balance transfer offer

[Newk]

"Enjoy a great low rate of 0% p.a*for 6 months on balances transferred# or a Cheque to Self
We can help you get on top of your interest repayments and make some real savings. Simply transfer as little as $500 from other higher interest rate credit cards, store cards or personal loans to your Citibank account. You'll pay just 0% p.a* for 6 months on balances transferred# or If you don't have balances to transfer, you could access cash with a Cheque to Self.

A Cheque to Self is a way to access funds at the Balance Transfer rate. By requesting a Cheque to Self, you will receive a cheque that you don't just have to use to pay off another credit card. You can use the funds on anything - holidays, groceries, school fees etc.

Your Balance Transfer or Cheque to Self will be processed within ten working days.


Please note, if you accept this offer and have already taken a Balance Transfer offer at the same interest rate and promotional period, the promotional period under this offer will expire at the same time as the first Balance Transfer promotional period.

*The 0% p.a interest rate applies for 6 months on balances transferred and for Cheque to Self (Special Promotion) with this offer. Transferred balances are repaid first. At the end of the balance transfer period your interest rate will revert to the standard Annual Percentage Rate for cash advances, which is set out on your statement along with the Annual Percentage Rate for retail purchases. Interest rates are variable, subject to change and credit criteria.

#Balance Transfer and Cheque to Self will be processed subject to available credit in the order requested by you and cannot be made between Citibank accounts. Other service fees and charges including late payment and dishonour fees may apply.


A Cheque to Self gives you extra cash that you can spend on anything you want, like that holiday you’ve been meaning to have or the plasma television you’ve always wanted. Or you can simply deposit it into an account for a rainy day or emergency.

You can transfer as little as $500 and your Balance Transfer or Cheque to Self will be processed within 10 working days.

[SIZE=0.5]*The 0% p.a interest rate applies to balances transferred or Cheque to Self (Special Promotion) with this offer and applies for 6 months on balances transferred.

Transferred balances\Cheques to Self will be repaid first. Any transactions made other than with this offer are at your standard account interest rate, which is variable and subject to change."


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[Newk]

the above offer wasn't sent to me but I found it when tooling around in my account. So if the offer is of interest look in your account under "my offers" and see what they have to offer
I for one won't be turning down an interest free loan

 

[JohnK]

I found it the other day by accident but was only for 3 months. So I transferred a considerable amount from other credit cards.

Received a call a few days later informing me of a special offer on my account because I have been a long term customer. Did not want to give details as I only had ~$200 available. So he wanted to get me to increase credit limit by $10,000 to tell me what the special offer was about. Finally worked out the offers were one and the same.

I do hope it is for 6 months as the interest would come in handy. I also just accepted a sizeable balance transfer on my Bankwest credit card for 0% for 6 months and this week I will finalise another sizeable balance transfer on my ANZ credit card which is 2.5% for 15 months....

 

[Newk]

I found it the other day by accident but was only for 3 months. So I transferred a considerable amount from other credit cards.

Received a call a few days later informing me of a special offer on my account because I have been a long term customer. Did not want to give details as I only had ~$200 available. So he wanted to get me to increase credit limit by $10,000 to tell me what the special offer was about. Finally worked out the offers were one and the same.



I do hope it is for 6 months as the interest would come in handy. I also just accepted a sizeable balance transfer on my Bankwest credit card for 0% for 6 months and this week I will finalise another sizeable balance transfer on my ANZ credit card which is 2.5% for 15 months....

LOL you sound like me. It's another game, as well as being useful for interest savings. I currently have 4 low interest rate offers on the go. Ranging from 0 to 5%. I know the 5% isn't low low, but it was for a year, so what the heck.

edit to add: your ANZ one sounds good. I hope it comes along soon for me. Or at least as one of the others runs out

 

[JohnK]

LOL you sound like me. It's another game, as well as being useful for interest savings. I currently have 4 low interest rate offers on the go. Ranging from 0 to 5%. I know the 5% isn't low low, but it was for a year, so what the heck.

I have no choice. I need to constantly manage the debt as I cannot, do not want to, pay it off just yet so reducing the interest bill is the next best thing.

Lets just say that I have managed to reduce the interest bill by ~75% in the past couple of years and the money saved is almost enough to fund my trips to Thailand....

 

[vitagen]

Im in the same position but they are getting stingy with giving me the balance transfer deals!

 

[asg29e]

Hey Newk, have you been sleeping with someone high up in Citibank? As soon as I saw this thread I thought, you bewdy, I might have a piece of this. But my special offer, while still for 6 months, is at 1.9%. Still not too ugly but not as good as your 0%.

Only problem I see with this (and please correct me if you think I have it wrong) is that any repayments to the card come off the transferred amounts first, so your card is effectively out of action for the period of the transfer. Unless you want to pay 20% on purchases or pay off the whole lot at the and of the month, which kind of defeats the purpose of it all I think.

 

[Newk]

Hey Newk, have you been sleeping with someone high up in Citibank? As soon as I saw this thread I thought, you bewdy, I might have a piece of this. But my special offer, while still for 6 months, is at 1.9%. Still not too ugly but not as good as your 0%.

Only problem I see with this (and please correct me if you think I have it wrong) is that any repayments to the card come off the transferred amounts first, so your card is effectively out of action for the period of the transfer. Unless you want to pay 20% on purchases or pay off the whole lot at the and of the month, which kind of defeats the purpose of it all I think.

ah well, it's one of the reasons to have a whole raft of cards. I'll merely pay off the balance, wait a day or two to be sure and then apply for the offer. Then crank up another card for purchases
I am however going to miss out on the wonderful ppd that the select card gives for international transactions. As I am currently drowning in points of all descriptions despite best attempts to spend them I think I'll take the 0% interest though.

