Battle of the 22 month 0% balance transfer cards!

Category: Credit cards
Date: 8/18/2011

It's difficult to keep up with everything that's happening in the 0% balance transfer market. Competition is fierce!

Recently Barclaycard released the longest ever 0% balance transfer card – for 24 months. It was an aggressive move and although no-one's offering 0% for 24 months at the moment, there are two cards offering 0% for 22 months.

Twenty-two months, to put it another way, is the second longest 0% balance transfer deal ever offered.

The 2 top 0% balance transfer credit cards

	Halifax Balance Transfer Credit Card Mastercard	Barclaycard Extended Balance Transfer Visa
Introductory Balance Transfer Period	0% for 22 months	0% for 22 months
Balance Transfer Fee	3.50% (min £3.00)	2.90% (min £7.25)
APR	17.9%	17.5%
Representative Example	Based on a credit limit of £1,200 charged at 17.9% variable per annum for purchases. Representative 17.9% APR variable.	Based on a credit limit of £1,200 charged at 17.5% variable per annum for purchases. Representative 17.5% APR variable.

Halifax and Barclaycard are battling it out to be the top card. Although neither would win a catchy name competition, Barclaycard just has the edge over Halifax. That's because:

• Barclaycard offers a lower balance transfer fee
• Barclaycard offers a lower Representative APR
• Halifax is limiting its balance transfer deal to balance transfers of up to £3,000, while Barclaycard imposes no limit (other than the credit limit it offers you)

Although the Halifax Balance Transfer Credit Card is a little more expensive to transfer a balance to, it might be suitable for you if you need to transfer credit card balances away from Barclaycard. This is because you can't transfer balances you already have with a particular credit card provider, to a new promotional rate with that same provider.

Disclaimer: Information is correct as of the date of publication (shown at the top of this article). Any products featured may be withdrawn by their provider or changed at anytime.