In A Pickle - Overdraft/Egg/Citibank

Naomim

Hi All,

In a bit of a pickle and was wondering what was the best route to take.

I have an overdraft of about £2.5k I got a Citibank card because it has the life of balance transfer at a low rate (can't remember what at the top of my head). Anyway I didn't check first and subsequently found out I can't transfer my OD as it would be treated as a cash advance. I also have an existing Egg card with a 0 balance but there are no transfer balance offers on at the moment. I emailed them and checked.

The only way I can see round this is to transfer the OD to Egg and then from Egg to Citibank. However I think with Citibank I only have 60 days of which I've already had the card about 3 weeks. I just don't know if I have time and if it's a good idea.

Naomi x

YorkshireBoy

BT from Egg to Citi first. Then BT from your overdraft to Egg using the positive balance created.

That way, you'll find out if balance transfers from Egg to Citi have been outlawed (can only be a matter of time now that the Egg T&C's have been tweaked to clarify the relationship) before committing to the overdraft transfer to Egg (which would otherwise leave you with an 'overdraft' of circa 16.9% APR typical).

Are you able to find the 2.25% Citi minimum payments WITHOUT dipping into the overdraft again? If not, then it's not such a good idea.

Naomim

Ooh I didn't know I could do that :j So I can basically be in credit with Egg first then transfer my OD to Egg? Am I understanding this right?

Yup I can pay the minimum payments. I reduced my OD by £220 this month by using the OS board and not frittering money like I used to so this is my plan to clear the card asap. Just think it's silly of me to pay 21% interest on OD when I can do it cheaper! lol

Naomi x

YorkshireBoy

Naomim wrote: »

Ooh I didn't know I could do that :j So I can basically be in credit with Egg first then transfer my OD to Egg? Am I understanding this right?

If you have the Egg Money card (Mastercard), you definitely can do what I proposed.

Assuming yours is the Egg Card (Visa), you *should* be able to. I have done previously...but it was 2-3 years ago now. You could wait for others' more recent experience if you wanted to be sure.

The Egg Card (Visa) charges a BT fee during a special promotion (and probably also automatically does so with a positive balance), but since you say no promotion currently applies you should be OK.

The alternative would be to call them and ask them to send the money via a BACS transfer of your positive balance to your current account. Beware though, the Egg Card (Visa) is not 'designed' to carry a positive balance like the Egg Money card is.

I'm sure I don't need to remind you NOT to spend on the Citi card once you've made the BT.

Good luck.