Halifax increases 0% balance transfer card offer to 31 months
Fresh challenge to Barclaycard with launch of joint-longest 0% balance transfer period.
Halifax has extended the 0% period on its top balance transfer credit card to an incredible 31 months.
The move meant the Halifax Balance Transfer Credit Card was the joint-longest 0% deal on the market, but that's no longer the case...
0% balance transfer war
Halifax was the first to challenge Barclaycard’s 31-month deal since it launched three months ago.
Barclaycard originally moved to the record-breaking offer in response to Halifax launching its own 30-month deal back in February. Halifax's card offers 31 months 0% on balance transfers, six months interest-free purchases and carries a representative APR of 18.9% once these introductory offers run out.
However, Barclaycard wasted no time in extending its top 0% offer to 32 months. Read Barclaycard launches longest ever 0% balance transfer credit card.
You can keep up to date on the best deals in our article The best 0% balance transfer credit cards.
The longest lasting 0% deals right now
Here is how the best buy table for the longest lasting 0% deal shapes up for now.
|
Credit card |
0% balance transfer period |
Balance transfer fee |
Cost of transferring a £2,000 balance |
Representative APR |
|
32 months |
2.99% |
£59.80 |
18.9% |
|
|
31 months |
2.89% |
£57.80 |
18.9% |
|
|
31 months |
3% |
£60 |
18.9% |
|
|
30 months |
2.89% |
£57.80 |
18.9% |
|
|
30 months |
2.9% |
£58 |
18.9% |
|
|
HSBC Credit Card* |
30 months |
3.3% |
£66 |
18.9% |
|
Arsenal/Aston Villa/Chelsea/Liverpool/Manchester United/Tottenham Hotspur credit cards |
29 months |
2.89% |
£57.80 |
18.9% |
|
29 months |
2.9% |
£58 |
18.9% |
|
|
29 months |
2.99% |
£59.80 |
18.9% |
|
|
29 months |
3% |
£60 |
18.9% |
*HSBC current account customers only
Choosing a balance transfer card
As well as looking at the length of a balance transfer deal you should also consider the fee associated with moving debt onto the card.
On the top-rated cards these are generally quite high, such as the 3% with the Halifax 31-month deal.
If you’re not moving over that much money, and don’t require 31 months to pay it off, a cheaper card with a lower fee would be more suitable.
Here are the cheapest 0% balance transfer deals available right now with balance transfer fees of less than 1%.
|
Credit card |
0% balance transfer period |
Balance transfer fee |
Cost of transferring a £2,000 balance |
Representative APR |
|
12 months |
0.65% |
£13 |
18.9% |
|
|
15 months |
0.7% |
£14 |
17.9% |
|
|
15 months |
0.7% |
£14 |
17.9% |
|
|
Fluid Low Fee Visa |
12 months |
0.75% |
£15 |
18.9% |
|
15 months |
0.8% |
£16 |
17.9% |
|
|
15 months |
0.8% |
£16 |
17.9% |
|
|
17 months |
0.9% |
£18 |
18.9% |
More on credit cards:
The best cashback credit cards
Most Recent
Comments
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"Incredible", "record-breaking"? Is this a money advice piece or an advertisement? I think we should be told....
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Barclaycard are currently offering interest-free money transfers with repayment periods of 6 to 9 months, it seems to vary from one cardholder to another. A £3600 money transfer (net of the 1.9% fee) would be £400 a month, which might be a bit heavy for some. So a possible alternative, even though it would mean paying the transfer fee twice, would be to then transfer such a loan to this new card from Halifax, who would charge 3% up front. The total fees would be under 5% in total with a repayment period of 31 months. Not sure if I'm missing something here, but for anyone currently holding a Barclaycard with a low or zero balance, and a high credit limit, there's a way of getting a low-cost loan with manageable repayments by doing a money transfer using their Barclaycard quickly followed by a balance transfer to Halifax (who I assume don't do money transfers at the moment). The basic point of this is that money transfers tend to have relatively short interest-free repayment periods (often only 6 months, and rarely over 12) but balance transfers offer much friendlier - i.e. longer - repayment periods. Maybe you CAN have your cake and eat it after all.
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13 May 2014