Feedback wanted on my stoozing plan ...

I wanted to outline my plans for stoozing below for feedback in case I've missed something (I've tried to put as much detail as I can think of so apologies for the wall of text!)

Background Info
I've recently re-mortgaged , and already have a couple of cashback credit cards for day-to-day spending so I'm not overly concerned about damaging my credit record in the short term as I won't be looking to re-mortgage for 5 years. I'm debt free apart from the mortgage, and my current credit scores are very good across all the agencies, so although I know the score itself is meaningless, I'm confident I'll be successful in new card applications with hopefully healthy limits. I can comfortably cover the repayments out of current income, and have enough in "contingency" savings to cover committed outgoings for any prolonged loss of earnings so I don't feel I'm not stretching myself financially in taking on additional debt.

Stoozing Plan
I'm planning to apply for the MBNA money transfer card as a first step which I will use to transfer funds to a bank account. At the same time, I will apply for at least a couple of fee-free 0% BT cards (looking at Sainsburys/28 mths and Tesco/24 mths) and transfer the MBNA balance to one of these as soon as possible. This will entail a 0.5% fee on the MBNA money transfer plus interest at 4.9% for a few days until the balance is transferred out to the BT card. I will then repeat depending on limits and how many fee-free BT cards I can open.

I will apply the accumulated funds to a combination of bank/savings accounts (paying between 3% to 5%), P2P lending (aiming for net returns of at least 7%), and some "safe" shares with solid dividend returns (4%+) over a 18-24 month period. The overall aim is to obviously maximise returns on the "capital" invested within the 0% period so I'll tailor the approach depending what actually transpires over time. I know there's a risk element with the P2P and shares but I should be able to fully cover the amounts I'm planning to invest in these even if things go wrong.

I'll make repayments that are marginally above the minimum required to avoid leaving "minimum-payment" markers on my credit history, with a plan to either repay in full when the interest free period runs down (or possibly transferring onto another card depending on what's available).

As well as any input on what I've outlined above, my main question relates to the initial applications for the MBNA, Tesco, and Sainburys Cards. As each application will leave a foot-print on my credit reports, should I do a burst of multiple applications on the same day to minimise the immediate impact of each one affecting the others, or stagger them over a period of a few months? And, then, assuming I get the initial three cards, how long should I leave it to apply for anything further (as a separate exercise, I'm thinking of switching my day-to-day credit card expenditure to one of the 0% spending cards and using the "interim" savings to build up in yet another regular savings account).

Comments

  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User] Posts: 35,242
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    There's no need to make more than min payment on a 0% deal, as lenders will also see the promo marker.
  • edinburgher
    edinburgher Posts: 13,447
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    edited 24 May 2017 at 3:16PM
    For what it's worth, I just applied for all of mine on one day. Went from £7k to £50k after one grueling morning of applications. Went from one credit card to 9, also opened 2 new current accounts and 4-5 savings accounts :eek:

    I'm currently in the midst of setting up a very similar plan to yourself (targeting 5% real return from a combination of current accounts/regular savers/a junk bond fund/P2P). The aim is to focus on higher yielding investments to begin with, but allowing the portfolio risk to fall as the CC balances drop and the proportion of assets held in FSCS protected cash rises with the RS accounts growing each month.

    Remember to take advantage of any cashback offers that you can find to offset the cost of the 0.5% transfer fees from MBNA.

    Currently £13k or so into my plan, the only thing slowing me down is the speed at which MBNA can send me the money ;)
  • Jaxer
    Jaxer Posts: 204
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    For what it's worth, I just applied for all of mine on one day. Went from £7k to £50k after one grueling morning of applications. Went from one credit card to 9, also opened 2 new current accounts and 4-5 savings accounts :eek:

    I'm currently in the midst of setting up a very similar plan to yourself (targeting 5% real return from a combination of current accounts/regular savers/a junk bond fund/P2P). The aim is to focus on higher yielding investments to begin with, but allowing the portfolio risk to fall as the CC balances drop and the proportion of assets held in FSCS protected cash rises with the RS accounts growing each month.

