Free Cash From Credit Cards Discussion Area

showmethemoney_6

Help! please .... :-[

Unbelievable_2

You are looking at the right one - but the 2% fee you're talking about is a cash withdrawal fee which is not the same as a balance transfer fee.

The MINT card has 0% for 8 months BTW.

Reaper

Unbelivable is right. It is vitally important you do a Balance Transfer and not a Cash Advance. In both cases money ends up in your bank account but on a cash advance you will pay both a charge and interest.

Although the interest free period for Egg is short it can be used after it has finished. Transfer money to it from a different 0% card and from there on to your bank account. This lets you turn any ordinary BT card into a SBT card.

showmethemoney_6

Thanks for your help guys

Egg and Mint here I come :P

ikr2

OK. Time for a report.

When the article on this was first publsihed 6 months ago I applied for both the Halifax and A&L (MBNA) cards. I duly got both and maxed up the free cash advances on these. I also coincidentally got some BT cheques from my existing Lloyds TSB mastercard and maxed out on these after checking there was no fee attached.

I set up monthly DDs to all 3 from my old current account (which I don't use for much else) and made sure there was enough money in it to cover 6 months of minimum payments. I then stashed the rest of the cash with ING (my ISA allowance is already used up)

I am worried that I won't have time to manage this little scheme much longer so I am paying of the cards once the 0% period ends (now for A&L and Lloyds, December for Halifax).

In all I borrowed around £12,000 I will probably make about £230 over the 6-7 months. This was helped by A & L 's min monthly payment being just £5 as opposed to the usual 2%, 2.25% or 3% of the balance.

So all I can say is it's a very nice (and satisfying) little earner. Two lessons learnt:

1) A&L don't warn you at all on their statements when the 0% period will end. I think I will miss the end date by around 24 to 48 hours because I only discovered the end date by chance when I phoned them up to check. You really have to be organised and put these dates on a calendar at the start. However the A & L people suggest they might waive any interest if I give them a call after the balance-clearing payment arrives.

2) Be careful when making one-off payments on-line. I think I have sent £5 to someone else's A&L card (they should be happy!) by mistakenly reversing the last two digits of the credit card no. I am pursuing this with A & L. If you want to make a one-off payment call up the credit card concerned (ensuring you use a geographic or freephone number if possible!)

Ian

gav1n_2

Martin. Ive read the credit card article and it sounds a tempting idea. im a novice when it comes to these cards. i am on social security benefits. if i tried this scheme, im worried that if the money was in my account. it would interfere with my benefits. do you know if the credit card people contact the dhss?

thor

I doubt it but I think that the DSS are allowed to poke around in your bank accounts if they suspect something.

skratoop

How odd - flushed with success from my Abbey SBT I applied for a Virgin card. As it seemed a bit slow in coming I've just rang them.

The nice chap explained that because they (MBNA, of course) had just issued me one card, he *could* issue me the Virgin one, but only with a much smaller credit limit. Something about there being very little traffic on my credit file. So is it possible to have too quiet a credit file??

We amicably agreed I'd apply again in a couple of months. Can I expect the same to happen with other providers, or is this just MBNA cross-referencing their databases?

Brighty

Hi

Can someone please post a list of credit cards it is now best to do this with (what with some now having 2% fees)

For your information Mint are now offering a choice of 0% for 8 months or 0.9%pa for 11 months, which may be worth a look if you think this 0% thing won't last much longer.

jonbrett

OK. Time for a report.

This was helped by A & L 's min monthly payment being just £5 as opposed to the usual 2%, 2.25% or 3% of the balance.

Ian

I assumed A&L to be Alliance & Leicester, but when I looked at their site, I saw no mention of the £5 min payment, just the usual %.

Can you enlighten me?