Weekly to monthly pay - CC?

Jami74 · 27 January 2020 at 1:04AM

I have very recently got to a good place financially. I have been budgeting and have different pots for different things. I have no debts but do have two credit cards which are paid off in full every month by direct debit (groceries & petrol) and a third with no balance which I'm not using.

But now my job is having to change. I am anticipating a gap of about 6-7 weeks between my last weekly pay and my first monthly pay.

I need cash to go in the bank for the standing orders/direct debits for things like rent and council tax. I thought that I would borrow from the Emergency Fund what I was earning weekly and then pay it all back once I get the monthly pay. However, I've just realised that my Emergency Fund (having not expected to need it) is the money I've been putting in a Help-To-Buy (2.5%), and if I take it out, I can only put it back at a rate of £200 a month. I have no plans (or a big enough deposit) to get a mortgage in the next couple of years.

I've looked at doing a money transfer from a credit card because it would keep everything nice and tidy, initially I thought the fee makes it too expensive for only a couple of months. Although if I did do this I could continue to save and budget as normal, and pay it off over several months (0%) keeping the excess in savings. If I money transferred £2500 the fee would be £99.75 (current Tesco offer at 3.99%) and the interest earned by preserving the help to buy over a year would be about £55 (current balance £1806 and February's £200 ready to go in).

I've also got a donor account set up as I was hoping to do an HSBC switch next month and if successful the switch bonus would help offset the money transfer fee.

Any thoughts on whether this sounds sensible or if I'd be better emptying my help-to-buy and Christmas/birthday/holiday fund?

MovingForwards · 27 January 2020 at 8:46AM

Personally, I would just switch the CC payment to minimum payment for a month, then swap the due date so it's a few days after the new payday, then go back to clearing it in full.

I certainly wouldn't be doing a large money transfer.

I would consider using my H2B money, but only the smallest amount I could get away with.

Good luck with your new job and don't forget to open up an account for your EF!

yksi · 28 January 2020 at 12:33PM

What about the third unused card - does it have an interest-free period and what date would the statement fall due? You might find that putting the groceries, travel etc on that one this month gives you a couple of weeks of breathing space, because less money would come out of the DD for the other cards.

Option #2, look at BALANCE transfer not money transfer as you can often do these with no fee. You can balance transfer to the usual CC cards once the statement falls due, and pause the DDs.

Jami74 · 28 January 2020 at 2:25PM

Thanks for replying.

I'm not actually worried about paying my usual spends on the credit cards. It's the needing to have money in my bank account to cover rent, council tax, water and electric.

There's no immediate panic. My outgoings for those things far exceeds the amount I'd normally spend on groceries ie use the credit card for, so a purchase card wouldn't help. I can money transfer, I'm wondering if there's a way to reduce the cost of that (transfer fee).

Sharon87 · 28 January 2020 at 2:46PM

I'm in a similar situation. I've been using my AMEX to earn airmiles and also delay payment until pay day. But as it's a high interest rate I've transferred some onto a no fee low interest rate card - an offer from one of my existing cards. I also have some money in a help to buy as well, which i could have used, but again, I can't put it all back in one go.

Or for you, you could get a 0% balance transfer fee card. Martin Lewis talked about them on the show last night, since you don't need a long interest free period.

Jami74 · 28 January 2020 at 7:16PM

Sharon87 wrote: »

I'm in a similar situation. I've been using my AMEX to earn airmiles and also delay payment until pay day. But as it's a high interest rate I've transferred some onto a no fee low interest rate card - an offer from one of my existing cards. I also have some money in a help to buy as well, which i could have used, but again, I can't put it all back in one go.

Or for you, you could get a 0% balance transfer fee card. Martin Lewis talked about them on the show last night, since you don't need a long interest free period.

Thanks for replying. It's the money transfer I need but I can't find a fee free one. Balance transfer is no good as I don't owe money on a credit card. Would you mind sharing which card offered you a fee free money transfer?

Sharon87 · 30 January 2020 at 2:33PM

I used my CC for spending. If you need cash only transfer what you need on cash - eg. rent and bills, then use your CC for food, transport.etc

Martin Lewis mentioned 0% fee balance cards, rather than money transfers. MBNA has the smallest fee at the minute
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/money-transfers/#long

878robin · 9 March 2020 at 5:32PM

I was in a similar situation where I had a 5-week gap between paydays. My company had this thing called Wagestream which meant I could get some of my money early instead of waiting until the end of the month. It was great!

Jami74 · 9 March 2020 at 9:55PM

I forgot that I had started this thread.

I was extremely lucky in that a few days after posting, MBNA offered me a fee free money transfer (3.9% APR) and Natwest offered me a fee free balance transfer (0% APR). I could not believe my luck! I transferred the equivalent of two months spending for the grand total of 91p interest from MBNA and it's sat in my easy access saving account, being transferred weekly as I need it.

Weekly to monthly pay - CC?

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