Cheap credit card loan

BigBenson

I currently have a loan of £3500 at 14.9% APR and have been looking at the cheap credit card loan article on the main site.
This recommends obtaining a low life of balance transfer card and using an Egg money card as a "mule card".
My question is, if i apply for the two cards, do i do this on the same day or is the search immediately registered so the 2nd card can see the 1st application, or do i leave a certain time period between applications? Or does it not make any difference?
Off memory, the last search on my file was around Nov 07.
Anybody else got any tips on using this method to reduce the overall cost of a loan? Any advice appreciated. Thanks.

CannyJock

Depends entirely on how long you need the loan for. The Egg Money card is used to route the money into your current account so you can repay the loan - which you would need on most LOB deals I think. As to which one you get first, you'd apply for the LOB first to get the maximum limit you could and then the Egg Money card, but you risk being refused the Egg Money card which leaves you with a LOB card you can't use.

The best LOB deal I can see is Citibank which is 4.9% APR with a 3% fee. But Citibank own Egg so that may mean you're even less likely to get an Egg Money card. The next best would be Leeds Building Society which is 5.9% APR with a 2% fee.

There is another tactic which would be to get a card with a Super Balance Transfer (SBT) facility that allows you to transfer money directly into your current account to repay the loan. This way you don't need the Egg Money card at all (and once it's on a credit card, you can transfer it to any other credit card in the future without needing a mule card).

Virgin Money card would be the one to go for here IMO - 2.98% fee for 0% for 15 months (equivalent to 2.384% APR). When you activate the card you ask them to transfer the money directly into your current account and set up the direct debit to repay the minimum.

It does mean that you will need to switch this again in 15 months time before your 0% offer expires, but it will mean only one search on your credit file and buys you some time to reduce the balance before you need to apply again.

Have you got a settlement figure for the loan to see how much you need to repay in total?