Need £4.5k to buy a car.....how to "realise" the cash

Torby

Is it possible to take e.g. a cash advance on my Egg card (Limit £8.5k) of approx £4.5k, then do a balance transfer to my Halifax card (Limit £6k) as they have just written to me and offered 5.94% for the life(transfer fee is 3%)...which is a lot cheaper than any car loan.

Can you actually "stooze" or whatever its called , a balance from a cash advance?

Is it even possible to get that big a cash advance?

Is there an easier way to do it?

More importantly...is there a BETTER way to do it?

I can't really see the car dealer taking a CC for payment, so what way (if any) would you recommend to go about making this work....I think basically its how to get cheap(ish) finance on a car loan.


Thanks

Stinkybell

check your statements carefully - cash advances attract much higher interest rates and interest is payable from transaction date - no interest free period even if you pay it off straight away. Also, some CCs limit the amount of cash you can withdraw. Also be sure to double check the amount of your halifax card you can BT.

May be worth checking out zopa for a competetive loan rate?

Torby

thanks stinky......

any one else?

splatt30

I have, on 2 occasions in the past bought cars for this sort of value with a credit card. Car dealer didn't have a problem, I was just convinced that the card company would phone due it the unusual nature of the purchase, they didn't.

How much current spend do you have on each card?
You need to check if Halifax has a limit to the amount you can then balance transfer. If you do transfer it to the Halifax card you must not use that card for any other purchases as these will accrue interest at the standard rate, and they pay the lower rate debt of first.

The other oprtion is to find out if Halifax do credit card cheques. My Virgin credit card had cheques that I could use under the same conditions as balance transfers during that period.

Torby

thanks splatt....I like the cheques idea

both cards have very little on them at the moment....zero on the Halifax and only about £250 on Egg, think thats why the Halifax are trying to tempt me....had about £4k on it before and paid it off...it was low interest for the life then as well....

My Virgin card is offering interest free on purchases over £250 until FEB 2010 I think...but I've only got about £3.5k limit on it....could possibly find the difference in cash perhaps....

JUST CHECKED: Virgin has a limit of £5.5k...wonder what the chances are of a balance transfer of low interest for the life are in Feb next year...lol

decisions, decisions...my cars just over 9 yrs now...so scrappage isnt an option....and would get very little on a trade in probably

never-in-doubt

I thought Virgin allowed a transfer to your bank as it is run by MBNA? If so then surely common sense says take this from Virgin and do transfer back to it....?

That would be the cheapest and easiest way that I can think of - plus no cheque fee to pay!

td_007

If you are buying from a dealer, they should be ok to let you pay by card and even split the amount across cards if needed. This way you will avoid paying the higher interest rate on cash advance as well as any balance transfer fees.

Torby

thanks td_007 I had assumed most car dealers wouldn't take CC payments, I suppose there is a recession at the moment and they may be glad of the business...

SwissLe

I'd go with Virgin Super Balance Transfer, you can negotiate better with cash with a dealer and it's also 0%. You can then pay as much off by Feb 2010 and then look for another 0% deal or low life transfer - card rates are risk based rather than interest rate based anyway.

Torby

Hi swissLe, can you throw a bit more light on this "Virgin Super Balance Transfer", I already have a Virgin card, but I'm not sure what this is. Someone else in the thread mentioned doing a transfer into your bank a/c but I've never done that and I wasn't even aware it was something you could do.

aha!!!....just found another thread on MSE and went to my Virgin card online...

is this what is meant?

"0.9% until 22 December 2009 on all money transfers to a current account completed before 22 August 2009
A transfer handling fee will apply of 2.98% of the transaction (minimum of £3.00)"

SwissLe

The super balance transfer is really simple. Offered by Virgin and other cards in the MBNA stable it enables you to transfer funds from within your credit limit to your current account. It is treated in the same manner as a balance transfer, so normally attracts a fee of around 3%. The money appears in your account within 5 days.