Stoozing into FD mortgage from Virgin card

evi3000

I suspect this has probably been asked before but I'm struggling to find it and would prefer answers to my specific query if I am to convince OH that this is an excellent idea!

We owe 157400 on First Direct offset mortgage (5.25% interest rate)
OH has just been given a Virgin credit card (£20100)!!!
We need £2600 of that to transfer a CC debt from HSBC. We have no other debts (excepty car loan which is also 0% for the duration of the loan)

So, my plan is:
Use the cheques that arrived today and pay £17500 into savings account linked to offset. Set up DD to pay the minimum each month and then in January 2010 when the 0% ends - pay it off.

We will have to pay 2.98% balance transfer - so £521.50
Do we pay that straightaway (which I would rather do) or does it just sit there accumulating interest to be paid at the end of the special rate? Is the BT subject to the 0% as well.

What savings am I looking at over 14/15 months?

I hope someone can help me. I have a rough idea that we would be saving approx £75 per month in interest which would increase per month as we would keep the payments the same (or more than they are now)

Is this a good plan? How do I convince OH? I can convince him to do most things:rotfl:

I hope that's clear and someone can help!
Looking forward to all your lovely advice.

evi3000

YorkshireBoy

evi3000 wrote: »

I suspect this has probably been asked before

Once or twice!

Use the cheques

Don't bother with the cheques. Call the customer services BT team on 0800 015 0307 and they'll transfer the cash straight into your current account. Use the one you've set the DD up on (you have set up a minimum payment DD?) to avoid any security calls.

We will have to pay 2.98% balance transfer - so £521.50
Do we pay that straightaway

Collected with your first minimum payment (calculated as the 2.98% fee + £5). Subsequent minimum payments are a flat £25 per month. DO NOT USE THE CARD FOR PURCHASES.

What savings am I looking at over 14/15 months?

www.stoozing.com/calc.htm

How do I convince OH?

Show him the savings from the above calculator.

Since he quite clearly has an excellent salary/credit history, you ought to be exploiting this by stoozing more cards.

What you're about to do is detailed in the stoozing site's quick start guide at http://www.stoozing.com/g_quickstooz.html

evi3000

Well, convinced OH to stooze sotoday he called and transferred the money into our offset savings account.
He has a new Barclay card so as soon as I open an egg money card, we're going to transfer that all over as well.

I am very pleased with myself and am planning on seriously overpaying the mortgage!!!!

Thansk for the info!

evi3000

YorkshireBoy

evi3000 wrote: »

He has a new Barclay card so as soon as I open an egg money card, we're going to transfer that all over as well.

Be careful with Barclaycard. The max BT (at 0%) is £5K.

A word of advice...don't get carried away. Be sure to check your plans with others on here, or on the official stoozing site, because you could easily get your fingers burnt.

Good luck.

evi3000

Thanks for the warning.

I am extremely cautious with money and an very organised so I know I won't miss the repayment date.

I was unaware the max transfer from Barclaycard is £5k.

This is all the stoozing I'm going to do for the moment. I think £25k for a first timer is more than enough (and I think OH would have a heart attack!)

When the current offers expire and I have to repay all the money I'm sure I'll be back for some very valuable advice.

By the way, just so I have a rough idea, should I look to transfer the debt (or some of it) or pay it off and then start all over again. Despite our excellent income I can't imagine any company is going to offer us such a large amount

Thanks again for your help

evi3000

YorkshireBoy

evi3000 wrote: »

...should I look to transfer the debt (or some of it) or pay it off and then start all over again.

Your problem will be that you've only repaid (14 x £25 £350 off the balance during the intro period. Other lenders will see that you are using a very large amount of your credit limit and so could appear to be struggling.

Personally, I've adopted the blitz approach to my stoozing which means my stooz pot runs down to virtually zero, and then bounces back up to 150%+ of salary again, and I think you may have to do the same.

Despite our excellent income I can't imagine any company is going to offer us such a large amount

Neither can I. MBNA are known to give very good limits, so your options for BT'ing this away at the end of the intro period are very much limited to Egg & LTSB...but I doubt either of these will give you a £20K+ credit limit.

unionjack81

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Don't bother with the cheques. Call the customer services BT team on 0800 015 0307 and they'll transfer the cash straight into your current account.

Could I just clarify: Are you suggesting that the Virgin Card can be transferred directly into a current account without going through Egg Money Card?

Is this because it's an offset mortgage? Or is it because Virgin offer this facility.

I apologise for my ignorance.

NickX

unionjack81 wrote: »

Could I just clarify: Are you suggesting that the Virgin Card can be transferred directly into a current account without going through Egg Money Card?

Is this because it's an offset mortgage? Or is it because Virgin offer this facility.

I apologise for my ignorance.

Yes Virgin allows a transfer of funds direct to your bank account.

Nothing to do with being an offset mortgage, Virgin offer the facility.

No need to apologise.

Donna410

Quote:
Originally Posted by unionjack81
Could I just clarify: Are you suggesting that the Virgin Card can be transferred directly into a current account without going through Egg Money Card?

Is this because it's an offset mortgage? Or is it because Virgin offer this facility.

I apologise for my ignorance.

"Quote:
Yes Virgin allows a transfer of funds direct to your bank account.

Nothing to do with being an offset mortgage, Virgin offer the facility.

No need to apologise."

I'm new to stoozing and would like to do this. I've read through the articles and think I know what I am doing....kind off! I'm looking through the forums to get other people's opinions and scenarios too, so I apologise in advance for what might seem like a stupid question.

When the OP got the virgin Credit Card, how did they transfer the amount into a savings account without being charged? Is this not like a cash advance? I thought to stooze you had to go pay for things with the card, that you would normally pay for e.g. food shopping etc. and then transfer the money you would have normally paid for this into a savings account?

Is this an easier way? Get the credit card, get them to transfer the maximum credit limit into your savings account? and then just make the minimum repayments and at the end of your 0% on purchases take the money out of the savings to pay off the card?

YorkshireBoy

Donna410 wrote: »

I thought to stooze you had to go pay for things with the card, that you would normally pay for e.g. food shopping etc. and then transfer the money you would have normally paid for this into a savings account?

That's only one method...known as slow, or 'simply spend', stoozing.

There are two other fast-stoozing variants (you must have missed them when you read the articles?), and all methods are described here...

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cards/stooze-cash-credit-cards

There is, of course, an entire website devoted to stoozing at...

www.stoozing.com