And as far as sleeping with someone from Citi....I'll leave that to your imagination

 

[JohnK]

Im in the same position but they are getting stingy with giving me the balance transfer deals!

Do not wait for them to offer low interest rate offers.

With ANZ I am just finishing an 18 month 2.9% balance transfer offer and I called them. Mentioned that I am looking for low interest rate balance transfer offer and may cancel the card as I do have no other use for it. Offered me the 2.5% on the spot and I asked if this is available to all existing credit card holders and she said no, only selected ones.

Note Citibank, Virgin, Suncorp are all offering really good balance transfers for new applications right now.

HSBC is the best of the lot with a 0% balance transfer and 20,000 QFF points. I am really tempted but may hold off until I am ready to close another credit card first.

 

[JohnK]

I am on a roll with balance transfer offers on existing cards.

- Citibank 0% for 3 months (could be 6 months but cannot see the expiry date anywhere)
- Bankwest 0% for 6 months
- ANZ 0% for 9 months (interesting as I negotiated 2.5% for 15 months and when I called yesterday to balance transfer they mentioned that I also have an offer of 0% for 9 months)
- Virgin Money 1% for 12 months
- NAB 5% for 12 months

The highest interest rate I am paying at the moment is 6.99%.

 

[DeKa]

To those who've taken up this type of offer, how long do the cheques take to arrive? I have received a letter saying the balance transfer is approved, but no cheque yet.

 

[albyd]

Judging by the recent signature BT offer, takes about a week for the cheque to arrive.

 

[DeKa]

Judging by the recent signature BT offer, takes about a week for the cheque to arrive.

You were right.

I have a question for people who are frequent users of balance transfers. In the scenario of a 6 month 0% balance transfer approved (and hit statement) on 2 February, what date do I need to make the final (full) repayment to ensure paying no interest over the life of the BT?

Is it
a) 1 August (1 day before the 6 months ticks over) [pay the minimum payment a week or so before, then the final balance amount off on 1 Aug]
b) 22-24 July (the approximate date the July statement will be due)
c) something else

I am tempted to just do option B, but another week or so of holding the funds would be useful.

 

[JohnK]

You were right.

I have a question for people who are frequent users of balance transfers. In the scenario of a 6 month 0% balance transfer approved (and hit statement) on 2 February, what date do I need to make the final (full) repayment to ensure paying no interest over the life of the BT?

Is it
a) 1 August (1 day before the 6 months ticks over) [pay the minimum payment a week or so before, then the final balance amount off on 1 Aug]
b) 22-24 July (the approximate date the July statement will be due)
c) something else

I am tempted to just do option B, but another week or so of holding the funds would be useful.

It varies with institution.

I know CBA ends the balance transfer at the end of the statement period. I think ANZ is also the same.

From memory for HSBC, Citibank, Bankwest, NAB the balance transfer ends on the anniversary of the term given.

 

[DeKa]

It varies with institution.

I know CBA ends the balance transfer at the end of the statement period. I think ANZ is also the same.

From memory for HSBC, Citibank, Bankwest, NAB the balance transfer ends on the anniversary of the term given.

Thanks. This is with Citi/Virgin Money, but I think I'll pay it all off at the next statement due-date (i.e. a week or so early, maybe, depending on unpublished T&Cs).

 

[albyd]

I've always paid it a few days before the anniversary date with all providers just to be safe. Most of the profit has already been made. It's expensive if you get it wrong and end up paying purchase interest until statement date. Why take the risk? Though I see your point depending on how much more free credit you might get until the statement date.

 

[knasty]

Just bumping this thread given Citi are proactively offering this now. They rang me again today but i fobbed them off until next week. When I first received my Signature I reduced the credit limit substantially as what they gave me was far in excess of what I'd ever use. I'm thinking I might phone them to get it reinstated to the previous high level before taking up the offer as a cheque for 80% of that. Has anyone else increased their limit before taking up the offer, and if so were there any issues? I'm thinking if I do this and can't use the Citi as my non-Amex card for the period I'll have to use the Visa attached to my NAB Rewards Premium - .5 points/$ on this versus .66 points/$ on the Citi. Thanks.

 

[JohnK]

I was resigned to the fact Citibank were no longer offering balance transfers and only offering 8.99% cheques to self with repayment options upto 4 years. More like a personal loan.

Called the other day and was told they were offering 0% balance transfer for 6 months up to 80% available limit with a 2% balance transfer fee. Didn't take me long to jump on it.

 

[knasty]

John did you try to increase your limit first?

 

[JohnK]

John did you try to increase your limit first?

Not this time.

Have you checked if one of the offers on your account is an increase in credit limit? Citibank has offered me increases in credit limit in the past over the phone when I have asked for balance transfer.

I know it is not the same but I had a balance transfer offer with ANZ earlier this year. So I took up the balance transfer offer for the 95%. Then I received an offer to increase the credit limit by 50% so I went ahead with the increase. What I didn't realise was this offer was not pre-approved so I had to go through the whole income proof again. Anyway a few weeks later I called them and balance transferred 95% of the credit limit increase as I was still within the balance transfer was still current at the time.

Which reminds me. I am only 4-5 months into the ANZ 12 months balance transfer at 0% and I received an SMS the other day that they have got the balance transfer offer of a lifetime for me. Better than 0% for 12 months? I should call them. Maybe they will pay me interest to balance transfer!