A puzzle for the moneysaving CC experts

humanbeing_2

Without going into detail, apart from to say it involves the flop, turn and river, i have a positive balance on my credit card.
I thought i would check with nationwide today about how i could withdraw and put some in my savings account. (leaving some stake money of course )
There were two girls behind the counter. I explained to one that i had a positive balance of a few hundred on my credit card and wanted to transfer it to my savings or current. She had never heard of anyone having a positive balance before and asked her more experienced colleague. She at first thought i wanted to balance transfer to another card but i re explained i actually had money ON the card. She had never heard of it either so asked the manager who said i would be charged a fee for withdrawing from a machine, and for transferring to another account. He said i was best to spend it!
So there you are. Nationwide dont want me to invest in their isas, they would rather i spent it on wine. women and song (and wasted the rest).
Ok so i could withdraw it from a cash machine and pay a fee, but im a money saver right? All be it one who likes a game of cards.
So how do you get your money for free?
What else can you do with a Credit card positive balance?

Greentea

if you balanced tranferred your positive balance to an Egg Card they allow you to transfer the positive balance to your current account.

newsmonkey

Could you not spend it (wisely on things you would have bought anyway) and save the money that would have been used to buy these things? Has roughly the same effect.

humanbeing_2

No2,
yep i have an egg card, but can you balance transfer a positive balance to another card?
And would they charge a balance transfer fee?

No3,
I could do that. Just wanted to see what bright ideas were out there

Reaper

No problem balance transfering a positive amount, I've done it often.

If you are an existing Egg customer then there are no BT fees and they allow you to BT it to your bank account or savings account (new Egg customers have new T&C and are getting charged).

You need to do the Nationwide BT first. As far as I know it is fee free too, but as I don't have one I haven't checked.

Assuming not make sure you do the BTs in the right direction. It gets a bit confusing with positive balances.

1) BT a (not real) debt from Egg to Nationwide, done by Nationwide. This moves the positive balance to Egg.

2) BT a (not real) overdraft from your bank account to Egg, done by Egg. This moves the money into your bank account.

Hope that's clear.

grumbler

Actually you can ask NW to make a balance transfer from Egg. I don't know whether NW charge for BT though. Just ask them.
Also you did not tell about the source of positive balance. Usually you can ask to transfer money back.

Greentea

Yes you can transfer a positive balance to another card. However, I remember having a positive balance on a Sainsbury card and they would only let me transfer it back to where it came from.

As regards whether Egg will charge you a balance transfer fee, i think i depends on how long you have the card. I think they charge a fee now, but if you have had your card a while then the T&C are different and there is no charge.

humanbeing_2

I like it reaper, i think you may have cracked it.
Lets say i have £500 on nationwide CC i want to get at. I tell nationwide to transfer £500 FROM the egg card, which is currently at zero.
Nationwide in effect pay egg £500.

My nationwide would then show as Zero and the egg at plus £500. I then tell egg to transfer £500 from current account. Wouldnt that do just that and then have £1000 on the egg and minus £500 on the current account?

grumbler

humanbeing wrote:

I then tell egg to transfer £500 from current account.

£500 balance (overdraft) from current account!

stormCat99

You didn't mention whether you wanted to keep the credit card or not? I'm assuming that as you aren't too keen on the idea of spending on it to get your cash back, that you have another card which you prefer to use for daily spending.

If that's the case, why not close the card with the positive balance, they will then have to give you the balance; most companies just send you out a cheque, although some may credit it to your current account if you give them the details.



HTH.