A couple of questions before I do this for the first time...

adamdynamic

Ok,

I'm sure that these will have been convered before, but I just wanted to triple-check my understanding was right before I go get myself into thousands of pounds worth of debt :-)

1) I've got my Egg Money Card, my Barclay Card (with 14 months BT at 0% and 3 months of 0% purchases) and a flexible mortgage where I can pay money in/out freely.

2) The idea: Stooze money into my mortgage and reduce my interest payments, thus paying off the balance quicker. Simple. (I think).

What I need to make sure of before I take the plunge:

1) The 2.9% transfer fee - is this considered a 'purchase'? If so do I have to wait (and thus pay interest on) this for 14 months due to the way in which the cc companies calculate the interest?

2) They've only given me a credit limit of £2k, I'm relatively young (24) but have a high income, how can I go about increasing this for when I do it in future? Is it worth getting another card and spending on it, making sure to re-pay in full each month, just to increase my credit rating?

3) My mortgage is at 6.5% at the moment, I've calculated that if I use the card to offset £1800 of my mortgage for 13 months (to be safe), after the 2.9% fee I'll be about £65 better off than if I hadn't bothered. Does this sound about right? And what are people's thoughts on the risk versus the reward?

Any help would be much appreciated!

Many thanks,

Adam.

CluelessJock

For £1.25 per week is it worth the hassle?

mortgage rate might come down reducing gain, you might get the timing wrong etc.

reward vs risk = only you can decide

JimmyTheWig

I think this is totally worth the hassle.
Sounds like you know exactly what you are doing.
Yes, your mortgage rate might come down reducing your profits, but hardly going to come down enough to cost you money.

Just make sure you don't spend on your Barclaycard and that you make the payments on time.

I believe the key is your suggestion to increase your credit rating.
Two things...
1. You will be making the minimum payments on the Barclaycard, thus improving your credit rating.
2. Once the transfer is complete you won't be stoozing on your egg money card, so use this for purchases and pay off in full every month. This will improve your credit rating and get you 1% cashback at the end of the year on what you've spent.

Then once you've paid off your Barclaycard if people are still doing 0% deals then apply for a new one (MBNA family, maybe) and you should get a much better limit...

adamdynamic

Spending on my Egg card sounds like a good plan, I've got a Capital One card that I've maxed out with the money sitting ready off-setting my mortgage to pay off once the deal ends so perhaps that will help as well?

Many thanks for all your help, I think I need to make a phonecall to Barclay Card and get this thing moving...

JimmyTheWig

So you've already done a slow stooz? Sounds like you're definitely going in the right direction.
No real rush, but are you on the electoral role? This will help credit applications in the future.