    Remember to take advantage of any cashback offers that you can find to offset the cost of the 0.5% transfer fees from MBNA.

    Currently £13k or so into my plan, the only thing slowing me down is the speed at which MBNA can send me the money ;)

    Interesting to see how you did, it sounds a fairly similar approach to what I had in mind. Did you do all your applications on a weekend or weekday/evening - wondering if it affects the chances of acceptance or referral if the CRA systems aren't "live"?

    Thanks for the cashback pointer. I didn't even think about that. There are a few cards on Topcashback with a 0% fee so will be targeting those to start with
  • edinburgher
    edinburgher Posts: 13,447
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    CRAs just aren't that fast. I made all of my applications within 4 hours of each other on a Monday morning :)

    Think cashback took me from 0.5% to 0.14% cost of borrowing, blended rate across all my homes for the money currently 9.05% or so (lots of secured P2P to start, but this will drop once cash builds up).

    Think it's currently spinning off £125/month or so.
  • Vaskor
    Vaskor Posts: 12 Forumite
    Wow, from the detailed plans above and calculations of blended cost of borrowing rates etc., it looks like there are some serious stoozers here!

    I've got into stoozing recently pretty much by accident. I've always been a money saver since my student days, and before 2008, when banks and card companies seemed to be falling over themselves trying to offer 0% credit, I took on a lot of debt at 0% and put the money in my savings account. The balance transfer fees and low interest rates after the financial crisis made this meaningless, so I simply paid all the money back and bagged the accumulated interest.

    I've used cashback credit cards for many years for my day-to-day spending, and I currently have a TSB card that offers 1% on the first £500 each month. It also offers 0% for 20 months, so I decided I wouldn't pay any more than the minimum amount, and just save the spare money. My original plan was to repay the balance at the end of the 20 months, but now I think I'll try to transfer it to another 0% card. I have currently built up a balance of about £2000.

    I also have a number of other credit cards on which I make a small purchase each month just to satisfy the direct debit requirements for various current accounts, so I currently have a lot of unused credit.

    In the last five or six years, I have never been rejected for a current account or credit card, despite accumulating quite a number of each by now. I have tried not to do too many applications in the same or consecutive months.
  • Jaxer
    Jaxer Posts: 204
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    An update ...

    After a bit of a delay, last week, I applied for and got:

    MBNA £10,000 4.9%/0.50% fee > to be used as the mule card with no residual balance remaining
    Bank of Scotland £7,000 25 mths/no fee (with £21 TCB cashback tracked)
    Lloyds £7,000 25 mths/no fee (with £21 TCB cashback tracked)
    Tesco £10,100 24 mths/no fee (with £31.50 TCB cashback tracked)
    Sainsburys £5,000 28 mths/no fee (1.5% charged and refunded)

    I did all the applications one after the other and they all came through with immediate approval.

    Will now start transferring through the MBNA card and distributing through the usual current accounts to maximise interest on the static balances while I move the rest through regular saving accounts and into some upcoming dividend-paying shares.
  • GOTfan
    GOTfan Posts: 7 Forumite
    Hello, I've been stoozing for a good few years, but I have an offset mortgage and am now more than 100% offset. So I need to look for savings accounts to park the excess - could anyone share the ones they're using? TIA.
  • MallyGirl
    MallyGirl Posts: 6,547
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  • Firegirl
    Firegirl Posts: 918
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    Wow! This is a well thought out plan! What are you expecting to make from the stoozing?
    Mortgage balance Feb 2015 start of MFW Journey-£245316.06/Aim to be mortgage neutral 2022 — Target for May 2024 14 Year Target Balance MF50 = £89,535 — Mortgage Balance £106, 000—Target for May 2024! £89,535

    Retirement Planning
    Starting Position : Pension 1-£165,000/Pension 2-£50,000/Pension 3-£9,500/ISA-£87,000/Total-£311,500
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