Free Balance Transfer For The Life Of The Card

DEAR MARGARET: Why have my pension nest-eggs vanished?

I took out two small personal pension plans with Sun Life of Canada about 30 years ago then forgot about them.

In September, SLOC wrote to confirm if the personal details it had was correct.

When I contacted them, I was amazed to discover that annual annuity payments had been paid into an account at the Bank of England from January 2003 to January 2006.

I've managed to fill in some of the gaps. When your annuities became due in 2003, Sun Life of Canada made the payments, according to your instructions, to a branch of the Woolwich (now part of Barclays) in South London.

However, in 2007, the bank returned your annual annuity payment to SLOC. SLOC wrote to you at your old address and tried, equally unsuccessfully, to trace you via the Department for Work and Pensions.

I understand you were in Australia for several years. Without an address, your file records were marked ' lost contact' and the payments held in a suspense account.

When you contacted SLOC in September last year and updated your details, including your new banking arrangements, it was able to pay you the four years' arrears from January 2007.

Payments between 2003 and 2006 were paid into your then-nominated bank, the Woolwich. I do not know how the Bank of England, quite erroneously, crept into the story. Is it possible that you misheard the name?

SLOC acknowledges there were delays in obtaining the information and has sweetened its apology with a cheque for £100.

My problems with Santander go back to November when I drew money from my current account to pay my Asda/ Santander credit card. The sum was for £414.47, but only £44.47 was deducted from my account.

As a result, a debit balance remained on my card and I was charged interest - even though I paid the £370 balance as soon as I discovered the mistake.

Once you informed Santander that you were getting in touch with me, things began to happen.

First of all, the company decided it would refund the late payment fees and interest charges which you incurred on your Asda card as a result of this mix-up - compounded by the annual disruption to post around Christmas.

You are adamant that your cheque was for the full amount of £414.47, while Santander only paid in £44.47.

Balance Transfer Question [balance transfers] [balance transfer ...

I recently opened 3 cards (Amex Blue, Discover and Citi Diamond Plat) with very low (0% to 2) balance transfers for 12 months. It is only about $ 3,500 total so I fully intend expires, it is also worth before the 0% period. Does it matter if I transfer it all on one card and have about 30% utilization on one card and 0% on all other, or should I spread it out a few cards and keep all the utilization below 10%? Is there much difference to my scores? I'm also wondering whether it is possible to transfer funds to a few cards and then pay them off to help me, CLI on the cards. Thanks for all your help Reply:

I'm about to pop 125k on 1 card (100%) next week. That should take my over-all utilization to around 19%. But as GEORGE would say, "FICO doesn't buy steaks!!!" And I'm agreed. Over the course of the next 12 months, I won't have a need for a FICO or the damage (about 65 pts) the BT does to my score. Do what makes sense for your budget and your plans. Reply:

I'm about to pop 125k on 1 card (100%) next week. That should take my over-all utilization to around 19%. But as GEORGE would say, "FICO doesn't buy steaks!!!" And I'm agreed. Over the course of the next 12 months, I won't have a need for a FICO or the damage (about 65 pts) the BT does to my score. Do what makes sense for your budget and your plans. Oh yeah, for those keeping track, I was at 480k CL, but I just closed on a NINA helo for 160K @ 6.9%. Sooooooo, after I cash that in, I'm going to much more than 19%, I haven't taken the time to calulate what it might be. I know, shame on me, but as GEORGE would say, FICO doesn't buy steaks, only it really, really, really helps in processing FAST, no doc, loan requests. I'm about to pop 125k on 1 card (100%) next week. That should take my over-all utilization to around 19%. But as GEORGE would say, "FICO doesn't buy steaks!!!" And I'm agreed. Over the course of the next 12 months, I won't have a need for a FICO or the damage (about 65 pts) the BT does to my score. Do what makes sense for your budget and your plans. Reply: I'm about to pop 125k on 1 card (100%) next week. That should take my over-all utilization to around 19%. But as GEORGE would say, "FICO doesn't buy steaks!!!" And I'm agreed. Over the course of the next 12 months, I won't have a need for a FICO or the damage (about 65 pts) the BT does to my score. Do what makes sense for your budget and your plans. Reply:I'm about to pop 125k on 1 card (100%) next week. That should take my over-all utilization to around 19%. But as GEORGE would say, "FICO doesn't buy steaks!!!" And I'm agreed. Over the course of the next 12 months, I won't have a need for a FICO or the damage (about 65 pts) the BT does to my score. Do what makes sense for your budget and your plans.