Using an MBNA card as a mule for SBT?

r2mahara · 14 December 2005 at 5:53PM

Good day,

MBNA has informed me that if I pay more cash into their card than the balance, the card will go into credit. They will then transfer the money to a bank account of my choosing for free.

Can anyone see a pitfall in this? It will take slightly longer, but seems like a good way to get stooze cash from my 0% balance transfer limit.

(I'm not eligible for the Egg card unfortunately, else I would use that.)

HGLTsuperstar · 14 December 2005 at 8:01PM

Why are you not eligible for Egg? What is their criteria?

r2mahara · 15 December 2005 at 3:35PM

You have to be a permanent resident of the UK I believe. I'm here on a work permit.

So no thoughts on potential problems with this?

grumbler · 20 December 2005 at 10:20PM

r2mahara wrote:

You have to be a permanent resident of the UK I believe. I'm here on a work permit.

I don't know exact definition of 'permanent residency', but I am sure that one can be here on a work permit and be a 'permanent resident'. For example, Barclays consider you a 'permanent resident' after 3 years of living in UK: http://www.personal.barclays.co.uk/BRC1/jsp/brccontrol?task=popup1group&value=4668&target=_blank&site=pfs

angelica · 20 December 2005 at 11:07PM

I would think that permanent resident in UK for banking is similar to residency for tax purposes i.e. have a permanent address in UK and stay in the country for 183 days every year. According to Inland Revenue (http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/pdfs/ir20.htm#part1):

1.2 To be regarded as resident in the UK you must normally be physically present in the country at some time in the tax year. You will always be resident if you are here for 183 days or more in the tax year. There are no exceptions to this.

r2mahara · 23 December 2005 at 1:36PM

Thank you for the pointers folks. Thus far I've been using the Home Office's definition of "permanent resident". It didn't strike me that for financial purposes things might be looked at differently.

I'll try applying for a Mint card and let you know how it goes.

Meanwhile, I'd like to comment that I tried the above SBT type scheme and it worked perfectly with no fees.

HGLTsuperstar · 23 December 2005 at 1:50PM

What figures are we talking about though, and on how many months 0%

r2mahara · 23 December 2005 at 2:00PM

I got an RBS card with 9 months at 0%. I didn't have any immediate way of getting cash on my hands.

So I BT'd the full credit limit to an MBNA card, and they put it in my current account for free.

Milarky · 1 January 2006 at 4:12PM

r2mahara wrote:

Meanwhile, I'd like to comment that I tried the above SBT type scheme and it worked perfectly with no fees.

It's an excellent alternative to Egg - if it works like you say. I would have assumed that MBNA regarded any balance transfer 'to' [got to watch the terminology!] a credit card already in a positive balance in exactly the same way as a BT 'to' a card with no balance or a debit balance - but apparently they don't? [This must be because they regard that money as not being 'lent' by them to you and therefore not subject to a normal 'handling' fee?]

Anyone else come across this with MBNA?

smartsaver · 1 January 2006 at 6:25PM

I suppose the benefit to MBNA is they don't pay you any interest on your money they have sitting in their bank for a day or so on. A very interesting find and will benefit many I am sure. I thought you would have been charged a BT fee so have always avoided MBNA in favour of EGG.

r2mahara · 1 January 2006 at 8:09PM

Yes, that's right - no interest on positive balances. I can testify that I had no problems with this. If it matters - the card I used was a Conran credit card ... I'm not sure it works for all MBNA cards - but I believe that it does.

Using an MBNA card as a mule for SBT?

Comments

Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

🚀 Getting Started

Categories

Is this how you want to be seen?

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free