The Bank of Scotland now offers the cheapest 0% balance transfer deal around, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best deal to go for…
The Bank of Scotland has reduced the balance transfer fee on its Platinum Balance Transfer MasterCard .
The deal, which comes with 0% on balance transfers for 15 months as well as interest-free purchases for 6 months, usually attracts a 3% fee.
But now borrowers can get a partial fee refund on any balance transfers (minimum £100) made within 90 days of opening the account, bringing the fee down to just 0.7%.
So shifting £2,000 onto the card, for example, will now only cost you £14 rather than £60 - a saving of £46.
The cheapest 0% balance transfer cards
If you want to save money by shifting expensive credit card debt onto a 0% deal, the fee is an important element to consider as this represents the upfront cost you will have to make.
The table below shows the best 0% balance transfer cards that come with a fee of less than 1%. For more take a look at The best 0% balance transfer credit cards.
|
Credit card |
0% balance transfer period |
Balance transfer fee |
Fee on £2,000 transfer |
APR |
|
15 months |
0.7% |
£14 |
17.9% |
|
|
26 months |
0.75% (until 31st March 2014) |
£15 |
15.9% |
|
|
26 months |
0.75% (until 31st March 2014) |
£15 |
17.9% |
|
|
Fluid Low Balance Transfer Card |
12 months |
0.75% |
£15 |
18.9% |
|
15 months |
0.8% |
£16 |
17.9% |
|
|
15 months |
0.8% |
£16 |
17.9% |
|
|
15 months |
0.8% |
£16 |
17.9% |
|
|
12 months |
0.85% |
£17 |
18.9% |
|
|
17 months |
0.9% |
£18 |
18.9% |
|
|
15 months |
0.9% |
£18 |
16.9% |
|
|
Royal Bank of Scotland Platinum Balance Transfer and Purchase Credit Card |
15 months |
0.9% |
£18 |
16.9% |
As you can see the move from Bank of Scotland makes the Platinum Balance Transfer MasterCard the cheapest balance transfer deal available right now.
But that doesn't necessarily mean it's the beast deal to go for...
Is cheapest best?
The new offer on the Bank of Scotland Platinum Balance Transfer MasterCard may be the cheapest balance transfer deal around but you could get a much better offer for hardly any difference on the fee.
The Bank of Scotland Platinum Balance Transfer MasterCard deal will last 15 months before the credit card debt you move over starts accumulating interest again. While 15 months is a healthy amount of time to clear your debt, other low-fee cards can offer much longer.
[SPOTLIGHT]The Nationwide Select and Visa for example come with 26 months 0% on balance transfers and until 31st March a 0.75% fee on balance transfers. That's 11 months extra for just 0.05% more on the fee! On a £2,000 transfer this equates to just £1 more.
With the Select card you also get 15 months interest-free on purchases, 0.5% unlimited cashback on all sterling transactions, commission-free purchases abroad and the chance to get a low representative APR of 15.9%. However, only new and existing Nationwide FlexAccount, FlexDirect and FlexPlus current account customers are eligible for this brilliant all-round card.
If you don't fancy signing up for a Nationwide current account, the Visa card is available to anyone. However, it comes with just three months interest-free on purchases and a bigger representative APR of 17.9%.
However, 26 months may not even be enough, in which case you could go for the longest lasting balance transfer deal.
At the moment that comes from the Barclaycard Platinum Visa which offers 31 months 0% on balance transfers. The balance transfer attracts a 2.99% fee (reduced from 3.5%). On a £2,000 transfer that means you have to pay £59.80 to shift it over.
Compare balance transfer credit cards
How to get the best deal
0% balance transfer deals are great tools that can help you get back in control of your credit card debt.
They allow you to move expensive balances onto a new 0% deal which can freeze the size of your debt - allowing you to truly hack away at it each month.
But getting the best deal can be tricky as you will need to balance the length of the 0% period with the size of the fee.
What makes this balancing act difficult is that the length of the 0% deal and fee don't always correlate. Some longer lasting 0% cards don't necessarily charge the biggest fees and vice versa.
A good way to go about working out which deal is right for you is to decide how much credit card debt you need to transfer onto a 0% card. Then try to figure out how much time you will need to clear the total debt you need to move over.
Armed with this information you can shop around and look for cards that match your estimate and try to find the most affordable deal.
Compare balance transfer credit cards
More on credit cards:
The best 0% purchase credit cards
The best credit cards to use on your travels
American Express launches exclusive 0% purchase and cashback credit card
Sainsbury's launches 0% balance transfer card that refunds fee with Nectar points