Two 0% cards for people who normally can't get one

0% credit cards are fantastic financial tools. Because you don’t have to pay any interest on your credit card debt, all your repayments can go towards reducing your debt rather than being wasted on interest payments.

But there is a big drawback to most 0% cards. You need to have a very good credit rating to get one.

However, there are two cards that are available to people with ‘average’ credit ratings. In other words, more than half of UK adults should be able to benefit from an interest-free period.

The two cards are the excellent Barclaycard Gold Visa card along with the relaunched Capital One Balance Card Visa. Let’s start with the Capital One card.

Capital One Balance Card Visa

The card offers 0% on balance transfers until your July credit card statement. So if you got one of these cards, you could transfer a debt from another credit card and not pay any interest on the debt for roughly six months.

That gives you a decent period of time to pay off your debt and not worry about further increasing the size of your debt.

And the card doesn’t just offer balance transfers, you can do a money transfer as well if you wish. That means you could transfer some money from your credit card to your current account – then you’d have money to spend or to use paying off other debts such as a payday loan.

This money transfer facility is especially attractive as you can’t do money transfers on the majority of 0% credit cards.

As a rule of thumb, you’ll probably be accepted for the Cap One card unless:

- You’ve never had credit in the UK before

- You have been declared bankrupt in the last 12 months

- You’ve defaulted in the last 12 months

- You’ve had County Court Judgements (CCJs) against you in the last 12 months

- You’ve never had credit in the UK before

So the card looks pretty good for a lot of people, but it does have two drawbacks:

Firstly, you’ll be hit by a very high 34.9% interest rate when the 0% period ends, so you need to be confident you can pay off most or, ideally, all of your debt by that time.

And secondly, you’ll have to pay a 3% fee when you make the transfer. This 3% fee applies regardless of whether you’re doing a balance transfer or a money transfer.

Barclaycard Gold Visa

The big attraction of the Barclaycard Gold Visa card is that if offers a longer 0% period than the Cap One card – 12 months. That gives you a lot more time to really attack your debt and pay it all off.

What’s more, the balance transfer fee is lower at 2.5%. So if you have a £3000 debt, you’ll only have to pay a £75 fee with the Barclaycard whereas you’d have to pay a £90 fee with the Cap One card. The ‘revert to’ interest rate is also lower at 19.9%.

You’ll probably be accepted for the Barclaycard unless:

- You’ve been declared bankrupt in the past

- You’ve had a CCJ or IVA registered against you in the last five years.

- You’ve missed payments on any credit card or loan in the last year

- You earn less than £17,500 a year

- You’re under 21

Different cards for different folks

For many folk the Barclaycard is the better bet because it has the longer 0% period, but it’s also worth noting that the acceptance criteria are tighter for the Barclaycard.

Also please don’t work on the basis that the acceptance criteria we’ve outlined in this article are set in stone. There are no guarantees that any credit card application will be successful, but if it looks like your circumstances make you eligible for at least one of these cards, then it’s probably worth applying.

Magic bullet

It’s also worth remembering that 0% cards aren’t magic bullets. Just because you’ve got a new credit card doesn’t mean you’ve instantly paid off your debt. You still need to do the hard slog of finding spare cash to chip away at your debt month-after-month.

That’s never easy and if you think you’ll need help with that, you can get free advice from one of the debt charities:

National Debtline
Citizens Advice
StepChange Debt Charity

At the other end of the scale, you may have a strong enough credit rating to get one of the best 0% cards. They’re certainly worth going for if you can get one.

For example, the Barclaycard Platinum Low Balance Transfer Fee card charges a 0.9% fee for a 12-month 0% period while you can get a two-year 0% period with the Barclaycard 24 Month Platinum Visa card.

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