MBNA zero per cent , a warning and hope!

you paid 50 for that? Are you barking?

Well, over the 6 months I earned nearly 100 pounds on the money, so I earned

mrcheerful

"mrcheerful ." wrote

OK, that's a good deal.

"mrcheerful ." wrote

Why were you surprised?

Suppose the zero rate ended a couple of days after the statement date, you receive the statement a few days after that and pay it so that MBNA receives the funds a few days after that.

The first statement showing any interest for *next* month, will be the one a couple of days before the zero rate ends. But by the time you receive the statement, the zero rate has already ended - and when MBNA finally get the funds which you sent 'immediately' (BTW how did you pay? - BACS, cheque, ... can take a few days) - you've already racked-up a week's worth of interest. No surprise there! [Or at least there shouldn't have been.]

"mrcheerful ." wrote

You could have asked them at the very start, for the exact date - and they would have told you (they've always told me when asked). Or if you wanted to be totally "safe", pay it all off after 5 months.

Agreed and I will be more careful in future, the thing that most surprised me was their attitude from the first to the fourth person all refusing then suddenly the fifth person instantly offering to refund it.

I paid on the day the statement came in by bill payment over the internet, but with the terrible slowness of electronic transactions (must be the wicks they use) it got there too late for the unrealised 'end of zero' day.

mrcheerful

"mrcheerful ." wrote

Would you have been happier if the fifth person had also refused? :-(

"mrcheerful ." wrote

The "end of zero" day was probably the actual day of statement, or the day after -- and the statement probably arrived around 4 or 5 days after it's date.

Not happier, but probably less surprised.

yes but you can get that for free.

I've got a 9 month interest free MBNA card, cost me nil, nada, zilch, and it has about 10k on it. before that it wasa Tesco 0% card, and before that...I forget. All of them cost nothing.

"Tumbleweed" wrote

Elsewhere? Yes, perhaps so. But you could also do **both** !!

"Tumbleweed" wrote

You're not limited to just *one* at a time, you know! Do them all together, and "earn" even more...

agreed, its just a question of the hassle of juggling them all

"Tumbleweed" wrote

That's why you decide whether the 'couple-of-hundred-quid' which you gain is worth the "hassle".

How many hours would you need to work in your regular job, to earn (after tax) the same amount? If the juggling takes less time than this, you are earning more than at "work"!

Play your cards right, and the juggling can be done during idle moments while actually already *at* work, so it's all "profit".

On the other hand, you can't really reduce hassle to mere time. The concept of hassle goes well beyond this and encompasses not just time spent, but time spent on a disagreeable activity. This is very subjective, of course, but speaking for myself I would rather waste a whole week unproductively than spend half a day on the phone chasing up opportunities to earn a couple of hundred quid from borrowed money.

"Ronald Raygun" wrote

You seem to be assuming that you're on a salary, and not eg self-employed. Not everyone gets paid for doing nothing!

"Ronald Raygun" wrote

All agreed (and I didn't mean to suggest otherwise) ...

"Ronald Raygun" wrote

Fortunately it usually only takes half-an-hour or so, and that can make the "per hour" rate several hundred pounds - enough to make most people accept the slight "hassle"!

Ah! Glad to hear that I'm not entirely alone. :-)

The self-employed have idle moments too.

Ah well, if it's only "slight", that's altogether different. I just have a thing about the phone. To me, its disagreeableness factor is never slight.

"Ronald Raygun" wrote

Ah, but then they are *not* "at work" !

Yes they are, every bit as much as an employee doing nothing.