Too stooze or not too stooze...this is my question??

mossy

Okay peeps, you are such a wonderful and clever bunch and I would appreciate your opinions/advice. :money:

Firstly....

Personal info: Married, no debts, one credit card (Post Office, had a few years, £7,500 limit) used mainly for oversees spends (as no charges) and business use. Pay it off in full each month if it's used. Renting so no mortgage at present. Do have £1500 overdraft facility on current account which is never used.

The situation: I want to make my money work for me so think that stoozing is one simple (when organised) way of doing this.

HOWEVER, we are hoping to buy our own flat/house by the end of this year.

The question: Is it worth stoozing for say six to eight months before we (hopefully) are in a position to apply for a mortgage? I don't want stoozing to make our financial position look less favourable. We're both employed and self employed so need all the luck we can get anyway as things could be a little more complicated anyway lol!

If we get a new deal credit card that would mean one credit search against us, which I don't think is too bad.

If we did stooze, I suppose the best thing to do would be to pay the stooze card off a month or so before we put in a mortgage application so that our credit rating doesn't show a big outstanding credit card debt.

So we may only make £30 interest (plus loyalty points depending on the card), but £30 for not much effort doesn't seem too bad, it's better than a kick in the teeth. I don't want to be lazy and just say well it's not worth the hassle to only do it for six months. However, I don't want to jeopardise/make our financial position less favourable when we apply for a mortgage?

If nothing else, it would give me some practice for full on stoozing once we're loved up in our new pad.

What do you think? Also, would it be worthwhile reducing some of our other credit/overdraft limits, to give us more available 'lending' money, if you see what I mean?

Opinions/experience/advice all welcomed.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

p.s excuse the extra o in the to, I was getting a little over excited lol!!

Jammi

The gains from stoozing these days range from non existent to very modest. However it is still possible to make your everyday spending rewarding.

As you currently have no outstanding balance, your gains can only really come from the benefits of a 0% on purchases long term deal. The spending on your post office card does not reward you. A better option would be the Halifax Clarity rewards card. If you don't already have one you could apply for the halifax reward current account, it pays £5 for every month that £1000 is in, they are also currently offering £100 to switch accounts. With the current account you become eligible to apply for the reward credit card that pays £5 every month that you spend at least £300. There are also no fees for overseas usage.

I don't think it is necessary to reduce the limit on your card, and it's worthwhile applying for a new card that rewards you in a way that you consider beneficial, be it by cash-back or some other rewards scheme. Having a modest credit card debt should not impact negatively on any future mortgage application, it will simply be taken into account when conducting affordability calculations, or if you wish you could simply pay it off before making a mortgage application.

You could also check the forums on the stoozing website, http://www.stoozing.com, for ideas and calculations of what you could possibly gain.