Is stoozing really this easy?

YorkshireBoy

I'm looking at starting my first stoozing activity. This afternoon I have had telephone conversations with Capital One, MBNA, & Virgin. Details of each providers' offer is given below:

Capital One
They only do 0% on purchases, and for 6 months only! They say that they have some (better) offers available in "The Times".

MBNA
Initially stated their best 0% deal (for BT's to my current account) was for 9 months only. When I said I'd heard they had better offers, the advisor went away and came back with a 12 month offer. However, she said the fee for balance transferring 95% of my (yet to be agreed) credit limit to my current account was 2% with no cap!!! I'm optimistically looking for >£10K and preferably c.£20K so this "fee" could be around £200-400, making a heck of a dent in any profit I make.

Virgin
Offered 9 months 0% period (but 15.9% on purchases - which I'm not planning on making), with a free BT to my current account of 95% of any agreed credit limit. They have something which they call "flexible minimum payment". This means my monthly payments are the LOWER of 2.25%, interest + £5, or £5. This means I can get (say) £19K BT'd to my current account and pay £5/month for 8 months. My final payment in month 9 would then be £18,960 (unless I BT'd again to another card ). Unless I'm missing something obvious, this means I can make ~£557 NET interest in my ING account. Is stoozing really this easy, or are Virgin giving me inaccurate information?

Your thoughts please.

YB

Tim_L

Virgin is run by MBNA, so probably subject to the same charges - you may be able to persuade them to waive or cap them. MBNA platinum also has a £5 payment during the 0% period.

The card you must get is an Egg card - this is the best stoozing card as they offer good credit limits and direct transfers to current accounts (which can be used to route further transfers from cards not allowing direct SBTs).

deemy2004

yeh stoozing is as easy as that.

Though when your stoozing on say 12 cards You have to become organised and systematic in your payments, 0% expiry, card specs, and any special conditions.

Also have to have a series of replacement cards lined up at least 6 weeks before end of 0% to shuffle the debt onto.

When my egg offer comes around, I will likely break the £60k barrier which equates to an income at 5% of £3000 which is a relatively easy second income.

YorkshireBoy

Tim_L wrote:

Virgin is run by MBNA, so probably subject to the same charges - you may be able to persuade them to waive or cap them. MBNA platinum also has a £5 payment during the 0% period.

I checked, double checked, and checked again, but Virgin said the BT was absolutely free.

Tim_L wrote:

The card you must get is an Egg card - this is the best stoozing card as they offer good credit limits and direct transfers to current accounts (which can be used to route further transfers from cards not allowing direct SBTs).

Being a true MSE I didn't ring them this afternoon as I couldn't find an 0800 number. I'll ring them tomorrow from work!

Thanks for your suggestions.

YB

Reaper

YorkshireBoy wrote:

I checked, double checked, and checked again, but Virgin said the BT was absolutely free.

It is free throughout the 0% period, unlike other MBNA cards.

Minimods

All this stoozing sounds like juggling with fire... how easy is making 3k a year really??

Ian

Reaper

3k is pushing it, particularly to start with as too many applications is counter-productive. The amount depends on such things as your salary, credit worthiness, and whether you have a partner to split the cards between.

It's also not that easy - you need to be organised and disciplined and willing to read small print.

stuwilky

Minimods wrote:

All this stoozing sounds like juggling with fire... how easy is making 3k a year really??

Ian

Im a relatively low level stoozer compared to some of this lot!! But I reckon I got around £800 last year from stoozing. Which pays nicely for mine and mrs stuwilky's season tickets at Football to watch our team get hammered week in week out no doubt.

Tim_L

I didn't know that Virgin were doing fee free transfers - looks like I now know where to go when my current MBNA deal runs out!

The overall credit limit you can get (and hence the profit potential) has something to do with your general creditworthiness which includes factors such as salary and previous payment history, but also persistence in making applications over time, but this doesn't mean making large numbers of applications quickly which generally leads to serial rejections. It's much more a case of building up over a period of months, at least in my experience.

Most long term stoozers are I suspect carrying a number of rolled over deals - Halifax, MBNA, First Direct and Egg are the classic multiples, though I've had success with Lloyds and some others. These can build up to large amounts of credit, particularly since they often raise credit limits from time to time. If you then periodically add in new cards from what I class as "second string" suppliers - Citibank, Morgan Stanley, Marbles, etc - periodically, the combined credit limits do start getting very large indeed.

I ran quite happily for a couple of years with about 25K overall limit. However about 8 months ago this increased (due to a couple of unexpected extensions) to around 50K which is enough for me, and I've been able to sustain this without much problem. This leads to about a 2.5K pre-tax annual income. I am eternally pessimistic about being able to sustain this, but there never seems to be a problem in practice.

itgirlinuk

I currently have Halifax and I have held a Virgin card before. I want to start stoozing, but I am not sure if I can re-apply to Virgin as a new customer? I wouldn't touch Capital One or Marbles - their customer service is the worst I have come across.

Any suggestions who I should apply with?

cindyhove

I am obviously ignorant, but WHAT is stoozing???