Cards for purchasing only - Sainsburys & Conran Card thoughts?

OurTater · 9 June 2005 at 10:28PM

Looking at getting first credit card just for purchasing and cashback, aiming to pay balance off in full every month, or as close as possible!

Having read the articles on credit cards & best ones for purchasing it seems that the Sainsbury's & Conran cards seem to be the two best ones - are there many people that have signed up for either of the cards offered and is there any advise they'd like to give on one or both of the cards, or any positive negative feedback?

TIA

empfun · 9 June 2005 at 11:51PM

http://www.lxdirect.com/rf/fs/help/moneymatters/index.do?page=visa

You might want to consider the above OurTater, 12 weeks interest free shopping on every purchase.

grumbler · 10 June 2005 at 10:01AM

Conran = cashback
Sainsburis = 0% on purchases for N months (12?)

If you manage to get Conran and some CC with 0% on balance transfers for N months (and no fee for balance transfers), you can get both cashback and interest-free shopping for N months: use Conran for porchases and then transfer balance monthly to the other card

. Some 0% cards offer free balance transfers only 'on application'. In this case it is better to have Conran card ready and make one-off free transfer at the begining.
And don't forget to put saved money to some saving accout - to pay debt off after N monts.

balsingh · 10 June 2005 at 10:12AM

I applied for the Conran card a week ago but still havent heard a thing yet. If you're after cashback, it seems the best deal if you can't be bothered with Amex.

Nick_C_4 · 10 June 2005 at 11:09AM

I have the Sainsbury's card.

It's 0% interest for 12 months, from the account opening date. This is about 10 days before you actually get to use the card. The date's on the first statement, so you know exactly when it is. I'm doing as grumbler suggested, and stashing the money away in the A&L online saver, and I'll try to transfer the balance at the end of the period.

You also get 0.25% cashback. It's not much, but an added bonus if you're using it for the 0% interest. You can take it as cash, or Nectar points. However, taking as Nectar points doesn't give you anything more if you're just intending to use the points at Sainsbury's, so I've gone for the cash option. If you're intending to use the Nectar points elsewhere you may be able to realise a bit more value from them.

I got a £6.5K credit limit, but I have a good salary and credit history. We're currently using it up at over £1K per month, it will be interesting if they allow me to increase it when we reach the limit.

Customer services have been pretty efficient so far - my wife lost her wallet so we had to cancel the card, they replaced it quickly without a fuss. You can manage the card online, the only downside is the excessively fussy security info they made you come up with. The don't ask you to set up a DD by default, like Egg do, so you have to get a form from them to do so.

One final tip: they give you an 0870 customer services number, but if you hunt around the initial letters from them, they do give a geographical number too.

Hope this is helpful to you...
Nick.

OurTater · 10 June 2005 at 7:55PM

grumbler wrote:

Conran = cashback
Sainsburis = 0% on purchases for N months (12?)

If you manage to get Conran and some CC with 0% on balance transfers for N months (and no fee for balance transfers), you can get both cashback and interest-free shopping for N months: use Conran for porchases and then transfer balance monthly to the other card . Some 0% cards offer free balance transfers only 'on application'. In this case it is better to have Conran card ready and make one-off free transfer at the begining.
And don't forget to put saved money to some saving accout - to pay debt off after N monts.

So just to clarify (as it is a Friday!) with balance transfers the money would go from:

Conran card --> 2nd CC --> high interest account i.e. ING?

Seems through the articles and this forum the Virgin card is the best for balance transfers, it's an MBNA card as well as the Conran Card though, I think I'm right in saying that! If that's the case would it be possible to get both and balance transfer from the Conran card to the Virgin card?

Thanks to all for help/advice btw!

grumbler · 10 June 2005 at 8:42PM

OurTater wrote:

..the money would go from:

Conran card --> 2nd CC --> high interest account i.e. ING?

NO! While using Conran for purchases you don't spend money from your current account and accumulate debt (balance) on Conran card. Then this debt moves to other CC. Saved money goes from your current account to ING (I'd prefer A&L).

DEBT: Conran-->0%CC; ............MONEY(saved): current acc.-->ING.

In case of one-off transfer at the beginning unexisting debt moves from Conran to other CC. This means that other CC pays money to Conran and you get a big credit (positive) balance on Conran as a result. Then you can spend this money (credit balance) during N months while moving saved money from a current account to a saving one. Your saving account balance grows month buy month.

Seems through the articles and this forum the Virgin card is the best for balance transfers, it's an MBNA card as well as the Conran Card though, I think I'm right in saying that! If that's the case would it be possible to get both and balance transfer from the Conran card to the Virgin card?

Advantage of Virgin card is that you can transfer money directly to your current accoun (i.e. unexisting overdraft debt from current account to Virgin)and then to a saving account. As a result you can get almost all your Virgin credit limit on the saving account from the beginning.

'What is a Super Balance Transfer?' article

As it is MBNA card I wouldn't apply for both Conran and Virgin

Cards for purchasing only - Sainsburys & Conran Card thoughts?

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