Stoozing with reward cards - can somebody check my figures, please?

Purple_Peril

I have just obtained an Alliance & Leicester MoneyBack Rewards Credit Card. This has 0% on purchases for 3 months and 0% on balance transfers for 12 months. It also offers reward points on purchases (1 point per £1 spend), but it has an initial reward of 2000 points on first use (within 90 days). The allocation of payments is the usual lowest interest rates first - so after the first three months any payments will go towards the purchases rather than the BT.

I am unable to access the online rewards catalogue at the moment to see what rewards are available for that amount - but they do offer some 'green rewards' such as low energy light bulbs, usb rechargeable batteries and Fair Trade chocolate that I might be interested in, which would probably require fairly low points.

I initially thought about buying something cheap (like a bottle of milk) on the CC to get the 2000 sign-up points, paying that off and then doing a maximum BT once I had a 'zero' statement - but that would mean that I couldn't do the BT until after my May statement (just thought - unless I paid for the purchases before the April statement - then I could do it after the April statement). As I would have to pay back the money/transfer the balance after the February statement (to have a zero balance on the March - statement - otherwise I'd have to pay interest) I would only get the benefit of the interest for 9 months or so.

Alternatively, I could buy something cheap, then do the maximum BT all before the March statement. I would have no interest on the purchase until the June statement, and then on a tiny (less than £1 purchase) it would only be 1p (I've checked the T&Cs and it doesn't say anything about mimimum interest). Then I would get the interest on my savings for 11 months - and the extra interest earned would far outweigh the interest charged on the CC.

Can somebody tell me if I've missed something, or have I worked this out correctly - I've only just started stoozing so I would like a second opinion (and third and fourth etc) on anything other than 'straight' stoozing.

By the way, I've got the Egg Money card to use as a 'mule' to transfer the money into my savings account.

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to make sure that I included all the information you might need.

PS - if anybody has this card and can access the A&L rewards site could they give an indication of whether the 'gifts' I've mentioned can be obtained for the points level I would have.

Thanks in anticipation

YorkshireBoy

Purple_Peril wrote: »

...it has an initial reward of 2000 points on first use (within 90 days).

A cursory look shows there isn't much (a CD?) for less than 2,000 points.

...so after the first three months any payments will go towards the purchases rather than the BT.

Should read BT rather than purchases.

Alternatively, I could buy something cheap...

With the interest sums involved I'd just get on with it and SBT as soon as you can. Take the hit on the interest...it may even be too small to calculate.

By the way, I've got the Egg Money card to use as a 'mule' to transfer the money into my savings account.

Since the A&L card is run by MBNA you shouldn't need to route through Egg Money. Simply SBT from your current account to the A&L card.


Other than that, it seems you've thought it through well.

Purple_Peril

Yorkshire Boy

Thank you for your detailed reply, and for picking up my mistake re allocation of payments (my only excuse is that I was rushing to get the message typed before I had to go out) - of course, you are correct and I did write it the wrong way round.

I think I'll use the card to buy some milk on my way into work this morning (it seems a waste not to get the 2000 points). Then I'll ring them during my lunch break to check whether I can SBT on this card and then do an SBT or BT to Egg Money as appropriate.

When I get home, the card will be joining the others in the safe.