Stooze hit em hard hit em high, why not

happyhero

About to stooze, Egg on its way (don't know limit yet), FD also on its way with £25,000 limit.

Few questions here.

I am confused what to do next. I appreciate and understand credit rating damage which I am totally happy for the forseeable future to dent, ie no mortgage wanted for a while. I am dissapplined enough to manage this.

After reading many posts you see some people with £80,000 stoozed but others tell you to start slow with about two cards, why? The more I have the more interest I can make now. 0% could disappear.

How can I achieve figures like £80,000, its all very well getting a big limit from FD because I bank with them but wont others give you figures like £5000 downwards because ONE, maybe they dont yet know you, and TWO because your credit rating says you have a load of debt already? To achieve figures like £80,000 you really want credit limits like £10,000 plus from each card.

Wont your credit rating ever stop you getting into this much debit/stoozing? Also can I actually get 10 or more creditcards to do some hard stoozing considering the effect each card will have on my credit rating?

I was thinking of putting my Egg £25,000 in credit with my FD card first. Do I just phone FD up and say hey I have a £29,000 debt with Egg to make it look good? How will they react to this, will they just say certainly sir we will pay it off and credit EGG, or will I have to answer all sorts of questions? Can I then just balance transfer (assuming £10,000 limit on EGG) from Egg £35,000 into my current account and expect EGG not to blink an eyelid?

Sorry one more question, as I said I am with FD and I have just seen the HSBC offer, whats the situation with these 2 companies being virtually one company? Will I be able to get the HSBC card as well or will they see the FD one and say no way? If they will give me a HSBC card would it be an average credit limit or would they offer me more based on my FD history.

All respoinses and answers appreciated.

silvercloud_3

how long have you banked with FD? did you ask for £25k limit specificly?

Clariman

After reading many posts you see some people with £80,000 stoozed but others tell you to start slow with about two cards, why?

Well I fall into both categories. I have had over £80,000 stoozed and I also advocate starting slowly. If you go all out for it with 10 card applications in the first few months, then lenders may start thinking that you are desperate for money and in financial difficulty i.e. a high risk to them. Therefore, they will decline you. Thus, your stoozing career ends prematurely.

The other factor which I consider is that I want to make my stoozing sustainable so I want to leave myself a few cards to apply for in my next round of stoozing.

How can I achieve figures like £80,000

Whether an individual could get £80K will depend on their salary and their credit record. I did it by building up quite slowly. Round 1 was just with one card, then went to 3 and now running with 5. What I found interesting was that my first batches of cards had fairly decent limits but not stunning (they were typically £8K to £12K). However for the next round I started getting £15K limits and above. I have always assumed that other lenders wanted me to be able to BT away from competitor's cards and were happy that I had proved myself to be a safe bet.

My target was to Stooz about £45K but a couple of lucky things made it grow to £85K. I managed to convert an old Halifax card into their new Halifax ONE card without a credit check and then shortly after MBNA extended my 12 months 0% by a further 6 or 7 months. That left me 2 'spare' credit checks with which I got two more cards.

Wont your credit rating ever stop you getting into this much debit/stoozing? Also can I actually get 10 or more creditcards to do some hard stoozing considering the effect each card will have on my credit rating?

Yes your credit rating will eventually stop your stoozing amounts growing. My preference is to grow it bit by bit and when I get any negative news (e.g. when a lender would not increase my credit limit) I stop and take stock.

I was thinking of putting my Egg £25,000 in credit with my FD card first. Do I just phone FD up and say hey I have a £29,000 debt with Egg to make it look good?

I am cautious and don't throw myself into it, so I would probably feel uncomfortable about putting my Egg card into credit by £25K. I would probably do it in 3 chunks over a couple of weeks.

HTH
Clariman

mary

I do not have Clariman's vast experience but I would suggest first waiting to see your Egg Credit Limit.    You can apply online and get an instant decision, then you can arrange in how many chunks to offload the £25K cash from FD.    Egg are very quick and efficient I have found

I would also avoid phoning.    I would simply go online and tick the relevant boxes, rather than have to think of an answer to a tricky question someone has asked you.

happyhero

Thanks for the replies guys

how long have you banked with FD? did you ask for £25k limit specificly?

