Egg - do I need to be careful

puno

Having studied these pages for the last few weeks I decided to "bite the bullet" and have a go at making money out of credit cards!!!

So far I have obtained 3 credit cards

Card Limit - Free period
Bcard 8,700 12mths (max £5000 for BT)
Sainsburys 3,500 9mths
Egg 5,000 5months


I want to max out the cards using the egg card as the middle man to SBT to my current account and then put it in a mini ISA & cahoot account. in total I am going to move 13,500 via the egg card, is this number of BT's and SBT's going to cause me any hassle with egg? Are there any thoughts on the best way to do this (ie is there a maximum?) and whether I could get away with applying for a couple more cards and BT'ing even more?

I want to get my own back on these company's but don't want to push my luck and get blacklisted!!!

lisyloo

I'm not an expert in this area, but I would say be careful about your credit rating.

Will you need a mortgage or a loan in the forseeable future.
Too many application for credit at one time can look like you are desperate or being refused.

I would say - spend some time reading up on how credit reports work adn consider your short and medium term needs for credit.
Too many in one go is probably a bad idea.

Leia_Stephens

Well done at getting a 8,700 limit with BC, puno ;D

puno

Have a mortgage cant change it for 2 years (fixed rate), by which time all the applications will have expired so not to bothered about that, just don't want to get on the wrong side of egg!

Joe_Bloggs

@Puno
Go for it. The damage is done now anyway.
The key thing is to establish means to view the accounts and pay off the minimum payments via the net. Direct debits are unreliable to set up so I advise online 'bill payment ' or a regular standing order administered online.

I like to pay half of the 2-3% capital each month from my earnings and the rest from the savings pot which is swept into an other online current account to keep its level a few hundred pounds.

Leia_Stephens

I concur with JB, DD payments can be unreliable. I generally make a manual payment online, which in my experience - fingers crossed - has had a 100% success rate so far ;D.

Leia

Suzz_2

I tried to increase my credit limit on the Egg internet site - just by £500 - this was the second time I tried this month to take advantage of the anniversary offer. I got a message saying my request had been referred.

Then someone called me & said they needed to ask a few questions... like what I had used the BT's to my bank account for, where the cash to clear my balance prior to the aniversary date came from...

Didn't like this, so said I'd cancel the request.

Just wondered if anyone else has had this...?

Think it may be time to start handling Egg with care... Maybe this is a bit of a dangerous game - I don't want to get blacklisted....

Joe_Bloggs

Do not worry about Egg. They know their role.
I once applied for a £1 increment to my credit limit. It was denied of course by a computer. The staff have little reason to be helpful so there is no point arguing with them. Handle everything online and stuff your balance transfers in a safe place. Consider the egg 0% for 5 months as a stopper that locks things in place.

Suzz_2

Joe,

Thanks for your reply - must say I was a bit bothered about Egg calling me with these questions.... I thought they could be on to me... and look into it further.

I do have an offset mortgage with them, with much of their free BT money offsetting my mortgage.. so I was wondering if they would track the BTs....

Could they stop someone doing this if they wanted to?

DiggingOut

Suzz, IMO you would do well to be careful. You might consider trying for another SBT card and don't use Egg that way anymore for a while.

Puno, make sure you make all of your purchases on your Barclaycard up to its limit and put the money that would have been used to pay for those purchases into savings. ;D

Joe_Bloggs

@Suzz
That mortgage information was a important item of information that you left out.
It would be wise to research the key players behind the brand names we bandy around and check that they are not responsible for your mortgage. The egg 0% balance attempt was a tad blatant in these circumstances.

Keep your ear to the ground regarding:-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3928775.stm