I need a mule card!

jpwilliams

I recently took out Virgin and Egg Credit cards, and using their "transfer to bank" facilities, have about £20K in two Nationwide 1 year bonds at 6.7%. This cash is locked away for a year, and fingers X'd, I'll be fine making the repayments from my normal current account. To assist with the stoozing fund, and as a safety net in case I need somewhere to get cash in a hurry, I have also got new RBS and Abbey cards. I intend to B/T on them and put the funds in an instant access account. I applied online for an Egg Money account, and probably due to having the new Egg Credit card, with over £10K of debt on it, they want to speak to me about the Egg Money application. I did call back, but when the CSR mentioned they wanted to go into current borrowings etc, I said I didn't have time to discuss - the truth, as I was looking after a sick son at the time. However, I read on another forum that if Egg delve too deeply into one's finances, they might consider you a bad risk and foreclose on the existing debt. To prevent this, I'd like a different card that offers the ability to receive a B/T from my two new cards, and pay (fee free) to my current accounts - I've read a few threads, and although this is inferred, no names have been mentioned, as the Egg Money card seems to be the card of choice. Does another card exist?

Thanks

John

zcrar70

I'd also like to know if there's an alternative to the Egg Money card - I applied for one but was turned down, which surprised me as I've been an Egg Saving client for 6 years and always pay my bills on time (so I would have thought I have a decent credit rating). I phoned up to ask why I was turned down and the lady said it may have been because I hadn't had a credit card before (this is indeed the case, the Egg Money card would have been my first). Anyone else had this experience?

Anyways, the upshot is that I'd need an alternative to the Egg Money card to begin doing this; are there any known alternatives?

Thanks,
Elie

tipsychick

MBNA allow super balance transfers, i.e. you can ask for 95% of the credit limit to be paid to you current account. MBNA run a huge array of different cards, both under their own name and other companies' names.

A good deal at the moment is their Virgin Atlantic one. It's 6 months at 0% with a BT fee capped at £50.

http://uk.virginmoney.com/vaa-amex/white-preapply.html

Once you've been accepted you can just phone them up and ask them to BT 95% of the credit limit into your current account and from there into a savings account.

What's so great about Egg Money is that you can use it as a "mule" to route 0% deals on all cards to your current account and onto a savings account.

jpwilliams: It might be worth persevering with the Egg Money application. It often involves a long discussion about your finances with an underwriter but it's worth it for it's unique muling facility!

Elie: I'd imagine your lack of credit history could be why you've been declined, along with the current economic climate meaning all lenders are clamping down. Check your credit report to make sure all is in order, you're on the electoral role, etc. Perhaps apply for the Virgin Atlantic card and then try Egg Money again in six months.

Milarky

The Egg (Visa) card may also be used as a 'mule' - but not during any promotional period because of the fee. But at other times there is no fee to do BTs at standard rates of interest (and you only pay interest for the days it carries a balance)

I wouldn't be concerned that Egg will call in the existing loan because you are now asking for an Egg Money card. It's more a case that you're asking for extending your credit line with them and they have to adopt a prudent view to see if you can afford the extra (i.e. they aren't making the assumption that you only want it for muling purposes!)

[You could always call on a trusted friend who has an Egg Money card to be your mule for you]

k-rolls

I was hoping to post a new thread for this, but cant seem to work out how.

We need to buy a car (he is aiming to spend £10.000) as my boyfriend is getting a new job in Febuary. He was just going to get a loan, but I was thinking that we could get a mule card or two to do this. What is the proper term for this mule facility when you are searching for cc deals? The search engines seem to only ask you if its for balance transfes, or purchases etc....

He will be getting a car allowance of £300 a month so that would be the planned repayment.

Any ideas / comments gratefully received...I have to convince a sceptical man who always goes to his trusted Lloyds when considering a loan!!!

Katrina

tipsychick

Hi k-rolls

The phrase you're looking for is "super balance transfer", i.e. the ability to transfer the credit limit, or ninety five percent of it, to your current account and from there do what you like with the money, in your case buy a car! It isn't a phrase that will turn up in search engine.

There are only two providers who allow this, Egg and MBNA.

You could get a 0% deal on purchases for the longest period possible but I seem to recall that car dealers charge a fee for purchases with a credit card (as do travel agents from memory), so probably best avoided if your trying to reduce the interest as much as possible.

I think your best bet would be to get an MBNA based card, like the Virgin Atlantic one I posted a link to above, and get the money transferred into your current account and use it for the car purchase. Note though that the Virgin Atlantic deal is only 6 months, so at the end of that period you'd need to apply for another 0% card and BT from the Virgin one. (See Martin's article on rate tarting in the main part of the site).

MBNA are generous with their credit limits and if you have a good credit history you could well get a credit limit of more than £10K.

zcrar70

tipsychick -

so just to double-check, from an MBNA card such as the Virgin one you mentioned above, I can transfer up to 95% of my credit limit to my current account and have that count as a balance transfer (at 0% interest)?

I'm asking as I don't see anywhere in their T&Cs that you can do this - in fact they specifically define a balance transfer as being different from a money transfer:

balance transfer – a payment you ask us to make from your account to another financial organisation which is not a money transfer and which pays off or reduces the amount that is owed to them
money transfer – a transfer of funds from your account to another financial institution other than into a credit card or loan account.

To me this sounds like I'd get 0% interest on a balance transfer to another credit card, but not if I transfer to a current or savings account (i.e. I'd still need the Egg Money card to take advantage of the 0% balance transfer offer, I couldn't just transfer to my current account). Has not been your experience of the card? Having never had a credit card before I'm not sure how these work, so apologies if this is a silly question.

Thanks,
Elie

tipsychick

zcrar70:

My experience of the Virgin Atlantic card was that they allowed me to transfer 95% of the credit limit into my current account. This was definitely treated as a balance transfer, not a money transfer. Card opened five months ago now.

There's never been a problem with doing a balance transfer to MBNA from your current account in the past. (I've been rate tarting/stoozing for seven plus years now). It's always been treated as a balance transfer and not a money transfer.

I think a money transfer is like withdrawing cash on the card and incurs immediate interest.

Hopefully someone else will be along shortly to confirm.

YorkshireBoy

tipsychick wrote: »

I think a money transfer is like withdrawing cash on the card and incurs immediate interest.

The money transfer definition was introduced on the Virgin card within the last 2.5 years, because it wasn't there when I started stoozing on this card in early 2005.

From memory, MBNA introduced it on their own cards before it filtered through to the branded cards. Discussion on the stoozing site at the time (a search should find it) speculated on whether they were just getting ready to make the SBT's standard rate transactions at a moments notice, ie without having to give the customary 30 days notice.

Although the overdraft balance transfer facility is available in your secure area online, it's always best to transact these particular transfers with a telephone based CSA where the direct question should always be asked..."is this transfer given at 0%?"

k-rolls

Thank you, Tipsychick, for that invaluable and specific advice.

k-rolls

So how do I then avoid the handling fee? Martins Stoozing site recommends an egg card to avoid this...is this a credit card too? Im getting a little confused!