Too many credit cards? aka "The Credit Card thread"

slinxy said:
Personally, I use the Halifax travel card as My travel credit card. The forex rates, free cash withdrawals and interest free, if you pay the amount you taken out on the same day makes it worth it.
Click to expand...
Only if your previous statement has been fully paid off. I learnt this the hard way, couple of years ago.

Had £1k on my Clarity statement, balance transfer so was 0% interest so no rush to pay it off. Went on holiday, withdraw £250 as soon as touched down at airport. Paid £250 to my Clarity same day from my current account, did same few more times so £1k total cash withdrawn, each time paying the same amount to the card, thinking it would pay off the cash withdrawal instantly so I will pay 0 interest... How wrong I was when I saw next month's statement.

Turns out that £1k had actually paid off the £1k interest free balance I had on the previous statement... And I now had £1k of cash withdrawals on my new statement with the crazy interest to go with it...

Completely my mistake but I did call up Halifax and they were very understanding, must catch a lot of others out, as they straight away offered to waive the interest charges for that month.
 
A2Z said:
Only if your previous statement has been fully paid off. I learnt this the hard way, couple of years ago.

Had £1k on my Clarity statement, balance transfer so was 0% interest so no rush to pay it off. Went on holiday, withdraw £250 as soon as touched down at airport. Paid £250 to my Clarity same day from my current account, did same few more times so £1k total cash withdrawn, each time paying the same amount to the card, thinking it would pay off the cash withdrawal instantly so I will pay 0 interest... How wrong I was when I saw next month's statement.

Turns out that £1k had actually paid off the £1k interest free balance I had on the previous statement... And I now had £1k of cash withdrawals on my new statement with the crazy interest to go with it...

Completely my mistake but I did call up Halifax and they were very understanding, must catch a lot of others out, as they straight away offered to waive the interest charges for that month.
Click to expand...
Hmm I would question that with the bank, I’m sure it’s now the case where it defaults that payment reduces the amount with the highest interest first.

I never did any transfers, but I did have to wait until the amount was showing on my account before I could pay it.

I know that I did buy a load of payments on the card while I was there, took €500 euros out and 500 liras out.. paid about £700 pounds and it cleared the cash withdrawals before the purchases.
 
danlightbulb said:
I think the other thing worth mentioning about stoozing is that it's not an immediate income boost. You could take the monthly interest out I guess and use as an income boost but then you'd earn slightly less returns due to the lack of compounding. So whilst you are earning money from this process, the actual income boost is pushed a couple years away in time if you want to maximise it.
Click to expand...

requoted from mortgage thread to here

danlightbulb said:
How quick will you guys doing this fall foul of tax on the interest amount?
Click to expand...

my personal savings allowance is £500, so that's about £8,000 if just putting it into a easy cash account + regular savers which is what i'm doing as you already know (it's £10,000 if just doing the bog standard 5% easy access)
with an easy access cash isa then up to £28,000 :P - if going down the ISA route just make sure that it is a flexible ISA
and if you have more than that...then premium bonds would make it potentially a maximum of £78,000...there's lots of ways to hide the interest/profit from the tax man
 
Last edited:
My take on the stoozing/interest thing:

If you have ISA allowance, space in things like premium bonds, and unnused personal allowance then you can max all of those before issues.

Most people won't be hitting tax on interest if doing this I think, especially if you use the money well.

You can also overpay the mortgage some (not all of it lol!) which is like reverse interest gain in a sense, or negating some interest paid instead of earning it.

You still need to keep enough capital accessible to pay it off in a pinch.
 
HungryHippos said:
Most people won't be hitting tax on interest if doing this I think, especially if you use the money well.
You can also overpay the mortgage some (not all of it lol!) which is like reverse interest gain in a sense, or negating some interest paid instead of earning it.
You still need to keep enough capital accessible to pay it off in a pinch.
Click to expand...

yep exactly this, which is what i'm now doing (excepting the mortgage bit because i won't ever hit £78k savings in a year or two lol)
 
HungryHippos said:
My take on the stoozing/interest thing:

If you have ISA allowance, space in things like premium bonds, and unnused personal allowance then you can max all of those before issues.

Most people won't be hitting tax on interest if doing this I think, especially if you use the money well.

You can also overpay the mortgage some (not all of it lol!) which is like reverse interest gain in a sense, or negating some interest paid instead of earning it.

You still need to keep enough capital accessible to pay it off in a pinch.
Click to expand...

Yes. That's how it works For me.
If I put my nearly 20k of 0pc debt in a 5pc easy access I'll earn 1000 a year.
That's not to be sniffed at for a little admin every year or 2
 
Pretty pointless for me personally as I don't spend enough on CC each month, so I simply wouldn't get the churn necessary to build up the debt.

It's one reason I haven't bothered lately, no big expenditures that will catapult it enough.
 
I have a credit score of about 850 and I think I'm missing out when it comes to credit cards. I've had the same HSBC credit card for 20 years or so and have never looked into getting a new one but it would be useful to get interest free credit for 6 months or so. I haven't read the full thread as it is rather long but if someone could point me in the right direction I would appreciate it.
 
Cromulent said:
I have a credit score of about 850 and I think I'm missing out when it comes to credit cards. I've had the same HSBC credit card for 20 years or so and have never looked into getting a new one but it would be useful to get interest free credit for 6 months or so. I haven't read the full thread as it is rather long but if someone could point me in the right direction I would appreciate it.
Click to expand...
www.moneysavingexpert.com

Stoozing – make free cash

Make free cash from credit card companies - if you're debt free and savvy, 0% credit cards can make money: read about stoozing on Money Saving Expert.
www.moneysavingexpert.com www.moneysavingexpert.com
 
A2Z said:
Only if your previous statement has been fully paid off. I learnt this the hard way, couple of years ago.

Had £1k on my Clarity statement, balance transfer so was 0% interest so no rush to pay it off. Went on holiday, withdraw £250 as soon as touched down at airport. Paid £250 to my Clarity same day from my current account, did same few more times so £1k total cash withdrawn, each time paying the same amount to the card, thinking it would pay off the cash withdrawal instantly so I will pay 0 interest... How wrong I was when I saw next month's statement.

Turns out that £1k had actually paid off the £1k interest free balance I had on the previous statement... And I now had £1k of cash withdrawals on my new statement with the crazy interest to go with it...

Completely my mistake but I did call up Halifax and they were very understanding, must catch a lot of others out, as they straight away offered to waive the interest charges for that month.
Click to expand...
I had exactly the same issue on MBNA.

slinxy said:
Hmm I would question that with the bank, I’m sure it’s now the case where it defaults that payment reduces the amount with the highest interest first.

I never did any transfers, but I did have to wait until the amount was showing on my account before I could pay it.

I know that I did buy a load of payments on the card while I was there, took €500 euros out and 500 liras out.. paid about £700 pounds and it cleared the cash withdrawals before the purchases.
Click to expand...
There was some BS about it being a promotional offer and the system didn't work that way. It sucked because I wanted to use the MBNA smart rewards.
 
Last edited:
lookitsjonno said:
Interesting. So I can spend £10k, get the 60k points and companion voucher, then ring them up to downgrade, then use the points/voucher later ?
Click to expand...
Yep, you don't actually even need the BA Amex to use the companion voucher, you just need *any* Amex to pay for the flight
 
Bit of a bump.

I use ClearScore for my credit rating and have a score of 858 which I assume is pretty good. I notice that they can do an affordability score by linking your bank account and I'm wondering if I should? I'd like to get a personal loan at some point and curious if this will increase my chances?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom