Stoozing is it worth it?

Al_Mac

Used to stooze a lot, had an off set mortgage, now paid off, so I stopped:j

Just been taking a look at the 0% for 9 months with no fee and my ING interest calculations.

Realistically the longest you would get the 0% is 8 months, ensuring no errors at either end.

Interest rate is cleared balance * 3.532% (ING basic rate tax payer net amount) divided by number of days in the year (365).

By my reckoning £1000 taken at 0% on the 1st January 2006 straight into an ING, would be worth £1023.89 on the 31st August 2006.

£4983, which is my average credit limit, would earn £119 for the 8 months.

Time wise I reckon an hour for application, at most, 10 minutes a month servicing the account for 8 months, is 2 hours 20 minutes. giving an hourly rate of £51 net. Mrs Macs figures work out at £71:j So if I did us both, not a lot more time, £286 in total.

OK we're 40% taxpayer so might end up paying more interest:eek:

I think I might have just talked myself into doing it, with a BT fee I wouldn't think it would be worth it.

Opinions on my calculations gratefully received.

Cheers

Al

tomstickland

Sounds about right. I worked out that £5K in a 5% savings account with 20% tax would net around £140 over 9 months.
Set up a minimum payment direct debit so you don't have to do anything during the 8 months.

YorkshireBoy

Al_Mac wrote:

Opinions on my calculations gratefully received.

£4,983 x 4.41% / 365 x 243 x 0.6 = £117.04 (net of basic rate tax)

Don't forget also, that the stooz pot balance will diminish over the introductory period if the minimum payments are made from there. At 3%, this will mean the average stooz pot balance will only be 88% of the amount SBT'd. Your 'profit' will fall to £102.99 (net of basic rate tax) - and this excludes interest lost due to 3 day transit delays.

If you add in a 2% (max £50) BT fee, it looks pretty dire - and a 2% uncapped fee is a complete non-starter with a stooz pot savings account.

Here's a prediction...by the end of summer 2006, you'll only be able to make money stoozing with an totally uncompetitive offset mortgage...Fancy getting another mortgage Al?

Thefunkygibbons

It depends how much money you can get

Once you get up to £30k or so then there is a very useful monthly amount

Personally I use my stooz profits to indulge my Dream Theater CD collecting habit

But it is getting harder