How to increase my stooz pot?

pozalina

Sorry if this is explained elsewhere but I can't find the answer, so here goes:

I started my (very modest - 3k!!) stooz in october with a 9 month 0% virgin SBT. Now I understand that in may I should start looking for another 0% deal that does BTs to transfer the balance to the new card from the virgin account. However, in order to up my amount from the measley 3k, do I need another SBT card rather than just a BT card? My credit rating should have improved as I haven't requested any credit since october, and have had my virgin limit raised recently (not touched it, of course!).

Please advise! Ta.

Clariman

Well done on your progress so far. The Virgin card is a good card because it has SBT capability as you know. However, you have not exploited it to the maximum by simply paying money into your bank account. Where an SBT card really earns its stripes is when you use it as a router card (also called "mule") to route money from other non-SBT cards to your bank account. So, if you had another credit card today which did not have SBT capability, you could send money from that non-SBT card to Virgin and then from Virgin to your bank account.

If you want a more detailed description of this process you can find one here.

You may not be too late to do this with your Virgin card if you applied for another card today. Let's say it took 6 weeks to come through ... you would have it by the end of April and you would have sufficient time to route the money via Virgin to your bank account.

You asked whether your next card needed to be an SBT card. It depends. If you want to grow your stooz pot, then you need to have a route through to your bank account so you need an SBT card. However, if you have built up your stooz pot to a level you are happy with, you only need ordinary cards to keep the stooz pot going from phase to phase. Having said that, I always like to have an SBT card so that I can exploit any lucky breaks.

Clariman

pozalina

Clariman wrote:

You may not be too late to do this with your Virgin card if you applied for another card today. Let's say it took 6 weeks to come through ... you would have it by the end of April and you would have sufficient time to route the money via Virgin to your bank account.


Clariman

I think that the SBT to Virgin had to be done at the time of application for the card - I don't know if I can do aditional ones now?

Clariman

pozalina wrote:

I think that the SBT to Virgin had to be done at the time of application for the card - I don't know if I can do aditional ones now?

Check the Ts & Cs but that would be the first time I have ever heard of such a restriction with a Virgin card. However, you have prompted me to make an important point which I missed. You need to check whether there is a Balance Transfer fee on your Virgin card and whether it has a maximum on it. While I think you could do another SBT it may attract a BT fee. What you get charged will depend on when you got the card and what is in your Ts & Cs. My guess is that yours probably has a 2% BT fee capped at £35 but check.

Clariman