09 Mar 2015

A question about : Get cash from credit cards

Hi everyone
I'm reading some articles on here about the possibility to use credit cards to put money into a bank account for free(0 interest). I understand this technique is called stoozing (correct me if i'm wrong)

However I have a few questions:

Balance transfer is mentioned a lot, does balance transfer in this case refers to the transfer of money from credit cards into a bank account?

What I'm trying to achieve is the following:

I would like to keep my money saved as much as possible, but because I have a few big purchases, I would like to use a few credit cards with 0 interest transfer and minimum repayment with no charges.
Then I'd like to make purchase with the money I transferred from the CCs. Once these CCs are near their deadline of being 0% then I will pay everything back.

Intention is to get everything in 0% and make purchases with debit card (which otherwise would be charged).

Do you think I can achieve this? if so what are the steps to follow and things to look for?

The second question is that everytime i get a cc, limit on it is standard but then they increase it; is it possible to buy cc and have higher limit right when you get it?(as they should know that my previous cc limits have been higher)

Thanks

Best answers:

  • Transfer to a current account option is very few and far between. It sounds like you would be better off with a 0% on purchases credit card and buy the items with this - keeping your actual purchase money in the bank until such time as the 0% expires, then pay it off then.
    Stooz
  • Balance transfer = transferring a balance from one credit card to another. So if you had say Card A which had Ј1k balance on it at 34% APR, you would take out Card B which offered a promotional rate of 0% on balance transfers for 33 months with say a 3% fee. Thus saving you paying interest on Card A which you would then close down and set up a DD for the minimum monthly payment on Card B until the promo period ended where you would have saved enough money to clear the balance, or in turn start the process again and open a new card to transfer the balance to.
    Transferring money from a credit card to a bank account = money transfer. MBNA is the top company who have specific cards for this. Barclaycard also offer money transfer offers - but to existing customers only. Same goes for Halifax cards.
    If you have a good credit history, income, low debt to credit ratio etc then try and apply for MBNA money transfer card. They usually offer high limits. However, as Stooz pointed out, you may fare better with a 0% on purchases card. This would mean you wouldn’t incur any transfer fees (money transfer cards incur fees varying from 2-5%).
  • Thanks a lot, it is very clear to me now.
    I understand that there's no money transfer that offers 0% transfer and consequently the 0% cc are the obvious route.
    I am already using santander, I stopped making minumum repayment because the credit limit was low and it filled very quickly,which means that I couldn't get advantage of the cash back so started paying off every month.
    I have applied with santander to have my limit increased and then I'll have to ask them how many 0% months are left on it.
    Does anyone know of a cc that gives avios points and is 0% for several months?
    Thank you