which credit card is best for cheques?

Martin_y

Hi all. Ive done a search, Ive been through the credit card chooser, and nowhere can I see which credit cards offer the best rate for credit card cheques. I applied for, and received Tesco cards for my wife and I, but we called them and they dont offer cheques. I have a Virgin MBNA card , but the promotional rate just expired for cheques, and its now (ouch!) 18 percent!!

We are buying a new house, and we planned to pay stamp duty and a few other things on Credit card. Of course, our solicitor doesnt take card, and overdraft is expensive. We will be able to pay it off in about a year, so we thought a credit card cheque on 3 percent or something like that would be best for this.

Can anyone recommend a credit card that offers a good rate on cheques now. Ive been shifting a balance around, so recently Ive had Virgin MBNA card, normal MBNA card, and LLoyds air miles Duo cards, so it would have to be NOT one of those!

Thanks for any help.

Dave101t

i cannot recommend a credit card cheque as its a big scam they use to charge you the daily cash withdrawl rate. it will cost you, beware.

TFD_2

Dave101t wrote: »

i cannot recommend a credit card cheque as its a big scam they use to charge you the daily cash withdrawl rate. it will cost you, beware.

No. No. No. No. No. No. No it's not.

The OP fully understands interest rates and was after a card that offered cheques at a promotional rate. I found this very clear to understand.

PurpleJellyFish

All I can suggest is an Egg card that will allow super balance transfers into your account at a promotional rate.

I know NatWest/RBS often send out cheques but I don't know if they do this for new accounts but they do for existing ones. May be worth investigating.

naijapower

Might be a tricky one cos most card companies i know of usually send promotional cheques to old customers. I am not sure if any of them send these to new customers.

LeeSouthEast

Barclaycard do promotional cheques quite frequently. However, the promotional rate is only worth taking if your balance on the card is otherwise nil.

Moggles_2

Barclaycard, MBNA, RBS and HBOS all issue credit card cheques periodically.

Unfortunately, the cheques cannot be ordered and you never know when the next ones will turn up in the post.

naijapower

That is very correct . I feel there are few companies that give out promotional chq to new customers.

izools

However MBNA, Virgin, and Egg allow money transfers into your current account at a promotional rate, and you can then draw the cheque on your current account to benefit from the 0% APR offer

Given that you already have an MBNA / Virgin card, Egg would seem to be the obvious choice.

Now not to cast judgment on how you are going about the purchase of a house, but I can speak wholeheartedly from experience that I used credit to fund my house purchase expenses, just as you are planning to. Just like you I had flawless credit and I was any credit card companie's wet dream. 18 months later I was filing for bankruptcy in my local county court.

Obviously this is just one extreme and personal example, but think very carefully about what you do, and don't be afraid to hold back from your purchase until you are in a position to afford things more easily.

You say you can clear your cards within a year give or take. Have you factored in the inevitable increases in utility bills? And budgeted for absolutely anything that could potentially go wrong in your new house? Boiler, electrics, plumbing, damp, roofing, insulation, uPVC, there are a plethora of exorbitantly expensive items in your house that will break at some point and will cost a lot to repair when the time comes. You never know when that time will be, so unless you have room in the budget for all possible eventualities, it's not time yet.

It takes a much wiser man to admit they can't make the move onto / up the property ladder than one that does it just because he has the credit available to do so, or one that does it to save face / look good to his friends and family

/rant

Martin_y

izools wrote: »

However MBNA, Virgin, and Egg allow money transfers into your current account at a promotional rate, and you can then draw the cheque on your current account to benefit from the 0% APR offer

Given that you already have an MBNA / Virgin card, Egg would seem to be the obvious choice.

Now not to cast judgment on how you are going about the purchase of a house, but I can speak wholeheartedly from experience that I used credit to fund my house purchase expenses, just as you are planning to. Just like you I had flawless credit and I was any credit card companie's wet dream. 18 months later I was filing for bankruptcy in my local county court.

Obviously this is just one extreme and personal example, but think very carefully about what you do, and don't be afraid to hold back from your purchase until you are in a position to afford things more easily.

You say you can clear your cards within a year give or take. Have you factored in the inevitable increases in utility bills? And budgeted for absolutely anything that could potentially go wrong in your new house? Boiler, electrics, plumbing, damp, roofing, insulation, uPVC, there are a plethora of exorbitantly expensive items in your house that will break at some point and will cost a lot to repair when the time comes. You never know when that time will be, so unless you have room in the budget for all possible eventualities, it's not time yet.

It takes a much wiser man to admit they can't make the move onto / up the property ladder than one that does it just because he has the credit available to do so, or one that does it to save face / look good to his friends and family

/rant

Thanks for the reply. According to this site, though, Egg are not taking new customers. I've applied for Alliance and Leicester card.

Thanks for the house advice. Having owned the current house for 10 years, and 2 houses before that, I think I have a fair idea of the costs. In fact we are keeping the existing house, and switching the mortgage to interest only, letting it, and we'll be making £500/month on it. This spare cash will help pay off the 4-5K I am hoping to get from a CC cheque, or as Martin calls it a "Super Balance transfer".

Ive had to go through almost bankruptcy a few times now, ad I really believe that this new house purchase is affordable, and an acceptable risk.

Martin_y

Dave101t wrote: »

i cannot recommend a credit card cheque as its a big scam they use to charge you the daily cash withdrawl rate. it will cost you, beware.

Thanks Dave. I was hoping to use some of those 0% cheques!