Stoozer Ready to Rock

Brighty

Hi all

Right I am a new stoozer and I’m all set up to go. Mint card applied for, £4300 limit given, Egg anniversary is Dec, 15k limit set, A&L Savings account opened, Yorkshire BS Cash ISA opened, Sainsbury Card applied for, all purchases will now be on that and all cash I would have spent is gonna go into the savings account.

Looks like I should make a nice few bob from this, thankyou MSE and thankyou all of you for putting me onto this and answering my questions.

A few points I’m not clear on, the 0% for x months offers, how do I know the exact date these are up? Obviously it’s somewhere between the date I send back the signed credit agreement and the day I get the card, but is the exact date written on your welcome pack/statement? Also with Egg, is it 5 months from the date I do the SBT or is it 5 calendar months including the anniversary month (i.e end of April) or 5 months after the anniversary month (i.e end of May)?

Thanks again everyone, if I get any info that I think will help anyone, rest assured this place will be the first to see it posted.

Cheers

Brighty

Smitty

Hello Brighty,

I always ring the CC company up to check these dates. Or even better (if the facility exists) get an email or secure message confirming the date the intro period ends.

Secure message Egg to confirm your anniversary month.

Hope all goes well

Doh

i would also like to know the answer to the Egg quesion as my aniversary month is Dec, unfortunately i'm not as lucky with only 10K limit..

Margaret_Millne

With Egg I am sure it includes the Anniversary month, so make sure you transfer on the 1st of - say - May, and pay back before the 30th September.

Brighty

My limit was 4k 2 weeks ago, uped it online to 10k then 2 weeks later 15k, no probs. Do it ;D

Leia_Stephens

I am going to be a Stoozer soon too ;D, I can't wait :-[.

I only applied for my new Egg card yesterday and I have been given a 6k limit, still this better than Barclaycard at 4k and Mint at almost 5k .

Leia

travel_freak

Hello,

I'm a fairly new stoozer but thought I'd add some advice based on what I've found out. A while back I made a mistake with an Abbey credit card. I had assumed, wrongly as it turns out, that (1) Abbey would tell me on the statement when I needed to repay to avoid interest and (2) that I would notice this because the statement would say "your estimated interested next statement if you do not repay the balance in full will be £x (as opposed to £0 which it usually is during the interest free period).

I found out just how sneaky these credit card companies can be. Apols to all you experienced stoozers who already know this, but for those that don't NEVER use my approach. What they do is to send you out a statement telling you the estimated interest amount but they only send this statement after the date by which you would have needed to repay in order to avoid interest. In other words, by the time you receive the statement it's too late to do anything about it and you will be hit for some interest.

As advised above, always ring - or write - to the company as soon as you get your card and ask for the exact date by which you need to repay in full to avoid interest charges. Add on at least 5 days (to be on the safe side 7 or 8) for clearance and write this date firmly in your diary - or use the new "tart alert" system on this site. I always get the name of the person I've spoken to. If Egg, then they have a great secure email system and they reply usually within 24 hours and send you an email to say they've replied - very reliable method of communication.

Hope this helps someone not to make the same mistake as me!

Happy stoozing!

Clariman

Hi Brighty

You must get the date confirmed by the credit card issuer in such a way that you are 100% sure of the date and you can prove them that they told you that date ! It is not unknown for mistakes to be made. Ideally get the date in writing from them (e.g. email or post). If not, then telephone their customer service number, ask the question, ask them to put a note on file with the date and the fact you called, and ask the name of the person you are speaking to. Note down the date and time of your call, the name of the person you are speaking to and the date which they gave you.

If you have not already seen it you may be interested to know that there is a Stoozing FAQ at https://www.stoozing.com.

Clariman

Gotabiscuit

What they do is to send you out a statement telling you the estimated interest amount but they only send this statement after the date by which you would have needed to repay in order to avoid interest.

Abbey's card is run by MBNA and I can confirm what's been said above is true - and very sneaky.

I've just had a statement off MBNA saying that the estimated interest on my next statement (if I only pay the minimum amount this time) will be zero. However, my 0% run out on 15th December so this cannot possibly be true.

oscarhugo

Regarding probs with Abbey/MBNA 0% expiry dates, if any of you care to trawl through the old threads & find one headed something like "Abbey card - watch it!" you will see my story of how I was charged interest by Abbey cos I missed the end of the 0% period even though I was looking out for it. So I complained by phone & additionally by letter and (EVEN THOUGH I HAD ALREADY CANCELLED THE CARD) Abbey refunded the interest charge - which, to be honest, is good of them since I'd already cancelled the card.

So the moral of this fascinating little story is -- it's always worth complaining! (Except if it's TESCO.COM, apparently -- but that's another story, sorry - another thread (anyone interested see under Anything Else Questions & Answers or whatever it's called - I forget!). I'm determined to badmouth Tesco.com as much as possible!!!

oscarhugo

Regarding probs with Abbey/MBNA 0% expiry dates, if any of you care to trawl through the old threads & find one headed something like "Abbey card - watch it!"

quote]

It's on page 7 - dated 25th October