Newbie Stoozing Question w/Cahoot

Katgoddess

I've borrowed 4500 quid from Egg to put into my Cahoot Savings account. There is a standing order from my Cahoot current account to pay the minimum balance every month.

I plan to move the minimum payment approx (90 quid) from the savings account to the current account every month.

I will be using both accounts only for stoozing.

Also in the future, when I'm braver, I'll probably do this with a couple of credit cards.

Does anyone see any problems with this? I hope I'm doing it right.

Thanks in advance x

Reaper

That all sounds fine to me. Go right ahead.

WallyMan

The only other thing you might like to do is to a make a note in your diary before the interest free period runs out to make sure you pay the remaining debt off in time. Or use the free e-mail warning facility provided by Lord Martin Lewis

Katgoddess

I've written the date in my diary.

Thanks guys :beer:

realaledrinker

For the sake of a few quid, you could put enough into the current account now to fund the total monthly minimum payments. The interest differential is only 1.1% p.a. gross from memory & then you don't need to do anything except pay off the balance at the end of the 0% deal.

Milarky

You can also make one off payments to Egg card via debit card details [as an alternative to standing order]. But why not just create a minimum payment direct debit from your cahoot current account? And then - in the final month at the end of the promotion period - you could just switch the DD to 'full balance'?

A few points to consider [maybe]

If you make the payments yourself you lose two days interest compared to having payments taken by DD [because they have to be sent in advance to arrive by the due dates]

If a DD is set up it will only work provided you have funds in the account [plus any overdraft limit] sufficient to accommodate the amount claimed. Thus DDs can backfire when large amounts are due/called.

As realaledrinker says, you could leave the total of the minimum payments in the cahoot account throughout and just have these amounts taken by DD losing minimal interest where it is not sat in the savings account at a slightly higher rate.

For the final payment, a safe option would be to leave the DD to claim the minimum for that month anyway [this is an 'insurance' as meeting the minimum payment is more important than incurring a few pence interest by being just one day late with the full payment, say] but to make the 'balance' payment [statement amount less min payment] yourself using a Debit card called from the Egg website one working day before the end of your promotion period. Just before going to Egg go to cahoot and switch sufficient funds into the current account so that you know this collection will be authorised. You may even get an extra day's interest [until payment is actually taken] on the cahoot current account - although banks vary in this respect.

[Hope that is helpful]

Katgoddess

This is all food for thought. Cheers

purplepatch

Just to jump on this thread as it's quite similar to my own position.

Just embarking on first stooze with 3 different ccs. Like the OP have a cahoot savings account and plan to set up a standing order from there to my current account to cover the min payments to the 3 cards.

Just wondering, are you able to specify a minimum payment date to the various ccs? Would be easier that way so I only have to do one standing order each month rather than potentially 3.

Also one other question relating to earning gross interest. I don't pay tax and have a R85 for my cahoot account. Does the interest I earn on my stoozes count as earnings towards my personal tax allowance for the year? Might be a question for the tax board, but just thought I'd ask here in case anyone knows.

Nil_Desperandum

I'd have thought it better to set up a minimum DD with the credit card provider from your main account to avoid having to do separate transfers etc. Some allow you to do it easily (during setup) e.g. Egg, others you have to hassle to do it (but they all will). Just make sure that they will actually take the minimum the first time because it takes time to set up DDs - if you're not sure then pay it - better twice than not at all!!

I currently have:
EGG - £15k
Virgin - £9k
Tesco - £10k
Mint - £9k
Total £43k earning 5.75% (net against mortgage) = £200+ per month ... nice!!

Tesco don't offer SBT but I just transferred £10k from EGG and did another SBT from EGG. They were also a pain about the limit - I had to work hard to get them upto £10k!!

MINT was a pain since you have to wait for the cheques to do an SBT (online transfer costs!) and the cheques took almost 3 months to arrive. But I wrote and complained and have been given a 2 month extension to my 0% deal.

I have minimum DDs set up with all of these.

I've taken a rest from applying for more for a while, but will start again in 3 months or so, so that I have somewhere to transfer to when the time is up!!

Have fun!

purplepatch

Cheers. The intention is indeed to set up dds from my current account to pay all the minimum payments, but unfortunately my current account won't be able to cope with that without my moving the appropriate amounts from the stooze savings account to cover it (first direct min payment = 3%). Trying to ascertain whether the cc companies let you choose a minimum payment date, or whether they just tell you a date. It would be useful if I could say move the money from cahoot to my current account on the first of the month in time for min payments on the 2nd of the month.If that makes any sense

Reaper

Initially they will set you a date without asking. However I think most, if not all, companies will change the payment date for you on request.