Top Cashback Cards Discussion Area

emmylou41

ps what's a lob?

izools

Life of Balance - i.e. a low interest rate for a balance transfer that lasts for the duration of your clearing it - not just 6/9/12 months

emmylou41

Thanks Izools. What do you suggest I do?

izools

emmylou41 wrote: »

Hi Lisyloo,

thanks so much for responding. We have good credit ratings - both of us. Currently with Bank Of Scotland who have just written to us saying that rate going up from 16.94% to 21.95%. Worried sick! Can you explain what Experian/Equifax reports are?

Nothing to worry about this doesn't mean you've done anything wrong.

I would recommend you "Opt Out". This means you can continue to clear the debt at the old APR (16.9%) but you won't be able to use the card any more.

You could try to apply for a balance transfer card, MBNA / Virgin are known for handing out large limits but you'll need a decent salary if you want to transfer £13K to another card. What is your income if you don't mind my asking?

lisyloo

Defintely opt-out of the the increase.
You are entitled to continue the exisiting debt at your old rate, but you won't be able to put any more borrowing on the card.

Experian & Equifax are the two main credit reference agencies.
They hold details of all your credit accounts (mortgage, current accounts with overdraft, store cards, mobile contracts, credit cards) and record whether payments were made on time or not.
Accounts are held for 6 years after closure. Payment information is kept for 4 years.
Any late payments, or county court judgements will be recorded.

If you've always paid minimum payemnts on time and never had any debts go into arrears or never gone to court then you should be ok.

It can be a good idea to check the reports every now and agin to make sure there are no mistakes. I always advise people to pay £2 for the statutory report (Equifax in on-line and Experian is through the post).
You can get free trials but some people have trouble cancelling from time to time and get charged a lot more than £2 or spend a lot of time/money hanging on the phone, so personally I would pay the £2.

You could try getting one 0% card each.
You probably won't get the amount you need on a single card.
You should NEVER spend on these cards and make sure you make the repayments on time (not doing that has bad consequences). If you make one late payment then you can lose the deal (setting up a direct debit is a good way to avoid forgetting). Also if you spend onn the card they will allocate any payment to the 0% first and charge you high amounts on the spending (probably higher than what you are paying now), so jsut keep the cards for the loan.
Bear in mind that the 0% deals are short term only and last only 6/9/12 months.

Given that you are looking at a 5 years timescale I think you would be better of getting a low rate life of balance card (probably one each). Because there is no guanrantee of repeat deals as far as the 0% is concerned.

Another option is to put some of it on a lob card and some of it on 0% card.
Depends how much hassle you want really.
The least hassle is to get lob cards and then you won't have to make any more applications for the entire 5 years.

Here's a list of cards.
MBNA are quite good for limits, but because of the credit crunch you will find limits lower than in the past and you might even find one card each is nto enough.

http://www.stoozing.com/lob.php

Toreador

Toreador wrote: »

I agree with your interpretation of the word 'cashback' and I've emailed them to ask for clarification.

FYI I've had no reply to my query (their automated reply promised one within something like 72 hours) so I assume that the answer must be that it isn't cashback at all.

footboy

emmylou41 wrote: »

Ok - deep breath . . . can anyone give me some advice please. We have £13,000 on our credit card. Yes, I know this is a huge sum of money but it's a very long story. To cut to the chase, we want to pay it off, cut up all cards and never get in this situation again. We both work and can afford £220 a month to pay it off. What option would anyone recommend. Loan? 0% balance transfer? Long life balance transfer? I'm so confused but I'm desperate to get a grip on this. I'm willing to be a rate tart and change as frequently as it takes. Please can you help? Emmy Lou

Hi there,

I had a similar issue except it was £3k. I moved my balance from one 0% credit card to to another no problem at all (watch out for charges these days). It was great because as long as I made the minimum payment (or up to as much as I could afford) I didn't get charged any interest.

Suffice to say, the amount was effectively capped and when I was in a position to pay it all off I did so.

I've never had any problems with my credit rating having done this - in fact most problems arise when people have never had any credit and have simply used cash.