I have banked with Fd about 5 years and no I did not ask for the £25,000 limit.

Also Clariman

Yes your credit rating will eventually stop your stoozing amounts growing. My preference is to grow it bit by bit and when I get any negative news (e.g. when a lender would not increase my credit limit) I stop and take stock.

Why do you stop trying when you get a negative? Does it leave anything on your credit history and if so, how long before you are free from its effect?

I am cautious and don't throw myself into it, so I would probably feel uncomfortable about putting my Egg card into credit by £25K. I would probably do it in 3 chunks over a couple of weeks.

How would you do this? If I got FD to take 10,000 from Egg wont they ask why I want to do it again a couple of weeks or a month later again and then again? It will look like my Egg card has got an ever debt filling basket. What I am saying basically, is what do you tell them that will make sense and put them at ease?

Also a new question. My wife is a housewife (no job) will she be able to get cards and will my activities have any effect on the limits she could achieve?

As before all answers appreciated.

Reaper

I think Clariman has said most of what needs to be said.

There is one other trick though - some credit card companies don't tell the credit reference agencies about your credit card providing you always pay on time. First Direct happens to be one of these. This means the fact you have a high credit limit with First Direct will not affect your ability to get further credit cards. Better still as I am a First Direct customer I noticed that they did not even do a credit search when they gave me a card so even that does not count against me.

If you are looking to maximise your borrowing I'd say get a copy of your credit reference reports to see what is listed so you can plan what to do next and when. If your FD debt is not listed you may be able to apply for another card straight away.

Your FD card will be tough to replace, except that apparently if you pay it off then ask to switch to their other card (gold or black, whichever you don't have) you can start again for another 6 months. I'll be testing this myself in another couple of weeks.

happyhero

Hi Reaper thanks once again for your advice. I would be interested to know how you get on with FD when you go for the other cards as you suggest.

Also what about the bit I mentioned about FD and HSBC? According to what you said about FD not even doing a check. Do you think I could go for the HSBC card as well, or do you see any problems with the FD/HSBC link?

happyhero

Reaper again please, taking this one step further could you take out a Gold FD card for 6 months and then take another one of FD's cards out 6 months later to pay off the Gold card, or am I being too silly?

Reaper

I'm not sure about the FD/HSBC link and have been wondering the same myself. I think unless somebody advises differently I will hold off for another 6 months while I take out another FD card. When that runs out I'll see about HSBC and see if I can persuade them to match the excellent credit limit FD gave me.

You asked earlier about how long negative credit reports are held against you. From memory the credit ref agencies keep searches for a year and closed credit card for 6 years. I doubt lenders will go back this far in their scoring but we never know.

Clariman is right to say back off at the first sign of trouble. My latest card I only got a £1k limit so I took that as I sign I have been overdoing the applications (ie too many searches in a short period). So apart from replacing the FD card I'll lie low for a few months.

If you ignore the warning signs and keep applying you just make your credit history look more and more desperate and it will be longer before companies start lending to you again.

Reaper

Taking out a second card with the same organisation and balance transfering from one to the other does not work for 2 reasons:

1) They won't give you as good a credit limit if you have 2 cards with them at the same time. They will add the two together when deciding how much to give you.
2) While I haven't checked the FD T&Cs generally BTs between the same bank's cards are forbidden.

Instead pay the first card off, then ask to switch.

klondyke

No, FD will only transfer debt from competitors' cards or store cards, not their own. That applies to most (probably all) of the institutions who run more than one credit card.


As to whether your wife's activities will affect you, some organisations will want to know if you are 'financially connected' with anyone - ie have joint accounts. These would show up on credit reports anyway and be taken into consideration.

I wish I had got into this earlier, especially when I think of how I used to virtuously pay all bills in full. Now, havng retired, my income is much lower than it was, so can't get high credit limits. Grrrrr. However, I get hubbie to apply for cards as well as , but separately from, me (He can command a higher credit limit, though also retired) and between us we are building up quite a good pot.

ie it definitely pays for both spouses/partners to be 'at it', as someone on another thread put it ;D ;D