The valley of death - seek advice on 0% spending cards stoozing, offers drying up, what to do next?

madbilly

born_again said:

mta999 said:

Should you close them down to reduce credit available or leave them open to decrease the usage ratio

Forget about such things. More CRA speaking rubbish.

kempiejon said:

I mostly just balance transfer via a mule card to savings accounts so work the stooze differently to that system so no topping up. I don't care about utilisation rates. I do try to group applications together and try and leave a good gap between request for new cards.

What interest rate is your offset mortgage? If you've been slow stoozing building a good balance into your offset then if the balance transfer fee costs, over the period, works out less than the mortgage rate it might be worth it to clear those spending cards down.

I do look for new transfer options in the last few months of current deals. I'm looking at a swap from what was Sainsbury's - now NatWest - via MBNA mule for RBS. 21 months 2.9% fee.

I've been collecting cards for a long time and have over my income in available credit limit. Keep the cards for decades collecting repeat deals and the limits increment up

Useful to know that people here seem to think that credit utilisation ratio, and total available credit compared to salary, are irrelevant. I'm sure that the MSE articles or credit club say these are important.

Is a mule card something like this? https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79000940/#Comment_79000940

The offset mortgage rate is over 5%, and balance transfer fees seems to be ~4% at the moment, or ideally 0% with a shorter BT 0% period. I don't think I'd paid a fee for a balance transfer unless I had to.

Grouping applications was something I'd wondered about but not done yet. I think I wanted to make the 0% periods last as long as possible, but maybe next time I'll try several applications for 100% pre-approved cards at the same time.

WYSPECIAL

madbilly said:

Is a mule card something like this? https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79000940/#Comment_79000940

A mule card is one that you use to make a money transfer into your bank account. You then pay it off as quickly as you can using a 0% balance transfer. I have found MBNA very useful for doing this as they regularly offer an APR of 4.9% over 12-18 months with no fee. It means you end up paying 4.9% APR for one or two days while you do the BT.

madbilly

WYSPECIAL said:

madbilly said:

Is a mule card something like this? https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79000940/#Comment_79000940

A mule card is one that you use to make a money transfer into your bank account. You then pay it off as quickly as you can using a 0% balance transfer. I have found MBNA very useful for doing this as they regularly offer an APR of 4.9% over 12-18 months with no fee. It means you end up paying 4.9% APR for one or two days while you do the BT.

I see, so when you get the low APR offer, then you do a money transfer (0% transfer fee?) and immediately do a BT from a 0% BT card (also 0% transfer fee?) to clear the balance on the card you did a money transfer from?

Seems to end up at a similar point as my approach with 0% spending cards does. I don't have a card that gives cheap money transfers so it hasn't occurred to me to try this, thanks for suggesting it.

ZeroSum

My strategy is just build up debt to about 80-90% of credit then stop using it & apply for another. If debt gets too high & offers dry up, just need to wait a few months, maybe one card needs clearing then offers appear again. Once 0% ended i just cancel the card. Have never had any decent bt offers with a lower enough fee to make it worth while

Nasqueron

madbilly said:

born_again said:

mta999 said:

Should you close them down to reduce credit available or leave them open to decrease the usage ratio

Forget about such things. More CRA speaking rubbish.

kempiejon said:

I mostly just balance transfer via a mule card to savings accounts so work the stooze differently to that system so no topping up. I don't care about utilisation rates. I do try to group applications together and try and leave a good gap between request for new cards.

What interest rate is your offset mortgage? If you've been slow stoozing building a good balance into your offset then if the balance transfer fee costs, over the period, works out less than the mortgage rate it might be worth it to clear those spending cards down.

I do look for new transfer options in the last few months of current deals. I'm looking at a swap from what was Sainsbury's - now NatWest - via MBNA mule for RBS. 21 months 2.9% fee.

I've been collecting cards for a long time and have over my income in available credit limit. Keep the cards for decades collecting repeat deals and the limits increment up

Useful to know that people here seem to think that credit utilisation ratio, and total available credit compared to salary, are irrelevant. I'm sure that the MSE articles or credit club say these are important.

Is a mule card something like this? https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79000940/#Comment_79000940

The offset mortgage rate is over 5%, and balance transfer fees seems to be ~4% at the moment, or ideally 0% with a shorter BT 0% period. I don't think I'd paid a fee for a balance transfer unless I had to.

