Please help, Mint CC SBT

DaveHemmerman

Hi, i have recieved my Mint Platinum credit card this morning and have just rang them to activate the card, after been offered every possible service they can at me i asked would it be possible to do a ''balance transfer'' into my current account at sometime in the future, the lady then told me that i would need to visit an ATM machine to do this but would be charged interest for doing this. She then transfered me to someone else which i guess what her line manager or equviliant which i then asked is it not possible to use the transfer cheques to do this, and i told her i understood about the 2% fee for doing this as its within the 1st 3 months of having the card. She said no sorry not possible!

When it says transfer & save cheques, should i recieve a cheque book or am i missing a trick here, could someone explain?

So basically i need some advice on what to do now as according to MINT its not possible to do unless i want to be charge 14% for a cash advance.

I did get them to raise the limit by £500!

Please help. Was also wondering i have a Cahoot Flexible loan with £5k left to pay is it possible to pay some of using my Halifax one Card?

GlennTheBaker

Yes, you will receive a book of Transfer & Save cheques. You can then write one of these cheques payable to whoever you like. I'm just waiting until the end of November to stooz the money without paying a balance transfer fee.

DaveHemmerman

Should this book be with me then in the next week or so? I recieved pin on Tuesday, Card today so perhaps even end of week? They only gave me £2550 but i have had it increased to £3050 which is still short of my £5000 loan but at least i should save a lot on interest.

GlennTheBaker

Mine took a few weeks to arrive so you may want to get on the phone to them to see if they can hurry things along.

As far as I can see if you wanted to pay some of your loan off with the available credit on your Halifax One card, you would have to either:

1. Ask Halifax to do a BT from Mint and then use a T&S cheque to pay off the loan. The problem is that both Halifax and Mint will charge a fee for the transactions, unless you can wait until the T&S cheque fee no longer applies in which case you would pay just the Halifax BT fee.

or

2. Use the Halifax One card for all of your spending and pay the equivalent amount from your current account into the loan (if possible, sorry not familiar with Cahoot flexible loan). Because purchases are at 0%, you could slowly transfer the debt from Cahoot to Halifax One.

DaveHemmerman

Can anyone enlighten me to why they were been so damn awkward on the phone? Or is it plainly coz they know i am just working money from them for free?

Clariman

DaveHemmerman wrote:

Can anyone enlighten me to why they were been so damn awkward on the phone? Or is it plainly coz they know i am just working money from them for free?

I don't think that it is about being "awkward". I think that there are 2 possibilities that explain their reaction.

1. Exploiting 0% credit cards to move the money into an account to earn interest is not a mainstream activity. While it is discussed here and on other websites as a 'normal' thing to do, it isn't. So it is quite possible that the call centre person you spoke to gave you a full and honest answer i.e. if you want to get the money into your bank account, then you need to do a cash advance. That is what cash advances are intended for and it is not what the cheques are intended for/

2. They are aware that people use the cheques as a loophole to get money into their bank for free, but they are not going to encourage the practice, because it is not what the cheques are intended for.

Clariman

CVivash

I too have spoken to Mint and they told me that if I use the cheques to transfer money into my current account it will bne classed as a cash advance and attract a rate of 14%.

I don't know what to do now.

Can anyone help?

grumbler

CVivash wrote:

I don't know what to do now.

Read your T&C. They are more important that anything told to you by phone.

Summary Box:

Cheques 0% fixed until 1st September 2006 (Introductory rate)
...
Charges For each balance transfer and cheque transaction debited to the account on or before 31 January 2006, we will charge you 2% of the transaction amount (minimum £5, maximum £49). ...

NB: your dates can differ from the dates above.

CVivash

Yes, I have seen that in the T&C but over the phone they have said that it refers only to purchases or balance transfers from other credit cards made with the cheques. A balance transfer made with the cheques to a current acount is classed as a cash advance according to them.

Can they not enforce this as the T&Cs don't specify that the cheques cannot be used in this way and if they forbid it the T&Cs should say so?

I'm just a bit wary of doing it then finding they have charged me 14% in a months time and having to get into an argument with them.

Thanks.

Carl

grumbler

1. I think that T&C have priority over whatever they tell you over a phone.

2. I think it is difficult to trace the way cheque was used. At the end of the day it ends up on some current account.

3. My (and other's) experience proves that CS are very incompetent. Posts #19-#25 in the 'Exchange Rate for Euro's ' thread are my favourite example ...

This is just what I think ...

avfc1982

Maybe a silly question, but why are they called 'transfer & save' cheques if they don't expect you to tranfer a large amount and save it! :rolleyes: