Barclaycard launches two-year 0% balance transfer credit card

Banking and Borrowing

Updated on 23 December 2011 | 0 Comments

The new Platinum card goes straight to the top of the balance transfer best buy table.

If you’ve got some post-Christmas debt but you want to pay it off gradually, Barclaycard has just launched a credit card that won't charge interest on balance transfers for a whole two years.

The Platinum card goes straight to the top of the best buy tables for its interest-free period. And it trumps HSBC’s 23-month interest-free MasterCard, which was launched earlier this week but is only available to existing customers of the bank.

The Barclaycard Platinum comes with a handling fee of 3.2% of the balance being transferred. If you don’t pay off your debt within the 24 months, it has a typical APR of 17.9%.

It also offers a three-month interest-free period on purchases, although you’d probably be wise not to spend it on it if you’ve already got debts.

If you already have a Barclaycard...

If you already have a Barclaycard, you won’t be able to transfer your debt on to this credit card. In which case, if you’re an HSBC customer you could consider the HSBC MasterCard I mentioned earlier. It comes with a 3.3% balance transfer fee and has a typical APR of 17.9%.

If you’re not an HSBC customer, you could look at the Halifax MasterCard, which offers and interest-free period of 22 months. It has a slightly higher 3.5% balance transfer fee and you can’t transfer debt from other Halifax or Bank of Scotland cards onto it.

As always, I should emphasise that not all applicants will get a 0% credit card. That’s because the credit card providers are only really interested in people with good credit ratings.

If you’re struggling with your debts, you get free debt advice from the following charities: National Debtline, the Consumer Credit Counselling Service or Citizens Advice.

Compare top credit cards in our credit card comparison centre

More: Government to ban excessive card fees | Best credit cards if you have bad credit

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