Flying back from holiday, three girls sitting next to and behind us on the plane were talking. One was joking about how awful her credit card debts were now after the holidays and that she never seemed to get anywhere paying of her debts. Wonderfully, the other two, instantly said “you need to do a balance transfer, go get yourself a 0% card for 12 months if you can”. The MSG and I looked at each other and smiled. The indebted girl then replied, “wow I’ve never heard of that, can you really do it? Don’t know if I’d remember”. The other two carried on recommending 0% cards, and even named a couple.
This caused me a little bit of a conundrum, my problem was the two cards they mentioned both don’t have long term 0% deals and have high balance transfer fees. Plus as she was obviously a beginner and unsure of remembering, she’d be much better with a life of balance transfer card (see best balance transfers article for full explanation).
So to interfere or not? It wasn’t my conversation… yet it’d be so easy to give her the right solution. Plus I’d already been spotted by someone else on the flight (a poor girl was struggling to carry her two children during the stopover, so I offered to carry her bag, once I get it her back she did a “it’s you off the telly isn’t it?”). It may seem natural to say of course I should give the right answer. Then again, these girls mightn’t know me from Adam, so how could they know if my info was right, and I don’t look like some interfering know-it all?
So what did I do? Couldn’t resist it could I, I suggested she get the M&S card at 3.9% life of balance (again see best balance transfers )and explained what it meant…. no idea if she’ll listen.