The Barclaycard Platinum credit card, offering the longest-ever interest-free period on balance transfers, will disappear at the end of the month.
When I was a kid, my Christmas stocking was always guaranteed to have one present in it – the latest edition of the Guinness Book of Records.
Year after year I’d flick, wide-eyed, through the pages admiring the man with the world’s longest moustache, the woman who spent six weeks in a bath filled with beans and the world’s largest beef burger.
There isn’t a section of the Guinness Book of World Records devoted to financial products – a strange oversight on the part of the publishers, clearly. If there was, the Barclaycard Platinum would have a page devoted to its position as the balance transfer card offering the longest interest-free period ever.
But this is one record holder that’s about to disappear from view...
The Barclaycard Platinum
The Barclaycard Platinum credit card offers an incredible 24 months of 0% interest on balance transfers. That’s a full two whole years free from interest.
Not that long ago the market stagnated with nobody willing to match Virgin Money’s offer of 16 months. Now such an offer looks downright mediocre.
Two years without the inconvenience of interest really does make even the most daunting credit card debt begin to look manageable. The table below shows the monthly payments you’d need to make on a range of debt sizes in order to clear the debt before interest rears its ugly head.
|
Debt |
Monthly repayments |
|
£1,000 |
£41.67 |
|
£1,500 |
£62.50 |
|
£2,000 |
£83.33 |
|
£2,500 |
£104.17 |
|
£3,000 |
£125 |
|
£3,500 |
£145.83 |
|
£4,000 |
£166.67 |
|
£4,500 |
£187.50 |
|
£5,000 |
£208.33 |
As you can see, one huge benefit of having such a long interest-free period is that your debt is broken down into chunks. And paying off £3,000 in monthly £125 payments, rather than handing over 18% in interest on top, sounds far more pleasant to me.
The balance transfer fee
[SPOTLIGHT]Of course, credit card providers don’t offer deals like this out of the goodness of their hearts – they make money from them too, in the form of the balance transfer fee. This is the fee you pay when – you’ve guessed it – you transfer a balance (i.e. your existing debt) onto the new card.
Back in the heady days of Virgin’s domination, Virgin’s card was notable for charging a smidgen under 3% at 2.98%.
However, you will pay a little more than that with the Barclaycard Platinum, at 3.2%. On a transfer of £5,000, that’s a difference between a fee of £149 (Virgin) and a fee of £160 (Barclaycard).
It’s worth noting though that fees in general on balance transfer deals are on the rise, as we explained in Fees rising on 0% balance transfer credit cards.
Why it’s the best
So how does the Barclaycard proposition shape up compared to the rest of the longest 0% deals in the market?
Here’s the top ten deals around currently.
|
Card |
0% period |
Balance transfer fee |
|
24 months |
3.2% |
|
|
23 months |
3.3% |
|
|
22 months |
2.9% |
|
|
22 months |
3.5% |
|
|
21 months |
2.6% |
|
|
20 months |
3% |
|
|
20 months |
2.9% |
|
|
20 months |
2.9% |
|
|
20 months |
2.99% |
|
|
18 months |
3% |
If you want it, get a move on
Undoubtedly, the balance transfer market is a competitive one. However, if you want to get hold of the best balance transfer card ever, time is running out.
The Barclaycard 24-month Platinum offer is being ditched on the 1st February. That gives you a little over a week if you want to take a break from interest for two years. Indeed, even if you want the number two card, the HSBC Visa, you’ll need to move swiftly. The card was launched as part of the bank’s January Sale, and so is also being pulled next week!