'old' egg card any good for stoozing?

YorkshireBoy

---lee--- wrote:

Only a 5k limit, but I don't suppose it matters if it's only going to be a 'mule'...

It matters in the sense that a credit limit of anything more than 2 months normal spending on this card is useless available credit to the serious stoozer (IMHO), and may impact on the limits given by other card providers.

---lee---

YorkshireBoy wrote:

It matters in the sense that a credit limit of anything more than 2 months normal spending on this card is useless available credit to the serious stoozer (IMHO), and may impact on the limits given by other card providers.

Good point, so on that basis, I should probably reduce the limit on it and my other cards.

My only debt is a mortgage. I've also been in the same job for 10 years+ and am married with children, so hopefully I represent a good risk to the cc companies.

Card limits

9k Amex (I use this for my day to day spending to get 2% cashback)
5k Egg money (mule card)
3k Nationwide (holiday card)

EDIT: Forgot to say, I have no balances on the cards except for Amex which I settle in full each month.

I can certainly reduce limits all round to free up some more lines of credit. Would it be wise to do this before applying for any further cards or keep it in reserve for negotiations with the underwriters?

If my mule has a low limit, does this not affect my ability to xfer balances through it, or does it just mean that I have to do the xfers in blocks?

Cheers,

Lee.

YorkshireBoy

---lee--- wrote:

Would it be wise to do this before applying for any further cards or keep it in reserve for negotiations with the underwriters?

The trouble with keeping it in reserve is that the underwriter can only see a snapshot of your current available credit at that moment when viewing your CRA file. Even if they agree, I suspect they'll want to wait until your other provider updates the CRA's - possibly delaying the granting of a higher limit by 1-2 months. If it was me, I'd lower them before making any more applications.

---lee--- wrote:

If my mule has a low limit, does this not affect my ability to xfer balances through it, or does it just mean that I have to do the xfers in blocks?

If you're happy to operate with BT'ing a ficticious debt from Egg Money to a new card, then it matters not what the limit is. However, if this bothers you, then you may need to create a debt each time by BT'ing off and then repaying this temporary debt each time you add to the stooze pot. This method means of course that you cannot use Egg Money as the stooze pot, and also means you incur (relatively small) interest charges with each transaction. The cost of operating in this way will increase significantly if you also pay a BT fee to your 0% card provider.

---lee---

Hi YB. After I read your post I left it overnight to sink in as I was becoming very confused. Grr, now I feel really stupid. I can see that I have totally created and confused the issue by being concerned about the credit card limit.

For some reason, I was confusing the egg money card limit with how much money I could transfer onto the card as a +ve balance or in other words as money I could draw off the card to a current a/c. I now realise that the limit does not affect how much +ve balance you can have on the card so this is not an issue, other than what you said about it reducing my available credit.

But in my case, I have no balances on other cards to move around, so I need to create them in the first instance.

Now to test if I have the idea straight in my mind or if I’m still off in dream world.

In my example, I’ll have two hypothetical cards and limits

Egg (SBT) – 5k limit
TSB (0% for 12 months) – 10k limit

1. Use egg to pay off 5k ‘overdraft’. Egg = 5k, TSB = 0k.
2. Transfer egg balance to TSB. Egg = 0k, TSB = 5k.
3. Use egg to pay off 5k ‘overdraft’. Egg = 5k, TSB = 5k.
4. Transfer egg balance to TSB. Egg = 0k, TSB = 10k.

To keep the example simple, I’ve ignored the fact that you can only use 95% of your balance for transfers on the egg card.

Am I heading in the right direction or am I still confused?

Thanks,

Lee.

YorkshireBoy

---lee--- wrote:

Am I heading in the right direction or am I still confused?

What you describe seems OK. However, I don't know what TSB will say to 2 successive BT's for the same amount from the same provider. Also, bear in mind that the LTSB, for example, only allows promotional BT's in the first 6 weeks. Other providers only allow one BT (eg Post Office).

---lee---

YorkshireBoy wrote:

...I don't know what TSB will say to 2 successive BT's for the same amount from the same provider.

Again, thanks for your input.

So ideally in this scenario, I should ensure that the TSB card has the same limit as the egg card and only do one xfer.

OR

Am I still missing a trick and is there a totally different and better way that I could do this?

Cheers,

Lee.

YorkshireBoy

Lee

You've grasped the issues, and now have 3 options...

1. Carry an unnecessarily high credit limit on Egg Money, and BT off each time to create an initial debt so you don't contravene the 0% BT cards T&C's.

2. Lower your stoozing expectations, by maintaining lower limits on all your cards.

3. Contravene the 0% BT cards T&C's.