Stoozing questions

alexkerr

Hi,

Just a few questions re stoozing.

First out of interest. Why do super balance transfers exist. Why would a CC company allow transfer of their money to curent accounts?

I presume the amount they give you is associated to how much you earn? Do they take the initial charge off the amount they lend you or do you have to lay out fo it?

Is it possible to work out the total amount you will have to lay out to pay the minimum repayments. For example, the 2 CC described in the spiel on stoozing on this ste, what are the repayment guidelines?

Paul_Herring

alexkerr wrote: »

First out of interest. Why do super balance transfers exist. Why would a CC company allow transfer of their money to curent accounts?

To encourage you to spend that money, so you end up paying interest when you don't have the capital to repay the CC once the 0% is up.

I presume the amount they give you is associated to how much you earn?

Among other things. Like how much credit you already have available, how much of it you've used, how well you've maintained payments in the past 6 years...

Do they take the initial charge off the amount they lend you or do you have to lay out fo it?

The BT fee is usually added to your card (thus you aren't typically allowed to BT 100% of your limit.)

Is it possible to work out the total amount you will have to lay out to pay the minimum repayments.

Depends on what 'minimum repayment' is. Virgin is IIRC £25 (on a 0% deal) so it's £25*months. Other cards have a %age minimum, so a quick and dirty calculation is %age*opening balance * months (it'll be less since the %age will apply to a reducing balance.) A BT fee will skew these figures upwards.

FK1869

more questions....sorry!

do all cards allow SBT?

is the idea to stooze the BT funds in an account with a higher interest rate than the BT fee? Surely that will result in a (small) profit?

if you have more than one card to stooze from is it best to put all BT funds into one account (e.g. an ISA) or spread them out?

Paul_Herring

FK1869 wrote: »

do all cards allow SBT?

Nope. In fact very few do. The rest just allow transfers between credit cards.

is the idea to stooze the BT funds in an account with a higher interest rate than the BT fee? Surely that will result in a (small) profit?

Yup. Which is why Stoozing isn't what it used to be.

if you have more than one card to stooze from is it best to put all BT funds into one account (e.g. an ISA) or spread them out?

If you're nowhere near the 50K limit, whatever you want to do. Simplest is just one account.

alexkerr

Can someone tell me if I am right here.

If I were to get say £3000 from one of the two SBT CC and put it straight into a cash ISA 3% interest I would earn £90 over a year.

However, if I have to pay the greater of £25 or £5 plus interest on balance. I assume this would then be £25 a month as the interest is 0%.

I would therefore in the end lose money? Is there a theoretical borrowing amount from these CC where you earn nothing so obviously anything over that you are earnign money.

I used 3% as an example of an ISA but is paying into another kind of account more profitable currently. I suppose dripping the money into a regular savers at 7% wouldn't be any better??

I will get my head around this :-)

Paul_Herring

alexkerr wrote: »

However, if I have to pay the greater of £25 or £5 plus interest on balance. I assume this would then be £25 a month as the interest is 0%.

I would therefore in the end lose money?

That £25 isn't 'lost money' - it's money used to repay what you're borrowing - money you'd have to pay back at the end of the 0% period.

YorkshireBoy

Alex, you can check the profitability of offers here:

www.stoozing.com/calc.htm

Lots of other useful information on that site as well.

alexkerr

Paul_Herring wrote: »

That £25 isn't 'lost money' - it's money used to repay what you're borrowing - money you'd have to pay back at the end of the 0% period.

D'oh
thanks for confirming my idiocy lol