New card - Abbey Zero

YorkshireBoy

mmr wrote: »

Hm, so if one would want to withdraw cash, there would be no way of avoiding a fee ie. by instructing abbey to instantly debit your bank with the outstanding amount, is this correct?

You will start to incur interest (at 25.9% APR) from the moment you withdraw the cash and until you settle IN FULL. You'd therefore need to know what the interest was BEFORE you could settle in full...and you won't know this until the statement is produced some time later (unless you're very good at maths). Transferring money from an Abbey current account to an Abbey credit card is unlikely to be instant (2-3 days?), so you'd need to overpay slightly (and create a small positive balance) to make sure you'd cleared the interest that was going to be charged at the end of the month when your statement is produced.

It beats me why this 'fee-free withdrawals' business is creating so much excitement. It's a very misleading 'benefit' that Abbey are exploiting to the full whilst (although it's hidden away in the T&C's) keeping openly quiet about the 25.9% interest that will be incurred.

Surely a better option would be a Nationwide FlexAccount for cash withdrawals?

Another point could there be a possibility of only being charged on a set day of the month?

Not sure what you mean here?

mmr_2

Well the excitement is or shall i say was being able to withdraw cash abroad without having to constantly worry about if I have sufficient funds in the account, but im afraid seeing the above posts has clarified the position so back to Nationwide it is.

rone

Got turned down with this card, despite only having one outstanding debt of 4K on a card, and having a great credit record and a large sum of money in the bank.

Appealed on this basis and still got turned down.

DestroyingAngel_2

mmr wrote: »

Also bear in mind dc's post about Abbey's customer service. If anyone can throw some light on the matter would be great.

Since Abbey National was taken over by Abbey Santander, it decided to start up its own Credit Card division. Prior to this, all Abbey credit cards were serviced by MBNA Europe Bank Ltd. Migration of existing Abbey credit card customers from MBNA to Abbey Santander began last year and is still continuing. Since the beginning of this year, all new Abbey credit cards are dealt with and serviced by Abbey Santander, not MBNA.

Abbey have yet to get their act together fully, as some old Abbey credit card accounts are still serviced by MBNA, while the newer ones are not. Hence, if you are one of the cardholders whose details haven't migrated to Abbey Santander, your account is still with MBNA and when you call MBNA they will have your details to hand and can advise you accordingly. If, however, you are one of the newer account holders, or if your details have migrated to Abbey Santander, MBNA will not have access to your account and will have to transfer you to Abbey Santander. Not sure why Abbey Santander could not just put in an option on their customer service line to advise of this fact and divert callers to the right destination, instead of going from pillar to post!

Moneygoes2money

I'm still not clear on one thing. If this card is 0% on purchases for 6 months and I make purchases while abroad, is it still 0% interest for these purchases abroad?

In other words, can I stooze money relating to purchases abroad until near the end of the 0% deal or do I need to pay balance in full relating to purchases abroad to avoid paying interest?

NickX

Moneygoes2money wrote: »

I'm still not clear on one thing. If this card is 0% on purchases for 6 months and I make purchases while abroad, is it still 0% interest for these purchases abroad?

In other words, can I stooze money relating to purchases abroad until near the end of the 0% deal or do I need to pay balance in full relating to purchases abroad to avoid paying interest?

Yes it is still 0% for foreign currency purchases so you can slow stooze by making such purchases.

However, the same is not true of foreign currency cash withdrawals which will incurr interest from the date of the transaction - not to be advised unless you have money to burn.

Moneygoes2money

NickX wrote: »

so you can slow stooze by making such purchases..

Hi NickX

Thanks for your helpful post. What do you mean slow stooze?

NickX

Moneygoes2money wrote: »

Thanks for your helpful post. What do you mean slow stooze?

Slow stooze is where you slowly build your debt on a 0% purchases card by making all your day to day purchases on the card and saving the equivalent amount in a high interest savings account. You should slowly reach the Credit Limit as your purchases build up.

This is opposed to Fast stooze where you immediately max out a 0% Balance Transfer card by transferring debt to the card right at the start of the promotional period. This can be either a real debt on another credit cards or fictional debt created by putting a card such as Egg Money into positive balance.

mabenson1

On a slightly nerdy front this card also has it's monthly rate advertised wrong.

We're thinking of getting this card for a trip to Vegas and california and looked at their website which says they charge you 1.9137% monthly for cash withdrawals, but after a bit of excel work I reckon this is actually wrong! If it was 1.9137% monthly then the yearly APR would be25.5425%. The actual rate is 1.937%. Likewise their advertised monthly purchase rate is wrong too. They state 1.435% (yearly apr 18.646%) when you actually pay 1.453%.
Typos or a sinister money making scheme? :rotfl:
Cheers
Matt (clock watching till lunch) Benson

capstain411

I have abbey zero credit card with 4400 Credit limit. I have balance transfered 3500 pounds of which into my A&L 8.5% account (£2450) and remainder to Bham Midshire saving ac.

I am going for Bull run to San Fermin, Spain next week. I want to use my abbey card overseas for purchases. Once I survive my bull run, I do not wish be mauled down by the interest over purchases when I am back.

Can somebody please suggest me how should I arrange my monthly repayments to avoid any interest. I did chat with CS, but your advice would be much more convincing to me.