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Applying for multiple cards
96 replies
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swindiff
Forumite 668 posts
Just though I would post my experience on creating a stooze pot. I have applied for 8 cards this weekend, outcome as follows.
Clydesdale Bank 0% on purchases for 26 months. Application approved, limit unknown until I receive my card.
MBNA 40 Months 0% balance transfer, transfer fee 2.55%. Application approved, credit limit £10,000
Barclaycard 20 Months 0% balance transfer, no transfer fee. Application approved, credit limit £8,200
Bank of Scotland 39 months 0% balance transfer, transfer fee 2.95%. Application approved, credit limit £8,000
Halifax 39 months 0% balance transfer, transfer fee 2.48%. Application approved, credit limit £1,600
Tesco 40 months 0% balance transfer, transfer fee 2.69%. Application approved, credit limit unknown until I receive my card.
Virgin 40 months 0% balance transfer, transfer fee 2.49%. Awaiting to see if application is approved.
AA 22 months 0% balance transfer, no transfer fee. Awaiting to see if application is approved.
Existing cards that I already hold are:
Halifax Clarity, Balance £0, credit limit was £8450, I asked for it to be increased to £12,000 and they incresed it to £10,450
Virgin Card at 0% credit limit £7,000, balance £1,500
Lloyds Card at 0% credit limit £10,800, balance £4,000
Clydesdale Bank 0% on purchases for 26 months. Application approved, limit unknown until I receive my card.
MBNA 40 Months 0% balance transfer, transfer fee 2.55%. Application approved, credit limit £10,000
Barclaycard 20 Months 0% balance transfer, no transfer fee. Application approved, credit limit £8,200
Bank of Scotland 39 months 0% balance transfer, transfer fee 2.95%. Application approved, credit limit £8,000
Halifax 39 months 0% balance transfer, transfer fee 2.48%. Application approved, credit limit £1,600
Tesco 40 months 0% balance transfer, transfer fee 2.69%. Application approved, credit limit unknown until I receive my card.
Virgin 40 months 0% balance transfer, transfer fee 2.49%. Awaiting to see if application is approved.
AA 22 months 0% balance transfer, no transfer fee. Awaiting to see if application is approved.
Existing cards that I already hold are:
Halifax Clarity, Balance £0, credit limit was £8450, I asked for it to be increased to £12,000 and they incresed it to £10,450
Virgin Card at 0% credit limit £7,000, balance £1,500
Lloyds Card at 0% credit limit £10,800, balance £4,000
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Replies
1. You only have one fee free card (I suspect BOI will decline you, as they have myself and others on here who are heavily indebted). Those fees are going to hit your profit somewhat aren't they? I think with the recent increase in fee-free offers I'd have stuck with shorter duration fee-free cards.
2. When I had my last big push I went for Halifax, Sainsbury's, Santander, Tesco, & Lloyds...none of which had a BT fee. All were muled through my VA card. What's your route to the stooz pot?
3. Why the need for a very large limit on Clarity?
4. How come Virgin & Lloyds have such small balances with respect to their limits? Aren't they BT cards?
5. I thought Virgin limited you to one card at a time?
The zero fee Barclaycard will be used as the intermediary card. I obviously can't balance transfer from the Clarity card to the other Halifax card or the BOS card so it will have to go through the Barclaycard first.
The Virgin and Lloyds cards I have held for a while. I could balance transfer the remaining credit, but I would pay a similar transfer fee for around 18 months as I can get for 38-40 months with the other cards.
Even if I had to pay 3% on all balance transfers, I can earn between 3% and 5% per year. As most of these cards are at 0% for over 3 years there is a decent amount of profit to be had. I did think about the fee free balance transfer cards, but there are not as many to choose from and I would need to look at repeating the process again in around 18-20 months. Doing it this way I can set up my direct debits and forget about it for 3 years, bar the Barclaycard.
With any luck BOI won't see that I am heavily indebted "yet" which Is why I made all the applications at the same time.
The Virgin and Lloyds cards were never intended as stooze cards. The Virgin Card was used to buy my sons car and insurance. He needed about £3k, Virgin gave me a £7k limit. Have had the card about a year and he has paid half of the debt off.
I got the Lloyds card about 2 1/2 years ago when I was buying a house. I needed 8k to get to the 75% LTV mortgage rate. Was planning to get it paid off by the end of the 0% period so was paying more than the minimum, so thats down to £4k. Have now reduced that to the minimum payment and banking the remainder.
All the cards I have applied for are minimum payment of 1% except the Barclaycard and I only need to use that as an intermediary card anyway.
Lets say I get £30k and I pay 3% on all the balance transfers (it's actually less than that). Thats a fee of £900
In the 1st year I will have £13.5k at 5%, £15k at 4% and £1.5k at 3%. Thats £1320. So in the 1st year thats £420 profit
In the 2nd and 3rd year's I will have £6k at 5%, £15k at 4% and £9k at 3%. Thats £1170 per year.
So for 3 years thats a profit of £2760.
Most of these cards have 0% greater than 3 years, and this does not include cashback that I can get on a Santander account from my mortgage and utility bills.
In total the profit should easily exceed £3k over the 38-40 month duration.
With such a long 0% period, and 1% minimums, I'd be looking to get as much of the 3% & 4% cash as possible into the 5% regular savers (should be able to get 6 between you...taking some £1,900 a month). You'll need to juggle a bit with the 3 Club accounts though, as you deplete funds for the reg savers.
I have done a bit of a search and can't find anything that says you can only have one Virgin Credit card. That of course does not mean its not the case.
Of course you may have to use Club Lloyds regular saver in the 2nd & 3rd years if still available.
Should end up with very little at 3% at any one time.
So to Recap
New Cards
Clydesdale £8,500
Tesco £5,700
MBNA £10,000
Bank of Scotland £8,000
Halifax £1,600
Barclaycard £8,200
Virgin £9,900
AA (Still awaiting decision)
Existing cards
Halifax £10,450
Virgin £7,000
Lloyds £10,800
Tesco £7,250
Total for new 0% credit £51,900
Total available credit £87,400
Thought this might be useful as a gauge to see what card providers limits are likely to be for others thinking of doing the same.