Stoozing with egg and first direct question

purplepatch

Hello

Am planning to embark on my first stooze once I get my head round things.

We bank with them and have a FD visa card already. I'm waiting to hear back from them as to whether they will do us a 0% BT rate (as they advertise on the website) and if they will up it to a £10k credit limit. All this next bit assumes they will....!

My husband has a new 0% egg card with £12k credit limit.

Seems to me that I can't get FD to balance transfer directly into our current account and that it has to pay off another credit card. Anyone know if this is definitely the case?

So, plan is:
1) hubby gets egg to BT £10k to the first direct current account.
2) I get FD to BT £10k to egg, effectively clearing the egg card
3) hubby gets egg to do a second BT of £10k to the current account

I then transfer £20k to my cahoot savings and set up the direct debit payments from there for the minimum monthly payments.

Furthermore, with regard to minimum payments, am I correct in thinking that egg will let you make unlimited free BTs, so every month when both FD and egg take the minimum payments I can BT it back from egg to my savings account?

Any major flaws? Is there a better way?

Reaper

I'm not sure FD will give you a 0% deal if you have had the card for a while. However if not just ask them to switch cards (eg Black to Gold) then you will get it.

Yes your plan sounds fine, although your second Egg BT can be for £12,000 not £10,000.

You might get a call from Egg when BTing big amounts online. Nothing to panic about, they just check that it was really you that issued the instruction.

Egg will let you do unlimted BTs but FD will not. You can only BT to any one place once or they will charge you. So you can't top up the debt again via Egg. Personally I, and many other stoozers, try to pay the minimum amounts from salary instead of the stooze pot as a form of saving. It stops the stooze pot dwindling. Entirely up to you, I realise it's a hefty amount when FD want a 3% minimum repayment.

I'm not sure that your Cahoot savings account accepts Direct Debits. You need to check. If not pay it from your bank account, moving enough from the savings to cover it each month.

Apart from the above I think you should be ok.

purplepatch

Thanks Reaper for your very informative reply .

Further to previous thread I've spoken to FD who will give me a credit card with a £10k limit in my own name. We have yet to hear from them re the other card (which is actually in my husband's name) but at least he has the option to switch it to a gold card if they won't do it - that's good to know.

I have an old egg card which is no longer 0%. But I rang them earlier and they told me that I will get the opportunity for 0% BT in June (anniversary date) and my limit is £12k too. Does anyone know how long the anniversary 0% deal lasts though?

So what with mine and hubby's credit limits, we can potentially stooze £40k for starters without having to apply for any new cards. Can't afford to pay minimum payments out of salary unfortunately. Especially with FD's 3% - ouch!

I must say I had my doubts about the DD from cahoot, but will double check. The reason for not doing the full £12k from egg was to keep £2k back to cover the FD minimum payments ie £300 x 6. Does that make any sense?

It seems quite a lot of faffing, but it's got to be worth the effort. I'm a full time mum, so I spend quite a lot of time on the family finances (and on mse!) so the admin of this would be part of my housekeeping responsibilities. I also don't pay any tax as not earning, so my savings would be 5.65% gross.

Would be rude not to really. Just wondering why I didn't do this sooner.

Reaper

purplepatch wrote:

I have an old egg card which is no longer 0%. But I rang them earlier and they told me that I will get the opportunity for 0% BT in June (anniversary date) and my limit is £12k too. Does anyone know how long the anniversary 0% deal lasts though?

It lasts 5 months, but you must do any balance transfers you want in the first month.

The reason for not doing the full £12k from egg was to keep £2k back to cover the FD minimum payments ie £300 x 6. Does that make any sense?

Not really since you can't directly transfer the money left over on your Egg card to FD. You will have to move it to your bank account at some point to pay the minimum payments. Or are you worried that you might be tempted to spend it? Instead of moving £300pm from your Egg card to your bank why not put it all in Cahoot and move £300pm from there to your bank instead?

Hope I haven't confused you too much, I rewrote that last paragraph 3 times and it still isn't very clear. o well.

purplepatch

It's probably my explanation that's confusing .

