Newbie Question - Can You Balance Transfer Onto a Card With No Balance?

mleonard79

Hi everyone,

This might be a silly question but we've recently switched to a Northern Rock mortgage which is fully flexible in the fact that you can overpay as much as you want but if you then need the money you've overpaid back at any point you can just take it back. This got me to thinking that I could cut down the mortgage interest a bit by taking a 0% card, shoving the money in the mortgage and then when it ends just paying it back out of the mortgage or trying the whole process again if poss!

Anyway I have an M & S card and have been a loyal customer for years (they've had far too much money in interest out of me!) and they've offered me 0% for 6 months twice already. Was thinking of pushing my luck for a third 6 months. If they did agree to it I also have a Halifax One card with no balance on it so could I just balance transfer the money to that and then ask them for a cheque for the excess money on my account?? (I've had to do this before when I've balance transferred too much and put the account in credit.) Or is this too easy and I'm missing something like they'll see I have no debt on the card and reject it? I know about the egg money card being able to do this but I would have to apply to that and I thought if it was possible this way I could do it quickly. I just don't want to do anything wrong. Thanks for any help.

YorkshireBoy

mleonard79 wrote:

If they did agree to it I also have a Halifax One card with no balance on it so could I just balance transfer the money to that and then ask them for a cheque for the excess money on my account?? (I've had to do this before when I've balance transferred too much and put the account in credit.) Or...I'm missing something like they'll see I have no debt on the card and reject it?

HBoS expressly forbid the creation of positive balances in their T&C's (one of only a few to my knowledge). There's a difference between a 'slight overpayment' and a, say, £10K deliberate stoozing ploy.

Although it's possible with other cards, you really need Egg Money for 'ease'.

mleonard79

I thought there would be something like that - it just seemed so easy and everybody wouldn't be using the egg card if you could do it!! Was worth asking though. I'm going to apply for the egg card but as I've just had the mortgage credit check and one for an A&L current account in the last few weeks I don't want to add any more right away in case it affects my credit rating.

What about Barclaycard, M&S and Capital One - do they expressly forbid it too?

Thanks Yorkshire Boy, much appreciated.

YorkshireBoy

mleonard79 wrote:

What about Barclaycard, M&S and Capital One - do they expressly forbid it too?

I'm not sure - I've only ever had +ve balances on the Egg Card and Egg Money products.

In the absence of any other replies with actual experiences, you'll have to take a look at your own/the online T&C's to check.

However, one thing to bear in mind is that if any provider returns money to the source card and you have paid a fee to the source account to initiate the first transfer, then this is simply money down the drain.

With the current crop of uncapped fees, and Co-op's £100 capped fee, this could be a very expensive exercise indeed.

mleonard79

Thanks Yorkshire Boy - no definitely don't want to take that risk so will scrap that idea. Will apply for the egg money card soon then. I'm doing this for my mum as I'm sorting out her finances at the mo. Do you know if I opened the egg money card for myself (so as to avoid another credit check for my mum and because I may use it to stooze myself at some point) if I would be able to balance transfer from my mum's card? I wouldn't want to try it if it's against the rules but I did balance transfer from my mum's m&s card to my cap 1 card last year while she was paying cc debt off so as to avoid her having to apply for a new 0% card (m&s offered 0% again for 6 months but of course the debt had to be transferred out for a few days in order to be transferred back in at 0% so I sent it to my card and they said that was fine.) Was just wondering if this is allowed with the egg card too? Thanks for your help.

YorkshireBoy

mleonard79 wrote:

Do you know if I opened the egg money card for myself (so as to avoid another credit check for my mum and because I may use it to stooze myself at some point) if I would be able to balance transfer from my mum's card?

You can transfer any balances to Egg Money. Even if you weren't allowed, you'd simply send the cash to your current account and settle your mum's card from there.

However, the Egg Money card doesn't have a 0% introductory rate so you'd pay 6.9% APR typical (with no BT fee) on any BT's transferred to the card.

mleonard79

Hi Yorkshire Boy,

I'm not sure I put that very clearly - Think what I wanted to say was could I balance transfer TO my mum's card not from it! I wouldn't want to transfer outstanding balances onto egg money but a credit balance as my mum's card has no debt on it so I want to use it to put a debt amount on it, transfer the money to the egg card and then from there to my mum's current account and into the mortgage so as to save interest on the mortgage - if that makes sense! I'm guessing if it's allowed the other way round they probably allow it that way as well but just want to make sure before I apply for one! I'm just a bit worried about 3 credit checks on my mum's account in the space of 2 weeks while I haven't had a credit check in a couple of years at least. Thanks!

YorkshireBoy

mleonard79 wrote:

I'm not sure I put that very clearly - Think what I wanted to say was could I balance transfer TO my mum's card not from it! I wouldn't want to transfer outstanding balances onto egg money but a credit balance as my mum's card has no debt on it so I want to use it to put a debt amount on it, transfer the money to the egg card and then from there to my mum's current account and into the mortgage so as to save interest on the mortgage - if that makes sense!

Well then, the answer is yes. It's what stoozers (with stoozing spouses/partners) do all the time. Martin Lewis calls it the 'Middle Route' in his stoozing article (in the blue box above your first post).

The only time I've been asked for the 'name' on the other card is with HSBC.

PoorDave

So a couple both with stooz cards would only need one egg money card? Is that what you're saying?

YorkshireBoy

PoorDave wrote:

So a couple both with stooz cards would only need one egg money card? Is that what you're saying?

That's exactly what I'm saying.

The only reason I can think of for a second card is to ensure you maximise the BACS transfer cashback loophole. For example, I have way over £300 cashback showing at the moment, but I know I'll only get £200* of that back next March.

* I may get a lot less if they remove all the BACS generated cashback prior to paying out next year.

mleonard79

Hi Yorkshire Boy,

Thanks for the help - that's great, I'll apply for that then and I can route my mum's through it saving her another credit check so soon and I can keep the card for myself and perhaps get round to doing some stoozing of my own at some point;)

Michelle