Manufactured spending

Dan83

I've got a asda credit card,0.5% cash back.

Let's say I buy £100 worth of stuff from the Royal mint, I'll get 50p cash back, then I have to go to the back to deposit the coins and pay the bill. It hardly seems worth the time and effort.

ThreeNineThreeFive

Dan83 wrote: »

I've got a asda credit card,0.5% cash back.

Let's say I buy £100 worth of stuff from the Royal mint, I'll get 50p cash back, then I have to go to the back to deposit the coins and pay the bill. It hardly seems worth the time and effort.

People don't just stick £100 quid through for MS... It's thousands, regularly.
One risk is that there will be regular SARs registered against you (suspicious activity reports), because the behaviour looks like money laundering.

[Deleted User]

Amazed the US are so behind on this! They seem to have the best schemes (as well as secured cards, which annoyingly the UK don't anymore)

In the UK a Curve Card is launching - all things (including ATM withdrawals) count as a UK Purchase.

Whether C/Card companies clamp down on it remains to be seen - it depends exactly what Curve report to the banks when charging your credit cards. It's been suggested (and on their website) that its 'Curve London'.

In that case it'd be impossible to tell that a £300 to Curve London is a cash withdrawal as opposed to an expensive meal out!

The fact there are no pennies is an indicator, but not everything ends in .99/.49 etc

By categorizing all Curve London as Cash Advances (to stop people doing this), they'll get a LOT of complaints (and it'll effectively put Curve out of business, so Curve will probably fight it). They got $2m funding recently from their directors etc, so although small, they don't seem a flash in the pan.

If that's that case (it's not blocked, and cash withdrawals aren't highlighted to card companies) that's a case for a slow stooze (there is a daily, monthly and yearly cap as well as a Curve fair use policy - so I plan to stagger any cash withdrawals through the year along with normal spending)

You could then put the cash into a 6% regular saver, pay off your overdraft or whatever.

I'm only going to have the 50 odd days interest free, so hardly worth the effort (although it increases my bank balance so my bank might start to like me again) - but for those on 0% deals and with high credit limits/reward points and/or cashback it could prove to be quite very lucrative.

The Curve also acts as a disguise between your spending and your credit card provider - so the Royal Mint idea could happen without your card company knowing.

There are annual load fees on the card though (£200k for fully verified members (probably ltd companies) less for others). If you could cycle that much money through it, the benefits of starting a LTD company and jumping through the relevant hoops might well be worth it.

There is a £35/£75 charge for the card (depending on which you go for). I joined via someone's referral code so that'll get me £10 cash when I spend on the card (and they get £10).

If anyone wants mine PM and I'll find it - some have been shared in public on the forum but not sure of the rules on that

Here is the Curve discussion thread - those of us that have ordered are due to get our cards imminently - eagerly awaiting my first cash withdrawal from my first credit card, to see what happens: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5414513