0% credit cards - how best can I use the system?

[mckenzie]

I've always paid my credit card bill in full every month but we've had some major purchases this month (some essentials and some last furniture bits on getting the house finished in time for christmas).

A credit card company offering 0% interest for 6 or even 12 months would be perfect for us. Our big John Lewsi purchases havne't actually been charged for yet as thay dont charge until delivery is ready so I could put those on a new credit card but do i have to be seen to be giving up my old one to qualify do you know?

Anyone very experienced in all this please whoc an offer some help / advice? If I could transfer some of the debt on my existing credit card to a new one with 0% interest even better still but it would have to be sharpish as the current bill has just come in and I dont want to pay any interest so will find the money if I have to.

TIA

look on here
my oracle!

Stoozing website . Stoozing is about making money from credit cards - borrowing up to the limit on a 0% card, putting the money in a savings account and then repaying at the end of the 0% period, i.e. you get to keep the interest from the savings.

Stoozing isn't for the faint-hearted, but by definition they tend to know about the best 0% deals, although the focus is on those where you can do a balance transfer to a current account, which isn't what you need. Worth a look and then on to either Money Saving Expert or The Motley Fool .

Just apply for a 0% CC (make sure you check transfer fees, length of offer, whether its for balance transfers and/or purchases) and use it to pay off all your debt. Then, when term is coming to an end, apply for another one. Keep going until its all paid off. Make sure you dont get made to have payment protection (unless you want it) as my mum paid about £70pm on a 10k card until she realised. They automatically put it on.

Tribpot... is it legal to invest money from a CC? I know some loans it is illegal... Ive often wondered about getting a 0% card and using it for high % investment...

Message withdrawn

thanks everyone. Am checking all the websites now.

Quootie - I'm not an expert, but I don't see anything illegal in what's being done. Some credit cards offer a facility to pay off an overdraft or a loan by transferring credit from the card to your current account. I don't think they can do anything if rather than paying off an overdraft/loan you actually transfer the money on to a savings account.

If you're interested in stoozing, it's well worth reading the site in detail as the smallest error in timing can lose you your entire profit on the deal.

There's no harm in this and it can be a good way to manage debt - the thing is, you have to be organised about paying back at the end of the 0% term and swap to a new card.

We had a small debt a few years ago and we just shifted it from card to card until we got a windfall and cleared it.

I know other people who have a 'one account' or offset mortgage who have borrowed money off a 0% credit card, stuck it on the mortgage to save on interest over the period of the 0% on the card and then paid it back to the card at the end.

You have to be quite disciplined about not spending the money you borrowed and changing the cards on time though!

I saw advertised on TV that capital one are offering 0% on baance transfers till Jan 2008...worth looking into.

yep I do this. I've just switched my balance to the M&S More card though as I didn't want to keep swapping cards - was afraid that eventually, I might get refused one! The M&S balance transfer rate is 3.9% pa for the life of the balance so not bad, and you've got 6 months from when you get the card to transfer.