How do I transfer existing credit card balances?

If you’re paying a high rate of interest on existing credit cards or other debt, or are coming up to the end of a good introductory offer on an existing card, then a good way of reducing your outgoings can be to transfer the balance of these debts onto another card that offers a better rate of interest.

Combining your outstanding debts onto one low interest rate card is also an excellent way to reduce your debt burden and can help you manage it more easily from a single place. Many providers will let you transfer up to five different debt balances onto a single card.

Generally, all you need to do to transfer balances to your new credit card company is to identify:

The card company where the balance is currently held
The card number
The balance amount to be transferred over

Many cards offer great balance transfer deals, either with low or 0% introductory rates for a fixed period of time, or low interest rates for the life of the transferred balance. Make sure you know which type of transfer deal is best for you. For example, cards that offer 0% interest rates for a fixed period of time on balance transfers will probably have higher standard APRs once the introductory period is over. If you think you’ll still have an outstanding balance at the end of the introductory period, it might be better to look at interest rates that extend for the life of the balance.

Balance transfers

How do I transfer existing credit card balances?