Weird Virgin Flyer offer

[grubbidok]

Did anyone with a VA Flyer card get an email with the following offer

"Grubbidok, make a fresh start this New Year.
Take control of your finances and save on interest with a low balance transfer rate. Transfer balances from other credit or store cards to your Virgin Flyer Credit Card and with this great low rate, you could be debt free even sooner.
No balances to transfer? Just tell us how much you would like and we can issue a cheque in your name. You can use this cash for any purpose that suits you, it's that simple.
But don't forget at the end of the 6 months, the rate on your balance transfer will revert to the cash advance rate[SUP]*[/SUP]."

Pretty standard balance transfer, but is it normal for CC companies to 'cut you a cheque' in lieu of a balance transfer? It's the first time I've seen it. I thought would have been against regs on responsible lending, as it creates new debt instead of transferring existing debt.

 

[markis10]

Cheque to self is quite common, and it's not creating a new debt facility per se, if you assume your credit limit is the amount of revolving credit you already have access to your simply making a charge to the card just like buying something.

 

[grubbidok]

Cheque to self is quite common, and it's not creating a new debt facility per se, if you assume your credit limit is the amount of revolving credit you already have access to your simply making a charge to the card just like buying something.

Maybe it's because I'm relatively new to the CC game, so was first time I'd seen it. Was self-employed for a long time so until recently couldn't even get a $1000 CC despite $100k income!

 

[Kieran2274]

Did anyone with a VA Flyer card get an email with the following offer

"Grubbidok, make a fresh start this New Year.
Take control of your finances and save on interest with a low balance transfer rate. Transfer balances from other credit or store cards to your Virgin Flyer Credit Card and with this great low rate, you could be debt free even sooner.
No balances to transfer? Just tell us how much you would like and we can issue a cheque in your name. You can use this cash for any purpose that suits you, it's that simple.
But don't forget at the end of the 6 months, the rate on your balance transfer will revert to the cash advance rate[SUP]*[/SUP]."

Pretty standard balance transfer, but is it normal for CC companies to 'cut you a cheque' in lieu of a balance transfer? It's the first time I've seen it. I thought would have been against regs on responsible lending, as it creates new debt instead of transferring existing debt.

Citibank frequently offer you cheque to self under balance transfer promotions. Only you then have to have a Citibank Credit Card :shock: Lol

 

[JohnK]

A few months back I got an offer of 2.99% on balance transfers for 9 months so I took up the offer. Getting close to full term so I would be looking to renew to a new term on lower interest balance transfer.

Citibank frequently offer you cheque to self under balance transfer promotions. Only you then have to have a Citibank Credit Card :shock: Lol

I keep getting offered a cheque to self on Readycredit account.

 

[DC3]

Did anyone with a VA Flyer card get an email with the following offer ....

They were recently throwing around BT offers @ 0% on existing cards. Was that the one that you received?

 

[Kieran2274]

I keep getting offered a cheque to self on Readycredit account.

I used to have one of those, but Citibank is only tolerable if you don't have to talk to the call centre (and I did that one time too many). In the end, I had too many cards, and just wanted to keep the useful ones - Citibank was the first to go (even though that was quite a challenge to get them to close the account - 'No, I don't want to suspend it, I want it closed out!)

 

[DC3]

A few months back I got an offer of 2.99% on balance transfers for 9 months so I took up the offer. Getting close to full term so I would be looking to renew to a new term on lower interest balance transfer ...

Keep an eye on My Offers in your online account, to see if they are offering you 0% for 6 (or 9) months.



Edit: Correction on term

 

[JohnK]

Keep an eye on My Offers in your online account, to see if they are offering you 0% for 9 months.

Funny you say that. For some reason I still cant log into this account online. I will try to get it set up this week as I also had to put some tax payments through the card at the higher rate and would be good to start at 0% from scratch. At ~$18,000 balance that is a reasonable saving.

 

[DC3]

I just checked mine. There are two offers there. One is for 6.9% and another is for 0%, both are for six months. The 6.9% has pretty much always been there and the 0% has popped up more recently (when I hadn't taken up the original offer).

From memory, the BT offer is for up to 80% of the credit limit.

Edit: Just checked and here's the 0% offer:



*** Make sure that you fully pay-out any existing card debt first so as the BT period starts from scratch again. ***

 

[Mur@no70]

I had one of these offers about 8 years ago through a Citibank card that I no longer have. It was a great way to finance the purchase of a new car. I spent a lot of time researching it when the offer came out and the gotcha bit for me was the way that they applied your repayments. Any money paid into the credit card to clear the balance was applied to the "cheque" amount first. So if you had any other purchases prior to the "cheque" being drawn they ended up having the full rate of interest charged against them until you had paid off the cheque amount and then any other earlier purchases were paid off. The offer I had was awesome if you started with a fully cleared credit card and didn't use it for anything else until the cheque was paid off. The terms and conditions may have changed over the years but it's worth a look at the repayment priorities

 

[DC3]

Just edited Post 10, above, with the details from My Offers for the BT 0% deal.

 

[Demonoid]

Keep an eye on My Offers in your online account, to see if they are offering you 0% for 6 (or 9) months.



Edit: Correction on term

I keep an eye on that but its usually something cough like 6% for 6 months. I was ready to turf my card. Called up, and they immediately offered to waive the fee. Told them this was not the issue. Then I asked them what balance transfer offer they could do (coz I had lets say quite an expensive Xmas!). They offered 0% for 12 months, but I had to keep the $129 annual fee. 0% for 12 months normally means an annual fee anywhere from $30 up, so I was paying an additional $100 - but I thought given I don't have to go through the hassle of applying for a new card, not to mention the extra entry on the credit file, I just kept the status quo. I'm pretty happy.

 

[DC3]

... Then I asked them what balance transfer offer they could do (coz I had lets say quite an expensive Xmas!). They offered 0% for 12 months ...

Well done. That deal would be too good to refuse.

 

[casanovawa]

Hmmm, get them to cut u a cheque and whack it in a high interest online account for 6 or 12 months... Basically they are giving u free money and I love getting the banks money when usually its the other way around and they are screwing you......

Just got that Citi fee free for life card but only did a poultry balance transfer, might see if I can get a bigger 6 month balance transfer made out to me...

 

[DC3]

... Just got that Citi fee free for life card but only did a poultry balance transfer ...

Free range, I hope.

 

[casanovawa]

Oh absolutely.... Paltry, feel better...

 

[DeKa]

Thanks for posting this. I just checked my account and have a 0% offer. I need to read up on how it works to make sure I don't get any charges