Goldfish and A&L Cards.

scorscribler

I have both a Goldfish card and a new A&L card. I will be clearing the balance I currently have on my goldfish card this friday. I was planning on phoning Goldfish monday of next week to try and arrange a good balance transfer rate and transfer £2500 onto my currently practically empty (£117) A&L card, and then transfering it into my current account and then into an ISA.

I spoke to A&L today, and they informed I can transfer from the card to my account for a 3% fee. They also told me if the card is in credit, then no fee is charged. My question is will A&L accept the balance transfer from Goldfish? putting the A&L into £2,383 credit? I've read a few times that some companies will not allow this...

I can hold out for a while and try and get a egg money card, but for the time being, I am hoping to use what I already have, and would like to get started A.S.A.P.

I could transfer £2500 from the goldfish card to my A&L card, then transfer £4500 from the A&L (2500 credit and 2000 allowance) into my currant account. I have an A&L regular savers account which has an introductory offer of 12.00% gross p.a./AER for the first year. Would this be a better option than an ISA?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Milarky

Goldfish do/did scheques don't they? Ask them about making a balance transfer via cheque they could send you or even if they can do the bank transfer themselves? (Used to belong to LloydsTSB but got sold on didn't they?)

(The backstory to the Goldfish brand: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/feb/08/barclaysbusiness.creditcards)

CannyJock

You should wait to get a nil balance statement before doing a BT if you have purchases on it at the moment.

Here's how it works:
1) Card has balance of £ 100 of purchases @ 15.9%
2) You make a payment of £ 100 to card
3) You balance transfer £ 2275 onto your Goldfish card (95% of your credit limit less the £ 100 still on it)
4) You get your next statement showing these transactions.
5) Your payment of £ 100 gets allocated to your £ 2275 and your purchases keeps on accumulating interest
6) All other payments get paid against your 0% amount and you keep paying interest on the 15.9% amount

I'd say clear the balance first before looking to stooze.

On the A&L card, the £ 4500 you mention will give you a negative balance so you'll get a BT fee, you could only transfer enough to get you down to a nil balance after the £ 117 is paid.

Best mule card is the Egg Money card, doesn't matter that credit limit you get on this so long as you get accepted, it's the best way to route the money to your current account without picking up a BT fee.

And not possible to answer your A&L regular saver account question without knowing how much you want to put into it per month (the 12% is for a maximum of £ 250 per month), whether you're paying basic rate tax and what rate you would get on your ISA (A&L Easy ISA is only 6.0% which if you divide by 0.8 will give you an equivalent rate of 7.5% assuming you pay basic rate tax so money is actually earning more interest elsewhere). You could put the money into a high interest current account (A&L Premier Direct @ 8.5% might be an option up to £ 2500 so long as you'll have a minimum of £ 500 paid into it each month).

It's then a case of sitting down and working out how to juggle the money to meet the pay-in requirements while keeping the accounts maximised to earn 12% and 8.5% which should still outperform an ISA at basic rate.

scorscribler

Canny,

Thanks for the advice. I will have the A&L card cleared by the end of the month, I will wait until then to stooze that card.

I have an A&L Premier Direct account!! Which I route £500 into after payday each month. So maybe this is the better option...

Thanks to both for your help.