money saver to consumer revenger

radaas

First of all a thankyou to all as I personally believe without this site i would not have got myself and my OH out of Debt
:T to all!



My sig below was where we were at last summer, The year has past even past and finance has taken a wonderful turn.

This site did what it said on the label, helped me to money save,

Now I want to do what it says on the back and get some consumer revenge (minus the chainsaw)

OH was paying £70 towards CC, £41 of this was interest charges. (natwest settled on charges, thanks again!)
since then managed to transfer onto post office credit card 0% for 6 months and now have transferred the remainder along with my exam fees, (total 4k to MBNA 0% for 10months 2.5% handling fees)

Was actually paying £300 a month to MBNA until realsing that i could just pay the minimum amount anbd use the other 250 to make money, so need a bit of help as not too sure if i am getting it all right from all the individual sources.

Firstly, I have scowled the net but cant seem to find a template to cancel the post office credit card that I have, since they wont let me do it on the phone, and do not have any suitable branches, any ideas of what needs to be in there and what shouldnt?

I called up Barclaycard to cancel my credit card only had a £100 limit on there that I had reduced a while ago, basicly i want to apply for the egg credit card ( the one that acts as a current account as well) and she turned around and said that as I have had it since '01 and have never missed a payment I should keep it.
I told her about my need to apply for another credit card and that I did not want to be restricted by having unused credit and she said it wont and by keeping this card its shows excellance performance and longitiveity!
Now is she chatting pants? or does a credit issuer actually look at this?
(she also said she could reduce my rate/ i instead asking for the possibility for a 0% no fee BT, she said she will get back to me.

Was thinking of doing an ISA now with the money that I am saving in restricting the payments to the MBNA BT card and the free cash I have in my account at the moment.
However my understanding is that it was a free thing, you put your 2k cash into a provider and hey prestor after a year you get the rate you agreed on and wont have to worry about tax.
but on a Halifax leaflet it talked about charging a low competitive management charge, does that mean all providers charge you for opening up an ISA?
(was thinking of ING as per MSE email)

Lastly had the idea of giving my son a regular contribution of £100 a month into his savings account by standing order. I know the child account has no tax on it ( i hope to continue this until he is 21 (he's 4) as a nice graduation present) But am a little worried as I have seen somewhere else that a parent can only make a maximum donation to their child per year and then it will be taxed. Which is right?

Hope someone who has maybe gone through some of these scenarios can help out ( there always is!)


Future plan,
get a gradutate account and use the 0% overdraft for the year to save
get an egg credit card and a BT card and transfer to egg then out to savings as well.

Bokkens

Q1 Just phone them and ask for the correct address to send your closig letter to.Then simply state you wish to close your credit card and they should send you the final settlement amount including interest asap.When it arrives (if you have a outsanding amount pay by cheque send it back and request the account be closed as for written confirmation that it is closed.I am surprised you can't do it over the phone!!
Yeah you are right Barclaycard are talking **** if you had a £100 limit and it hasn't been used for a while that doesn't show any other credit company a thing about your financial status at this time.
Barclaycard are a bit slippery when it comes to closing account and requesting 0% limits ask for the customer retention department stick to you guns and ask for what you want say 9months at 0% and see what they offer you and don't balance transfer anything there and then unless it is fee free.you can always do a BT later.
Q3 ING are free and currently offering a 6.55% ISA for thr first 6mths 28/6/07-28/12/07 after that it reverts to 5.01 %This AER averages out to 6% over the whole 12mths if you keep you money in there all the time.Sainsburys is also 6% at the moment and both can be set up online,instant withdrawal and no penalties on the ING ISA.
Q4 Parents and grandparents can save upto just over £1900 each per year per child tax free,it cannot go above this amount and it stops once the child is 16years old.You can do this through a ISA or through a normal saving account when you open it you have to declare that it is tax free for a child.
Don't even think about getting brothers and Uncles involved with putting thier personnal saving in to the accounts as it is illegal and customs deal out heavy fines.
My other half has been using a student career development loan for the last two years that has been stoozed away it is provided by the government through major banks and is at 0% for the whole period,if you are thinking of a graduate account have a look at this and see if it will fit in with your plans.