Stooze hit em hard hit em high, why not

mary

Happy Hero wrote

How would you do this? If I got FD to take 10,000 from Egg wont they ask why I want to do it again a couple of weeks or a month later again and then again? It will look like my Egg card has got an ever debt filling basket. What I am saying basically, is what do you tell them that will make sense and put them at ease?

When I have done this, no questions were asked.
The only time we got a phone call was when I transferred £15K and because my Egg Green limit was £10K, I had to offload some through hubby's account at the same time to get it through quickly. They rang him just to check he knew something about it, but it was all okay. Presumably because they spotted money was going to a different set of initials.

dthyer

Warning about doing the transfer in smaller chunks.

See the Ts&Cs http://www.firstdirect.com/legals/creditcard.shtml particularly 2.6.1:

2.6.1 A promotional balance transfer is a balance transfer which occurs within the first 6 months of this agreement amounting to £500 or more which is the first balance transfer to the credit card company concerned.

I did a BT for > 20K in one chunk, speaking to a person on the phone, and they had no problem with it.

Of course that's no guarantee that the same will happen for you, but I thought it was worth pointing out the potential problem with smaller chunks, unless you have more than one routing card.

I hope this helps,

DT

Clariman

Why do you stop trying when you get a negative? Does it leave anything on your credit history and if so, how long before you are free from its effect?

It doesn't leave anything negative on your credit history other than a record of the credit check being done. However, I take it as an early warning that I am pushing my Stoozing a little too far or a little too quickly. If I carried on applying then I would probably get a heap of rejections because I was looking like a desperate debtor. I would rather back off for a couple of months and then apply elsewhere.

How would you do this? If I got FD to take 10,000 from Egg wont they ask why I want to do it again a couple of weeks or a month later again and then again? It will look like my Egg card has got an ever debt filling basket. What I am saying basically, is what do you tell them that will make sense and put them at ease?

Someone has pointed out some relevant FD Ts & Cs so check yours out in detail first. However - answering in a more general way - I usually do my BT requests online so I don't even have to speak to anyone. If they asked then I would simply say that I had made some major purchases and wanted to move them across to my 0% card.

Two things to be wary of if you put your credit card into credit. I have heard (can someone verify ?) that it can make you look as if something fraudulent is going on so you might get a phone call. Also, I have heard it can be a problem if you put your card in credit by more than
your credit limit. When you come to transfer the money, something prevents you moving money that is more than your credit limit.

Also a new question. My wife is a housewife (no job) will she be able to get cards and will my activities have any effect on the limits she could achieve?

It depends. If you have a joint mortgage or joint savings accounts then your credit files will be "linked" so a lender could see what you each had borrowed. At least that is how it was until revently. I am pretty sure that is still the way it is, but there were some very recent changes to the legislation. Might be worth checking. If you have no financial associations then it should not affect her.

Clariman

mary

When I wanted to do a second BT, it had to be a different card, it could not be to the same card twice within the 6 month period.

Tim_L

This last point depends on the issuer. Some allow balance transfers to anywhere anytime (Egg), and others are more restrictive, for example Lloyds TSB.

Some call centre operatives make up the rules as they go along too: I had one transfer refused by Halifax because someone thought it was a minimum payment (correctly), rang back 10 minutes later and it was accepted no problem.

I think that if there is a good time to apply for cards regardless, it is probably now, pre-Christmas. The CC companies will (I suspect) be scrambling to get their hands on Christmas and January sales spending.

mary

When I wanted to do a second BT, it had to be a different card, it could not be to the same card twice within the 6 month period.

The issuer was First Direct

booogle

As far as the FD/HSBC link goes, I was recently declined for a FD current account & accepted for a HSBC gold card with 3.5k limit.. Makes you wonder...

happyhero

Thank you for all your comments

DT quoted FD T&C

2.6.1 A promotional balance transfer is a balance transfer which occurs within the first 6 months of this agreement amounting to £500 or more which is the first balance transfer to the credit card company concerned.

Does this mean there will some kind of charge for a second transfer i.e it says "THE FIRST BALANCE TRANSFER" in this quote, because if FD have given me a £25,000 limit there is a good chance I will want to do more than one transfer rather than one £25,000 transfer which may raise suspicions.

Also I asked earlier will my wife be able to get cards being just a housewife i.e. no job. Clariman mentioned if we had any links but we have no accounts linked not even a joint mortgage. What I am after here is to basically hear, yes she can benefit form my situation/earnings/owning a house, etc, and therefore get cards with good limits, instead of no she cannot get cards because she has no job, or if she does the limit will be bad. Can anybody tell me which way it is lightly to go for her here as we want to use her money to stooze as well.

quote author=mary link=board=Questions;num=1102894270;start=0#14 date=12/13/04 at 12:03:26]When I wanted to do a second BT, it had to be a different card, it could not be to the same card twice within the 6 month period.[/quote]

Mary you said later it was FD, same as me, so what did you do about it? Did you just transfer to another card? Did you have to pay anything for a second transfer (note the T&C 2.6.1 I mention above)? Having hindsight would you use as much of FD's limit as possible in one go this time, or do you have another idea given a second chance?

Also Mary a bit personal this one so don't answer if you don't want to, but did you get a high limit? The reason I ask is because in 6 months time although the £25,000 limit is lovely, I don't know how many cards it will take to pay FD off so that I can keep it invested. I wondered what you are planning, being there before me.

zcaprd7

I think you're going to have to transfer the lot in one go (I rang up FD a while back to do a non-promotional balance tranfer for debt shuffling card and they said they would charge for that).

Maybe put your Egg into debit first and incur a few days of interest (also try to get your Egg up to a £15k limit). That way you will only be £10kish in credit on your Egg?

Be glad you'll get £25000 worth of interest for 6 months (hefty minimium payments) and pay it all off - then get some more cards - I don't think you will get a £25k limit on another card in a hurry (although capital one will triple the initial balance given after three months but I'm not sure their offers are good for stoozing).

Re: your wife, I don't think you get it both ways, she will either get poor limits because she has no income, or poor limits because she shares your income but then is related to your debt...get her to try an application but make sure you have one 'story' about your finances as a couple and stick to it...

Luffer

Hi Happyhero,

Im in a similar situation, new to 'stoozing' and an FD customer.

Applied online for an FD card and was pre-approved for £25k.

My wife is also a housewife, (though recently self employed as a childminder, but banked with FD pre children).

We applied in her name at the same time and she has been pre-approved for £22k. All our finances are linked (ie Joint a/c , mortgage etc