Stoozing

Ruthann

(reposted from savings board as advised)

Well, firstly Hello everyone, I am new on this website.

Secondly, I hope I have picked the right board - there are so many to choose from. ;D

Lastly, my actual question
My husband and I have decided to stooze (think this is right word) and have got 20K from egg and mint. We can afford the min payments a month just about, but reducing other savings and cutting back a little. However we both have good credit ratings and not much other debt (hubby none, me 2K). We own our own house in a good area and have a good credit history.

So we could prob get plenty more 0% cards and stooze the money, but we can't afford any more in monthly min payments.

Is anyone else doing this, and do you all pay the monehtly payments from earnings, or is there some part of this I have missed? ???

Thanks very much iun advance for any advice
Love
Ruth

nh

I keep a percentage of the stoozing money (enough to make the minimum payments each month) in a separate bank account (at First Direct cos got £25 for opening it too) and I have the direct debits to pay the credit card come out of that account.

So, say I have £10k at 0% for six months, the minimum payments are roughly £200 a month, so I keep £1,000 in First Direct to pay the monthly minimum and then put the rest in a high-interest account. You make less profit, but you don't have to worry about the minimum payments (and £1k is enough cos you only pay five times in a six-month 0% period).

If you were even more organised, you could just move the £200 from the high-interest savings account into the DD account just before the DD is due. Or you could pay the monthly minimum manually each month by taking money from the high-interest savings account and paying the minimum by cheque or debit card

Clariman

Hi Ruthann - welcome to the world of Stoozing ! When making the minimum payments, there are a number of different approaches. Paying them out of your normal monthly income is fine if you can afford it, but you certainly don't have to.

It is important to remember that your minimum monthly payments (assuming the card is at 0%) is actually paying off the balance rather than paying any interest, so over the introductory period you will have paid off a chunk of the original 'debt'. Therefore, at the end of the 0% intro period your debt will be less than the amount of money in your Stooz Pot (the savings accountwhere you put the credit card money). Rather than paying the monthly payments from your normal monthly outgoings, you can pay it out of your Stooz Pot. You might have to move the money via a current account first. Of course, every few months you can do another BT to top the Stooz Pot back up if you want.

If you have not seen it, take a look at the Stoozing FAQ on https://www.stoozing.com.

Good luck
Clariman

Martinslovechild

If you've only just received your Egg Card for the first time (i.e. this 0% deal isn't your Egg Anniversary deal), then you can BT the minimum amount back into your current account after it's been recieved by Egg.

This way - the same payment just keeps going back and forth until the end of the 0% period.

I think you can only do this with Egg Card. With your Mint card, if finding the monthly min payment is proving difficult, then I would follow the advice of the other posters here who suggest that you move some money out of your stooz pot into your current account and make the payment with that.

Also - please note that the MBNA cards (i.e. MBNA/Abbey/Virgin/PriorityClub) all allow a monthly minimum payment of just £5 while in the 0% period - a rather attrative bonus for stoozers with a large stooz pot!!

Good luck.

Ruthann

Thanks for the advice.

I guess what I do need to do first is get organised! I can see how your methods both work, I prefer the idea of keeping it in the high interest account as long as possible - we use MS Money to manage our normal money, I'll have to check out some of the advance planning features, maybe that can help me make sure the money is in the right place at the right time.

Thanks,
Ruth

Unbelievable_2

I think you can only do this with Egg Card.

You can do a similar thing with MINT - make the minimum payment and then use a Transfer and Save cheque to put it back into your current/savings account (although I always BT my MINT minimum payment to make the minimum payment on one of my other cards

ashcarrot

With Egg could you pay back the monthly min repayment and BT it out again?

nh

With Egg could you pay back the monthly min repayment and BT it out again?

Yes, during the intro offer where BTs are at 0%, not during anniversary offer except in first month.

zcaprd7

Could be an idea to pay off your 2k of debt, any profits on stoozing are being eaten away by that...

Ruthann

Thanks for all the replies everyone. ;D Some interesting points, and ways you are managing things.

The 2K debt is already on a 0% card, being paid off at £100 a month - the reason we are stoozing is to try and make enough to pay this off in full without having to get second jobs.

zcaprd7

OK - cool - what about a cashback card that you pay off in full each month?