What I mean is that my monthly minimum payments would be £200 to egg and £300 to FD.

So I pay those from my current account, then I go into egg website each month and do a £500 BT to my current account to cover these.

Is this not possible?

purplepatch

Also, another question (sorry!)

Rang them earlier and FD will give hubby a £17k limit, but egg only £12k.

Because you can't BT from FD directly to a current account and in order to stooze the whole £17k from FD, can we

1) do a £12k from his egg to current account
2) do a £17k from his FD visa to his egg thereby putting it £5k in credit
3) do another £17k from his egg to current account

Would that do the job?
Also, what about my doing a £10k BT from my own FD visa card to my non 0% egg card? It would put my card £10k in credit, which I would then transfer to my current account. Is that possible too?

Thanks!!

Reaper

purplepatch wrote:

can we
1) do a £12k from his egg to current account
2) do a £17k from his FD visa to his egg thereby putting it £5k in credit
3) do another £17k from his egg to current account

Yes you can.

Also, what about my doing a £10k BT from my own FD visa card to my non 0% egg card? It would put my card £10k in credit, which I would then transfer to my current account. Is that possible too?

Depends how the non-Egg card feels about passing on credits to your bank account. Many of them get a bit stroppy and might only agree to send the money back to where it came from. Can't see why you would want to do this anyway when you can keep passing money through Egg (except during months 2-5 of your anniversary offer when you should leave it alone).

What I mean is that my monthly minimum payments would be £200 to egg and £300 to FD.

So I pay those from my current account, then I go into egg website each month and do a £500 BT to my current account to cover these.

Are you saying you are going to make the minimum payments then take them off again and back to your bank account with a BT? If so then yes you can do this for Egg, but not at all easily for FD.

Or do you mean you are leaving an available balance on your Egg card to pay the minimum payments each month? If the latter then you are better off shifting it to Cahoot to earn interest and move enough back to your bank each month to cover the payments.

purplepatch

Reaper wrote:

Depends how the non-Egg card feels about passing on credits to your bank account. Many of them get a bit stroppy and might only agree to send the money back to where it came from. Can't see why you would want to do this anyway when you can keep passing money through Egg (except during months 2-5 of your anniversary offer when you should leave it alone).

Thanks again reaper.

Sorry, when I say "non 0% egg card" I mean my egg card that is no longer a 0% card. And from your answer, obviously this is possible.

Cheers.

Getting too confused by the minimum payments to elaborate further! Will just keep the extra 2k in the cahoot account to fund the minimum payments I think. Less to-ing and fro-ing that way.

Lozz

Hi Purplepatch,

Sorry a bit OT but I was just wondering how you managed to get Egg to give you £12k as you are a housewife and don't earn? I'm in the same position as you and deal with all the family finances, but Egg would only give me a £1,500 limit, whereas hubby got £10k. Any tips gratefully received as to be honest when our 0% ends in May I was planning to close my Egg account as it hardly seems worth it.

Lozz x

purplepatch

Sorry Lozz can't help you much as my egg credit limit dates back to when I was working. I'm waiting for the second anniversary in June when I will get the five month 0% BT deal offered to me.

We get round the problem by applying for credit in hubby's name with me as second applicant.

For the purpose of stoozing, we don't seem to have encountered too much trouble as we can get the bulk of our credit from our bank. Probably a daft question, but have you tried your bank?

If you're stoozing, it might be an idea to keep the egg card going as it's apparently a good one for passing money through - muling I believe is the term! - as it's one of the few cards that allow Super Balance Transfers.

Lozz

That's OK, thanks for your reply. It seems there is no easy way around getting decent credit limits if you're a housewife after all :-)

We have recently started stoozing and have had to do it mostly in hubby's name, we have a One account so if we applied to our bank any credit we would be given would be charged at our One account interest rate cancelling out any gain. Never mind, we'll stick with applying in hubby's name, we're keeping hold of his Egg card for the anniversary offer so we always have that to use for SBT's. Thanks again.

Lozz