amount of cash by moving your debt around from card to card to avoid paying interest indefinitely, or by transferring a balance to a 'low rate for life' card to benefit from reduced payments while you clear it.

The success of these deals has backfired somewhat on credit card issuers - as people have learned to play the system to their own benefit, credit card companies have been estimated to lose up to £80m a month from the offers.

In an effort to minimise these losses, card companies such as Barclaycard and MBNA earlier this year began to charge customers a 'handling fee' for making a balance transfer. Many other cards have followed suit over the last few months, meaning that using balance transfer facilities is no longer a cut-and-dried proposition - depending on the amounts involved, you may actually lose money from the deal.

Fee-Free Cards

It's not too late to play the balance transfer game though, as many cards still don't charge a fee - indeed, Sainsbury's have made quite a fuss about not having a fee during their recent relaunch of their card range.

The problem is now that it's now virtually impossible to get a 0% deal without paying a fee - most deals are now of the long term low rate variety.

Cards which don't currently charge a fee include: Barclaycard Initial, Cahoot Visa, Co-op Clear, Co-operative Bank Fixed Rate Visa, Intelligent Finance Flat Rate, Smile, and Student Barclaycard.

Compare Balance Transfer Fees

The table below shows details of any fees applying to cards we've reviewed on this site.

  (Data last updated Thursday 24th 2008f July 2008)

Card Fee Details Minimum Fee Maximum Fee Balance Transfer Rate (APR) Intro Rate Period
Abbey Balance Transfer Card 2.5% £3 Unlimited 0% for 13 months
AOL Card 2% of transferred amount £3 £50 0% for 12 months
ASDA Credit Card 2.5% of the transfer £5 0% for 9 months
Barclaycard Breathe 2.5% £6.25 0% for 12 months
Barclaycard Flexi-Rate 2.5% £2.50 No maximum charge 0% for 14 months
Barclaycard Platinum 2.9% £2.50 Unlimited 0% for 14 months
Barclaycard Platinum Cashback 2.9% None Unlimited 0% for 12 months
Barclaycard Simplicity 2.5% - -
BMI Classic Mastercard 3% handling fee £3 Unlimited 0% for 12 months
BT Card 3% handling fee £3 0% for 12 months
Buy and Fly Mastercard 2% £3 £50 0% for 9 months
Capital One Classic 3% - -
Capital One Mastercard 3% fee No minimum No maximum 0% until 1st March 2009
Capital One Platinum 3% 0 Unlimited 0% until 1st October 2009
Capital One Platinum Cash Back 3% - -
Citi Platinum Mastercard 3% £5 Unlimited 0% for 12 months
Citibank Shell Mastercard 3% £5 Unlimited 0% for 12 months
Co-op Advantage Platinum 2.5% £5 £100 0% for 6 months
Co-op Travel Card 2.5% £ 0% for 6 months
Conran Credit Card All balance transfers subject to a 2% handling fee £3 £50 0% for 12 months from account opening
Delta Airlines Skymiles Card 2% £3 No maximum 0% for 9 months
Egg Card For each balance transfer there is a 3% handling fee £50 0% until 1st September 2009
England Cricket Card 2% fee £3 £50 0% for 12 months
GM Platinum 2% handling fee £5 0% for 5 months
Goldfish Card 3% £3 4.9% for 36 months
Halifax All In One 3% £3 No upper limit to balance transfer fee 0% for 10 months
Hilton Mastercard 2% of the amount transferred £5 £50 0% for 6 months
HSBC Card 2.5% of the transfer amount £5 No upper limit stated 0% for 13 months
John Lewis Card 2% £5 £50 0% for 6 months
Leeds Building Society Mastercard 2% £3 £50 5.9% for the life of the balance
Lloyds Advance 3% 4.9% for 3 months
Lloyds Platinum 2.5% £2.50 No upper limit 0% for 14 months
Marbles Card Fee of 2% of the amount of each Balance Transfer £5 None specified 0% for 12 months
Marks and Spencer &More 2 £5 No upper limit 0% for 6 months
MBNA Platinum Plus 2.9% handling fee on balance transfers £3 0% until September 2009
MBNA Platinum Rewards 2.9% balance transfer fee £3 0% until September 2009
MBNA Rewards American Express 3% handling fee £3 No maximum 0% for 12 months
Mint Card 2.9% of the transaction amount £5 0% until 1st August 2009
Morgan Stanley Gold Card 2% 0% for 6 months
Morgan Stanley Platinum Card 1% 0 0 3.9% until 1st July 2010
NatWest Classic Card 2.9% £5 0% for 13 months
Natwest Gold Card 2.9% £5 0% for 13 months
NatWest Platinum 2.9% £5 0% for 13 months
Post Office Credit Card 2.75% £3 No maximum charge 0% for 10 months
Priority Club Card 2% £3 £50 0% for 12 months
RBS Classic Card 2.9% £5 0% for 13 months
RSPCA Visa Fee of 3% of the amount of each Balance Transfer £3 Unlimited 0% for 12 months
Ryan Air Card 2.99% fee £5 0% for 6 months
Sainsbury's Mastercard 3% £3 Unlimited 0% for 10 months
Sony Card 3% £3 No maximum limit 0% for 12 months
Tesco Bonus Card 2.9% Unlimited 0% for 13 months
Tesco Clubcard Card Balance transfers subject to a handling fee of 2.9% Unlimited 0% for 13 months
Virgin Card 2.98% handling fee £3 0% for 15 months




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