Abbey SBT & Lloyds TSB BT Advice

stevewatersheddings

Hi all,

I've just started on the stoozing trail by applying for an Abbey SBT card and a Lloyds TSB BT card (0% for BT's in 1st 6 weeks).

Has anyone got any hints, tips and things to be careful about or any experiences to share about these cards ?

Thanks,

Steve

Bengodog

Hi,

Newbie here, very interested in this stoozing idea.
I looked at the terms and conditions of the Lloyds Credit Card with Balance Transfer and noted that it says there is a charge of 2% on all balance transfers. If this is so, then surely you cant make as much??
Am I being thick?

Bengodog

tomstickland

You are correct; if they charge you a 2% transfer fee then you pay 2% on the money which you are then putting into a high interest account at around 5%, so you're losing a good part of what you hope to gain. Check the credit card tables on https://www.stoozing.com.
Though Steve says in first post, 0% BT in 1st 6 weeks.

Clariman

Bengodog wrote:

Hi,

Newbie here, very interested in this stoozing idea.
I looked at the terms and conditions of the Lloyds Credit Card with Balance Transfer and noted that it says there is a charge of 2% on all balance transfers. If this is so, then surely you cant make as much??
Am I being thick?

Bengodog

The Golden rules of stoozing are to understand the card's Ts & Cs inside out, to have an attention to detail, and to not take your eye off the ball. If you read anything here or on here, the stoozing site or anywhere else, you must go back to your own card's Ts & Cs to be sure.

That said, my comments on the 2 cards in question.

LTSB
For the BTs to be free, you need to do the Balance Transfer(s) in the first 6 weeks of having the account. The 0% period actually starts from the date of the transfer rather than the date you got the card, so that is quite nice.

Abbey
The Abbey card is issued by MBNA. Check the Ts & Cs for your specific card. MBNA have been moving towards having SBT transactions classified as "Money Transfers" and treating then as cash transactions (i.e. interest charging). You must check what your terms say. They also charge a fee for Balance Transfers.

Clariman

Bengodog

To me, the best seems to be Mint, only charging the 2% fee before the end of January and then no fees on balance transfers until the 0% balance transfer fee ends in September 2006.
What do you reckon?

YorkshireBoy

Bengodog wrote:

What do you reckon?

So that we don't take Steve's original thread off-topic, I think it's best if you start your own thread to discuss the merits of the Mint card.

I'll post my reply on the new thread.

YorkshireBoy

stevewatersheddings wrote:

I've just started on the stoozing trail by applying for an Abbey SBT card and a Lloyds TSB BT card (0% for BT's in 1st 6 weeks).

Has anyone got any hints, tips and things to be careful about or any experiences to share about these cards ?

LloydsTSB - I like to have all my DD's going out on the same day, as it saves on the admin work. LTSB refused point blank to change my statement date, to enable the DD to be taken at a date to suit me. This is the only grumble I've had with them.

Abbey - As Clariman says above, be very careful with the 'Money Transfer' definition. All of the 'mainstream' MBNA run cards have this definition in the T&C's, with the notable exception of Virgin - according to their current online T&C's anyway. However, it will be the T&C's on your credit agreement that you sign that will govern your account so read them carefully.

One loophole that I'm aware of, although never tried, is that the MBNA run credit card cheques appear to have the same 0% features as a standard BT - but you must do your own research here.

MBNA got a bit of a reputation earlier this year for failing to take the first minimum payment DD for many cardholders. You'd be well advised to consider making this first payment by debit card (thus possibly duplicating the DD) for the sake of another £55 (£5 min payment + £50 BT fee) just to make sure you don't lose the deal because of a late payment.

General - As they're both BT cards only, do not make any purchases on them.

Milarky

YorkshireBoy wrote:

MBNA got a bit of a reputation earlier this year for failing to take the first minimum payment DD for many cardholders. You'd be well advised to make this first payment by debit card (thus possibly duplicating the DD) for the sake of another £5 just to make sure you don't lose the deal because of a late payment.

Surely thats '£5 plus the fee' YB? The initial minimum payment includes any fee applied and is correspondingly larger than the subsuquent payment amounts.

YorkshireBoy

Milarky wrote:

Surely thats '£5 plus the fee' YB? The initial minimum payment includes any fee applied and is correspondingly larger than the subsuquent payment amounts.

Sorry Milarky, you are right of course. I incorrectly based my reply on my own situation and completely forgot about the BT fee now. My apologies (I've edited my earlier post).

I got very nearly 2 months before my first payment earlier this year, due to my requested statement/payment dates. I'd had my 'DD set up confirmed' letter for a full 5 weeks before they collected - but I still made an extra £5 debit card payment just in case following the problems highlighted on the MSE credit card forum.

stevewatersheddings

Thanks for your comments.
I'm wary of the Abbey card now. My intention was to use this as my SBT card to stooze the money from the LTSB card. I'll definitely check the Ts and Cs carefully about "Money Transfers" definition.

I planned to SBT from my savings account up to the limit Abbey give me using a credit card cheque. From what i understand, this has a max charge of £50.

Once my LTSB account is up and running i then plan to BT from my Abbey account to the limit LTSB give me within 6 weeks of opening the account. From what i understand this will incur no fee.

I then plan to SBT again from my savings account to the Abbey using a credit card cheque again. Again i reckon this will cost max £50.

I will definitely not use either cards for purchases. I'm disciplined at stuff like that.

I have some questions about repayments now.
Both cards have a minimum monthly payment of 2.25%.
To make the maths easy, say i get £10,000 limit on both cards.
I will need to repay £225 per month as a minimum.

Is the best way to setup a DD to pay this amount to both cards directly ?
YorkshireBoy, i got slightly lost (and worried) about MBNA failing to take the 1st min payment. Is it wise to ring them up to make sure the 1st min payment has been received by MBNA then ?

As a newcomer, i didnt follow your advice of duplicating the 1st payment. Correct me if wrong but are you saying MBNA fail to receive the 1st minimum payment by DD in some cases. To get round this and avoid penalties for late payment are you recommending using a debit card to duplicate the 1st months payment ? As it reads to me, you are taking another minimum £5 BT and stomaching the £50 fee, which looks different to paying the min monthly fee. Sorry if its such a basic question but ive lost the link somewhere and want to understand it so i dont fall for it.

Any more comments, please throw them in no matter how obvious


Big Thanks - Cheers All,

Steve

YorkshireBoy

stevewatersheddings wrote:

I planned to SBT from my savings account up to the limit Abbey give me using a credit card cheque. From what i understand, this has a max charge of £50.

You'll only be able to use 95% of the limit they give you.

stevewatersheddings wrote:

Both cards have a minimum monthly payment of 2.25%.

The MBNA card has a minimum of £5 - look for the word 'lesser' in the summary box.

stevewatersheddings wrote:

Is the best way to setup a DD to pay this amount to both cards directly ?

I would.


Re the DD situation - a lot of people reported earlier this year that the first DD wasn't collected when everything was supposed to have been set up. From memory, I think you'll receive a direct debit mandate through the post. Also, your first statement will confirm that the DD will be taken on such and such day. If you're happy with this, leave it. If not, make an extra manual payment.

Re the extra £55 manual payment - no, this is not another BT fee. If you decide to make an additional manual payment, and the DD is collected, then this extra £55 will come off your balance. It is not a charge.

Is everything OK now?