Credit cards and cashflow

[EyeOfTheTiger]

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Hi,

As someone who hasn't used creit cards in about 7 years since I ran up a staggering £8K on them and got stresssed over it I was after some advice on using these to aid cashflow on ppc marketing campaigns.

My theory is that there a number of competitive deals out there say offering consumers 0% interest on all balance transfers for the first 6 months.

Am i right in saying that you can apply for one of these cards move all your loans and other interest bearing credit card balances to these cards get interest free for 6 months and then switch these in 6 months time onto another card which also offers 6 months interest free and so on and so on so that you are always getting 0% interest borrowing. Does this affect your credit rating.

Anyone recommend any good credit cards for this to start off with if this applies ?

They need to offer online fraud prevention for obvious reasons.

Cheers

Tiger
Sometimes I spend other times I'm tight)

[Shane]

yup you can in effect get an interest free loan if you do a bit of work and swap and change card providers around.

I'd say have a look at virgin (9 Months 0%) or Lloyds TSB advance (12 months 0%) and there are a few more with longer than 6 months interest free on them for transfers and some do purchases and some do both

Just remember to apply for each new card about a month before the existing card's interest would kick in.

[wibble99]

I applied for an Egg card, got a 15k limit at 0% for 6 months. I transferred the 15k to a high interest account (a few cards, like Egg, allow you to do this), then six months later paid off the credit card and kept the interest I'd made.

I've only done it once with one card, but my brother does it with lots of cards at the same time. It's effectivly free money!

Currently I have no mortgage, but I'm in the process of trying to sell my house and will then buy a much more expensive one.

When I do that I'll get an offset mortgage - i.e. one where any money in your bank account reduces the mortgage. I'll then take out a few credit cards at once and transfer the money to my mortgage's offset account, reducing the interest I have to pay.

It's worth far more to use the interest free loans to offset a mortgage than to earn interest in a bank account. E.g. if I got a 30k interest free loan from a few credit cards and put it in a bank account that paid 5% for a year I'd make 1.5k. But I'd then lose 40% tax on that, so I'd make £900.

But if I used it to offset a mortgage whose interest rate was 6%, I'd be saving £1,800. And I'd not be paying any tax on it.

So that's another trick to consider!

[purple]

I am thinking of getting a virgin and Lloyds TSB advance do they have affiliate programs for these so some commission can be earnt.

[km8]

Originally posted by wibble99
If I got a 30k interest free loan from a few credit cards and put it in a bank account that paid 5% for a year I'd make 1.5k. But I'd then lose 40% tax on that, so I'd make £900.

But if I used it to offset a mortgage whose interest rate was 6%, I'd be saving £1,800. And I'd not be paying any tax on it.

Smart chappie that Wibble99 - I like that idea

A pound saved buys just as much as a pound earned and is often easier to come by.

Wonder who's paying for all these smart borrower/investors? or are the CC companies eventually going to disappear up their own exhaust pipes?

[pistol101]

Wonder who's paying for all these smart borrower/investors? or are the CC companies eventually going to disappear up their own exhaust pipes?

There's been a lot of press recently that these offers and deals will be disappearing in the near future.

There will always been people like Wibble and there's always guys at the other end who take the £15k and can't pay it back.

[angelabx]

I took up the kind offer of a £55k transfer from MBNA on my 3 cards with them into my bank account last July.

It was at 0% for six months.

Stuck it in Cahoot at 5.1% and made over £1k interest.

Paid it back this week.

(It'd be rude to decline their offer!)