22
Aug
2023
A question about : MBNA balance transfer card for my overdraft
Please advise me if it is worth getting a MBNA balance transfer card for my overdraft of 3.500 as having to pay a monthly bank charge of Ј100.00
Best answers:
- Well if your overdraft is constantly around Ј3,500 and that manifests itself as a Ј100 per month charge that would appear to equate to 40% APR if the "charge" is all overdraft interest with no reduction in the capital owed
If you are in a position to balance transfer of the lot to MBNA for a one off 4% handling charge followed perhaps by a year at 0% then it looks like a no brainer for those 12 months (I am guessing their current terms are a 4% handling charge for transfer directly into a current account).
But you have to have a plan for what you will do with it next before MBNA start charging you their full rate of interest at the end of the 0% period. Would you be able to put it back on overdraft or are you likely to have re-drawn the overdraft by then by spending it on something else?
If you don't feel comfortable with managing debts of this size or if you don't understand interest rates and how to compare them for optimising debt like this then perhaps you should take advice from an organisation like Stepchange. - Definitely...just remember to transfer the money again to another 0% card before the interest free period runs out. You need to make sure that the card you transfer to when it runs out is not an MBNA run card, such as Virgin and they also have many affinity cards like WWF. If it is another MBNA run card they won't be able to do it. Also be aware it can take up to 10 days for a balance transfer to complete.
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