MBNA repeat offer strategy

Degenerate

Dear Stoozers,

This month I'll be making a couple of large purchases totalling around £2000 that I need to finance through to June.

I already have a 12 month 0% BT offer sitting on my Barclaycard account, so buying on one of my other cards and immediately BTing is my fall-back option. I don't need a year's credit though, and would naturally prefer to avoid £58 of fees if possible. What would really suit me would be one of MBNA's 0% purchases offers, as they're fee-free and tend to run for the 6 months I require.

I have a balance of £700 sitting on my MBNA card from my last purchase offer, 0% rate ending April, and enough cash to pay it off safely stashed in a saving account. Based on people's experience of MBNA's repeat offers, do you think I will stand more chance of a new offer by clearing it (and losing some stoozing interest), by leaving it on, or is there no difference?

Jammi

In my experience MBNA have only made offers on my two cards when the balance has been sitting at £0 for a fair while. Even if you clear your balance now they are unlikely to make an offer in time for your planned purchases. They've certainly never made me an offer while I was carrying balances on the cards.

You could also apply for 0% "purchases" card. Feeling a bit bored just after christmas I applied for a Tesco 13 month 0% on purchases card, and got an instant acceptance, albeit with a punny limit ( I understand this is typical of Tesco). Give it a try.