If you want a free credit report you can get one by going to the Equifax page on topcashback.co.uk - you'll get £5.50 cashback too! I cancelled mine no problem using the online ask a question route described in the Comments section of the TCB Equifax page. If you're not a member why not use my link as a thank you?! http://www.TopCashBack.co.uk/ref/scunio

Hope that helps.

Steve

williham

lisyloo wrote: »

No, sorry but when there are multiple spammers then I think it's entirely natural to be cynical/confrontational.

I have offered an apology which appears to be have been accepted.

You are of course emntitled to your view and perhaps it was rather unfortunate that at the time there were serveral spammers active on that subject.

But no I don't see it as out of order to try to see the spammers off.
If occassionally an innocent person gets offended by a confrontational question (and don't forget that it was a question and not an allegation) then I think an apology is the correct way to deal with it.

Let's get this into proprtion.
I tried to warn others that there may be an issue. Asked a question.
Did not make unfounded allegations or personal remarks and then made an apology.

Perhaps not the friendliest approach, but not criminal or slanderous/libellous either.
We all have to be wary in these times and it is difficult for us sometimes to tell the difference between genuine people and spammers.
At least I have the balls to say sorry when I got it wrong and did not get into personal insults/allegations in the forst plce.
So GET OVER IT, it was only a QUESTION, followed by an apology.

I personally think it's better to spend time helping people that picking over every miniscule detail, so excuse me if I don't engage with you in any more debate on the subject.
I apologies and that's the end of it as far as I'm concerned.
If you really want to help, then get helping rather than picking.

I did BTW provide some useful info no the subject.

Calm down.. Noone is trying to spam about the paypal credit card, I came on here to find out about it after seeing it on my paypal account, as everyone else seems to have done, and all you do is say the same thing.

It seems to be one of the better cashback/rewards cards, especially if you buy a lot of things through paypal. You also get £20 for your first spend on the card.

lisyloo

I'm perfectly calm thank you.

and all you do is say the same thing

Err......I'm telling the truth.
It's not suprising it's the same thing each time on multiple threads is it?
The truth doesn't vary.

It seems to be one of the better cashback/rewards cards

Depnds on where you shop.
Amex is best at 5% CASH back (yes real cash), but not for people that shop places that don't accept amex.

especially if you buy a lot of things through paypal. You also get £20 for your first spend on the card.

Some of the spending will be a lower reward rate.
There is spend required to get the rewards.
You don't get the same consumer protection through payapl.
I believe their only phone number is premium rate.

I agree that evetones circumstances are different and if you like that combination of pros and cons then go for it.
But I will defend my right to state its' not a CASH back card and clamp down on people who mislead whilst sipping my camomile tea and being perfectly calm and relaxed.
I have no issues with people disagreeing or having a different preference of point of view.
It's misleading information where the issue arises (which appears to have been originated by paypal themselves).

williham

lisyloo wrote: »

I'm perfectly calm thank you.

Err......I'm telling the truth.
It's not suprising it's the same thing each time on multiple threads is it?
The truth doesn't vary.

Depnds on where you shop.
Amex is best at 5% CASH back (yes real cash), but not for people that shop places that don't accept amex.

Some of the spending will be a lower reward rate.
There is spend required to get the rewards.
You don't get the same consumer protection through payapl.
I believe their only phone number is premium rate.

I agree that evetones circumstances are different and if you like that combination of pros and cons then go for it.
But I will defend my right to state its' not a CASH back card and clamp down on people who mislead whilst sipping my camomile tea and being perfectly calm and relaxed.
I have no issues with people disagreeing or having a different preference of point of view.
It's misleading information where the issue arises (which appears to have been originated by paypal themselves).

Good, well I feel you're misleading people in to thinking it is not a good offer, when it clearly is. You can use paypal on many big sites where your consumer rights aren't a problem such as ebuyer, dabs etc.
I also want to make it clear that people aren't being misleading when they are saying "have you heard of the paypal cashback card" they just want to know more about it, using cashback as a generic term for a rewards/cashback card.
The Amex rewards card offers vouchers instead of cash and is featured as second place in the Cashback credit cards section of this site. It says "whilst not strictly a cashback card" but doesn't get all funny about it like you.