Sainsburys c/c help needed.

Johnny5_2

I'm new to the credit card game, so a little naive to how it all works!

I've just applied for the Sainsburys card which offers 0% on purchases for 12 months.

I'm planning on buying something for £1500 and then pay it off with 4 monthly installments.

Does the 0% on purchases bit mean that I won't incurr any interest charges and all im paying back is the £1500?

Thanks for your help!

zcaprd7

Yes - why not just pay the minimum and save the money you would have used to pay it off.

Then when the 0% expires pay off the whole balance.

Johnny5_2

Thanks for the reply!

It's certainly an option, however, I'm not too sure about the security of my job, so would like to pay it off asap...

Whether I'd pay in 3/4 monthly lumps is another thing though, one month I may fancy summin else, and not have the money

grumbler

Johnny5 wrote:

It's certainly an option, however, I'm not too sure about the security of my job, so would like to pay it off asap...

It is better to pay this money to some saving account to get interest. Do not spend this money and use it to pay the debt at the end of 12 months. Until then set up a Direct Debit on your current account to pay minimum payments - 3% of outstanding balance. If £1500 is your credit limit and you are going to repay it during 4 months, you can potentially earn about £1500x4%x10/12=£50 after taxes by keeping this money on a saving account.

deadthings

Doing as grumbler say is certainly the best option as long as you pay the money into a savings account, leave it there and you're certain you won't end up spending it later on and if you're out of work not able to pay the credit card.

D.

Johnny5_2

cheers for the replies... Really good idea aswell with the savings account

judderman62

AYE I'd concur with this. Just found about this tactic via this site and last night applied for a Sainsburys card (12 months at 0% - just tooo good to miss) and already have a Nationwide e-acct - 5% gross.

So will use the sainsburys card for everything I possibly can (will a newsagent accept plastic for a newspaper purchase ) and pay the minimum every month to Sainsburys and put rest of the amount due in my Nationwide acct - then at 11 months and a few days will prob look for another card that will offer o% on transfers AND purchases for a decent period and keep the "game" going

nh

Why not open an ISA if you don't already have one and earn 5.5% tax free?

Galstonian

The only downside with that is that not all cash ISAs have instant access and you only get the one ISA allowance per year. If you were not going to use it anyway then fair enough but the point is to try and save without paying tax and you can use any methods available to you to achieve that (account in spouses/childrens name etc..)

bandwidthbandit

how are people transferring the credit into the savings account? is it a balance transfer in which case this isn't 0%. my statement says "0.482% (5.9%apr) for bt's made before x until paid off."

Galstonian

That will depend on the offer you signed up for, presumably 5.9% for the life of the balance.