Making Money - credit cards

[flipflop104]

Is this possible... and if so why aren't more people doing it?

I'm always getting credit card company's slinging money at me �10k here, �5k there, etc.

I assume it's because I haven't got, and have never had, a credit card, a loan or an overdraft in my whole entire life (the only money I have borrowed is on my mortgage and I pay every month on time - never missed a payment).

So I was wondering, with all these 0% interest credit cards flying around, if I were to take say 3 or 4 of them up on their kind offers and get say �7,500 off each one that would be �30,000.

And if I put took them straight up to their limit and put the cash in my high interest saving account (at which I get �90 per month interest on �30k) and just pay the minimum amount each month off the credit card, then at 8 months into the interest free offer, pay all the money back to the credit card company (thereby incurring no interest charges), I would have earned �90 per month x 8 months = �720 for just juggling some money around.

Is this possible? Could I do it and get away with it?

[ugly_bob]

You'll not get cash interest free on a credit card

They charge you to use the machine, then about 20%APR on cash advances

[andy-hughes]

Yep, not surprisingly, the credit card companies have seen through your plan. They charge a whopping 2% per day for cash transactions. What they are working on, is the proven principle that a large number of people are too muddle-headed, forgetful, or just plain irresponsible with their money to pay their balances on time. On the 'interest-free' system, serious interest rates swing into action for those who haven't cleared their balance by the agreed date, which makes it worth doing for the companies.

There really is no such thing as a free lunch - even if you pay for it by Visa!

[Oneeyedvic]

Yes there is such a thing as a free lunch - a lot of credit cards will offer 0% rates on cheques and not charge you for writing a credit card cheque - this is the card you need. Once you have the card & credit card cheque, you write yourself a cheque for the limit and pay it into your bank account. MAKE SURE that you set up a direct debit for the minimum amount every month and make sure you know when the interest free period ends. You also need to apply for a 0% balance transfer with no fees about a month before your current offer expires.

Also, better than paying it into a savings account, change your mortgage (if no redemption penalties) into an offset account - and offset the 30K against your mortgage - far more savings!

It can be done, and it is done - does need keeping on top off though!

[WoWo]

It's called stoozing and as Oneeyedvic says it's easy to do. However the CC companies have got a little wise to it and now tend to have an upfront transfer fee of 2%.

[Oneeyedvic]

As, I said - it is difficult but very possible. Last time I did (less than 2 months ago) the following companies are offering a no trnasfer fee 0% deal: Royal Mail, Llloyds TSB, one of the Barclaybcards - you really need to read all the small print and spend a lot of time looking for the deals - the Barclaycard deal as an example is not easily available - you need to request a certain promotional code - the other 'versions' of teh same card havea 2% fee.

If you are fairly intelligent and have the time to surf it is well worth doing - be warned though - once you have done this a few times, you don't get offered the deals half as much

[buildersmate]

Maybe its worth doing then - just to stop them sending the junk mail offers.

[flipflop104]

Think I'll start reading up on this then - thanx for the replies paticularly Oneeyedvic - most helpful!

[country_boy]

You can find out more on www.moneysavingexpert.com