Grouping applications was something I'd wondered about but not done yet. I think I wanted to make the 0% periods last as long as possible, but maybe next time I'll try several applications for 100% pre-approved cards at the same time.

MSE isn't financial advice in the strict sense, it's guidance based on general circumstances. You can hold high balances on 0% fine but MSE would always take the safe route and say to pay off stoozing before applying for a mortgage or similar.

I have a few open accounts that I don't use but I get the points from YouGov finance for having them on so I need to keep them open, just need to spend on them at some point to keep them alive, at least until they let us change accounts, rather than reducing the number you can have tracked!

WYSPECIAL

madbilly said:

WYSPECIAL said:

madbilly said:

Is a mule card something like this? https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79000940/#Comment_79000940

A mule card is one that you use to make a money transfer into your bank account. You then pay it off as quickly as you can using a 0% balance transfer. I have found MBNA very useful for doing this as they regularly offer an APR of 4.9% over 12-18 months with no fee. It means you end up paying 4.9% APR for one or two days while you do the BT.

I see, so when you get the low APR offer, then you do a money transfer (0% transfer fee?) and immediately do a BT from a 0% BT card (also 0% transfer fee?) to clear the balance on the card you did a money transfer from?

Seems to end up at a similar point as my approach with 0% spending cards does. I don't have a card that gives cheap money transfers so it hasn't occurred to me to try this, thanks for suggesting it.

Yes. Get the money into your bank account from the mule card then BT to the 0% card. It's a faster stooze than you get with 0% spending cards as you benefit from the full balance immediately.

kempiejon

madbilly said:
The offset mortgage rate is over 5%, and balance transfer fees seems to be ~4% at the moment, or ideally 0% with a shorter BT 0% period. I don't think I'd paid a fee for a balance transfer unless I had to.

You don;t have to use BTs with a fee if youd prefer not to but academically if it costs you over 5% for mortgage debt if you can offset some of that by paying a few percent BT fee you'll benefit. You've slow stoozed a debt to offset, BT it when the interest free period concludes. With big numbers that'll be a worthwhile saving. Barclaycard are doing 36months at 3.45% I make that about 1.2% annual. Virgin 34 months at 2.95% a slightly better bet. So there's around 3% interest saved on the BTd balance.

I don't slow stooze nor have a mortgage so if considering it check the numbers properly.

MBNA is my usual mule card but I have put other cards into credit and moved the balance to my current account.

Emily_Joy

born_again said:

mta999 said:

Should you close them down to reduce credit available or leave them open to decrease the usage ratio

Forget about such things. More CRA speaking rubbish.

I don't think it is necessary rubbish. I have been rejected for Santander cards (0%, no fee BT for a year) and for Tesco cards while limit available  me was some 30K over my annual income, while the total balance was a fraction of my monthly income. So I closed a few cards to bring limit below income and in a couple of months was accepted by Santander.

Nasqueron

Emily_Joy said:

born_again said:

mta999 said:

Should you close them down to reduce credit available or leave them open to decrease the usage ratio

Forget about such things. More CRA speaking rubbish.

I don't think it is necessary rubbish. I have been rejected for Santander cards (0%, no fee BT for a year) and for Tesco cards while limit available  me was some 30K over my annual income, while the total balance was a fraction of my monthly income. So I closed a few cards to bring limit below income and in a couple of months was accepted by Santander.

Correlation only, 2 months of extra payments perhaps helped

I have more credit available than I earn with about 1/4 of my income on 0% (has been higher) and routinely open cards to transfer to when needed

Emily_Joy

Nasqueron said:

Emily_Joy said:

born_again said:

mta999 said:

Should you close them down to reduce credit available or leave them open to decrease the usage ratio

Forget about such things. More CRA speaking rubbish.

I don't think it is necessary rubbish. I have been rejected for Santander cards (0%, no fee BT for a year) and for Tesco cards while limit available  me was some 30K over my annual income, while the total balance was a fraction of my monthly income. So I closed a few cards to bring limit below income and in a couple of months was accepted by Santander.

Correlation only, 2 months of extra payments perhaps helped

I have more credit available than I earn with about 1/4 of my income on 0% (has been higher) and routinely open cards to transfer to when needed

I believe it is just different financial institutions have different requirements. At the time I exhausted all RBS and LBG cards, so needed something else.