New "mule" card

stjric

I did the card trick with using an Egg Money card as a mule a while ago and it worked great.

Now my girlfriend wants to do the same but she doesn't have an Egg Money card and can no longer get one as they are now discontinued. She has already obtained a good 0% offer on bal tfr from NW and wants to use it to clear off her bank overdraft.

I read the bit on the site regarding the card trick which says that Egg are no longer doing a money card but no alternative solution is offered.

What options does my girlfriend have to best utilise this new NW 0% deal?
Could she tfr it to my Egg card then let me draw the cash for her or is that not allowed?

Are there any other "money" cards out there that would work for her?

Any advice is much appreciated.

Many thanks in advance.

td_007

[STRIKE]Is it the platinum card? If so you will able to transfer upto 95% into any UK bank account after paying the balance transfer fee. This is on the website:
Move funds to a bank account

You can transfer money from your Platinum Credit Card to any UK bank account. You simply pay your money transfer rate from the date of the transfer, and the minimum transfer is £250. [/STRIKE]

YorkshireBoy

td_007 wrote: »

Is it the platinum card? If so you will able to transfer upto 95% into any UK bank account after paying the balance transfer fee. This is on the website:
Move funds to a bank account

You can transfer money from your Platinum Credit Card to any UK bank account. You simply pay your money transfer rate from the date of the transfer, and the minimum transfer is £250.

You've snipped that quote and omitted the "See our rates and charges" bit, where the interest costs are not 0% (the OP's objective) but 16.9%. :eek:

All this assumes NW means NatWest, and not Nationwide, of course?

OP, the answer to your question is yes...let her BT a ficticious debt from your Egg Money card to her NW card. Be careful not to create a negative balance with the 'onward' Egg Money BACS transfer/BT though because that would incur you a 3% fee (in addition to a small amount of interest). Pay particular attention to purchases made but not yet showing on your Egg Money account, and I'd also recommend not using the Egg Money card again until you see the BACS transfer/BT listed on your recent transactions page.

td_007

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

You've snipped that quote and omitted the "See our rates and charges" bit, where the interest costs are not 0% (the OP's objective) but 16.9%. :eek:

All this assumes NW means NatWest, and not Nationwide, of course?

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

[STRIKE]
Yorshireboy...there is introductory 0% on balance transfers for 15 months followed by 16.9% that you mention. The OP can safely use the 0% rate even by moving the money to a bank account provided all other conditions are met.[/STRIKE]

CannyJock

td_007 wrote: »

Yorshireboy...there is introductory 0% on balance transfers for 15 months followed by 16.9% that you mention. The OP can safely use the 0% rate even by moving the money to a bank account provided all other conditions are met.

0% on balance transfers on RBS cards (with 2.9% fee) is for credit card balance transfers, not money transfers. They'll still let you do a money transfer and then screw you for interest. OP will get stuffed if they do as you say - although hopefully they'd confirm the facts for themselves by phoning the customer services people.

td_007

I stand corrected. Money transfer WILL attract interest.

Moggles_2

Also, NatWest would restrict money transfers to 50% of her credit limit so, depending on the size of her overdraft, she may have to request a partial transfer and once she'd shifted the balance to NW, repeat the process.

fairybird30

please also be aware that egg money T&Cs have changed recently the change I believe prevents the card being used as a mule without charges.

stjric

Thanks for the advice
Thank you both for your prompt responses, this forum has such great members. Really appreciated.

[STRIKE]I'll have a look into the possibility of transfering it straight to her bank.[/STRIKE] NW does stand for NatWest (apologies for the ambiguity). [STRIKE]I'll just need to check if it is the platinum card that she has got. I'll check on the length that she needs it for too as sometimes even if you are offered 0% on cash transfers it won't be for as long as the BT 0% period. Definately worth looking into initially. [/STRIKE]

If not then I'll go down the route of a BT to my Egg Money card and then a BACS tfr to her bank. I just wasn't sure if banks allowed you to BT to another person's credit card or not (I think she asked someone in her branch about this and they said not, but it wouldn't surprise me if they were wrong).

I've got plenty to go on for now anyway. I'll post back again once we have got a solution to let you know how we got on - or if we hit any brick walls (hopefully not the latter tho').

Thanks again.

Best regards.

stjric

Sorry for the double post but my computer didn't load up any of the threads after td_007's "incorrect informaiton" post.

Looks like she won't be able to do a cash transfer then (which is what I would have assumed anyway, probably wouldn't have even considered the possibility given you generally get poor offers for cash transfers).

In respect of the transfer to my Egg Money account my first question still stands (although this will ultimately be answered when we attempt to make the transfer) and this is, can you transfer to someone else's card? (i.e. her NW card to my Egg card.)

Secondly, if it is possible: how will they decide whether the transaction is that of a "card trick" and I am using it as a "mule"? I already have about £100 sitting on it (I owe to Egg) so if we did a full balance transfer then, say, moved the cash off it to our bank account in two or three transactions, wouldn't this just appear to them to be normal use of the card/account?
i.e. I'm just clearing a £100 debt and putting a big cash surplus on the account, then spending my own (really my girlfriend's) cash after moving it to my(or her) bank current account.

I am a bit hesitant to speak to Egg about this before I make the transfer as this will probably put a flag on my account for them to watch out for me using the card as a mule and try to charge me for it.

Has anyone actually been caught out by these new T&Cs you know of?

(Are there not any other cards out there that can be used in the same way that an Egg money card can be that my girlfriend could just sign up to?)

Many thanks again.
Regards.

thriftymomma

If you are asking about Super balance transfers(transfer to bank account), then it is Virgin, post office and MBNA. I don't know if that's what you mean though.