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First Direct Gold credit card

First Direct have come up with what I think is a new condition for a card with 0% on purchases for 12 months and 5.9% BTs for 60 months: with their Gold Card you have to make a balance transfer of at least £100 to get these rates. I am very wary of using a card for both BT and 0% purchases, because usually it will manage to leave you paying interest on the BT until you have paid off all the 0% purchases, but with First Direct, any BT you make to qualify you for the deal counts as a 'Special Balance Transfer', to which payments are applied before purchases, so it seems that you only need to transfer a balance of £100 for a fee of £2.50, pay if off with your first repayment (so being charged 5.9% p.a. for only a few weeks), and then enjoy 0% on your purchases for a year. Can anyone with a First Direct Gold Card or who has also read the conditions tell me if I have got it wrong?

Comments

  • sofa_surfer
    sofa_surfer Posts: 244 Forumite
    http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=718709

    I have sacrificed one month worth of purchases in order to completely avoid any risk of being charged a penny interest and it worked for me. Since then twice requested upping of the credit limit and got it.
    In addition - if an existing First Direct customer there will be no check with CRA when you apply for the CC (at least there wasn't for me).
    iaye carramba!
  • maujohwai
    maujohwai Posts: 15 Forumite
    Many thanks, Sofa Surfer, I hadn't found that thread. Thanks, too, for the idea of paying off the £102.50 before even getting a statement, in fact the day it appears on your account (so £102.55 just in case you incur a day's interest; actually I reckon 5p is just over 3 days' interest, so that's a small margin of safety!). I think I'll apply now...
  • YorkshireBoy
    YorkshireBoy Posts: 31,541 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    maujohwai wrote: »
    I think I'll apply now...
    Do you have an FD current account?
  • maujohwai
    maujohwai Posts: 15 Forumite
    Just seen that when I tried - damn! But thanks for pointing it out. Probably not worth the hassle of moving accounts specially. Oh well, off to work out which other 0% purchase cards are ultimately issued by banks I haven't had a card from recently.
  • YorkshireBoy
    YorkshireBoy Posts: 31,541 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    http://www.stoozing.com/purchases.php
    (hover your mouse over the card name to see who issues the card)
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