Mortgage Free in Three Yrs

freebird65

The answer is yes you can, but just not as much as before and it depends on how long the balance transfer period is and what interest rate you're getting on your money. Example figures on £1,000 as follows:

Stooze £1,000 from card with 3% BT fee (£30) so amount to repay is £1,030.

To work out how much the money would earn you is as follows:

£1,000 x interest rate minus 20% savings tax if applicable. Divide this amount by 365 to get the amount of interest you would earn per day and then multiply by the number of days you have the money.

Give or take a day or two depending on how quickly the money is transferred, this would work out as follows, done on standard account paying 5%, ISA paying 6.3% or in offset mortgage account with say an interest rate of £6.75%:

---

5%

---

6.3%

---

-6.75%
BT term 6 months = ---£19.93

---

£31.41

---

£33.66
BT term 9 months = ---£30.44

---

£47.98

---

£51.41
BT term 12 months = --£40.00

---

£63.00

---

£67.50

End column is the money you'd save in interest on your mortgage as I believe savings in an offset account aren't paid any interest.

I stoozed £7K last year and stuck it into a stocks and shares ISA invested in natural resources (oil etc).....risky, but I got lucky and it did very well! Not a safe route to go down though unless you're prepared to lose the money.

Hope that lot is clearer than mud!!

Batgirl

Thanks for that Freebird, by looking at your figures I can't see it would really be worth the hassle for £10 if you do it the risk free way and surely you have to pay the minimum payment. If I am getting this wrong please tellme.

freebird65

Batgirl wrote: »

Thanks for that Freebird, by looking at your figures I can't see it would really be worth the hassle for £10 if you do it the risk free way and surely you have to pay the minimum payment. If I am getting this wrong please tellme.

You're quite right - I forgot about the minimum payment. The other thing some firms (like Egg!!) do is to add the fee on as a new transaction and then charge you interest on it because you can't just pay it off immediately. A&L was better in that I used to be able to pay the max £35 fee up front and then the minimum monthly payment was only £5. A good reminder to always check the terms first!

Dithering_Dad

I keep thinking about stoozing as well. We have a good credit rating and so between myself and Mrs Dither, could get quite a bit of cash. What keeps stopping me is the worry that I'll mess it all up by forgetting to pay off the card in time or by missing a monthly payment!

I also wonder with the BT fees, whether it's worth the effort. It's the same with putting money into a cash ISA rather than onto my mortgage because the rates are better - by the end of it all, if there is only a few quid difference, then what's the point?

I think I'll stick with putting as much as I can into my offset/mortgage, filling up my mortgage pig and selling stuff on ebay. Much less stressful that arranging ISAs and watching credit cards!!

TallGirl

Thanks for all the advice on Stoozing. I asked Egg what deal they could give me and they will offer a balance transfer fee of 2.5% onto a fixed rate of 3.9% until Dec 07 - not worth it at all. I am going to stick with my offset payments much easier and I wont risk missing a payment.

do_it_today!

it seems the optimum time to stooz has passed...

freebird65

Good plan I think - I've stopped stoozing unless I find a really good deal. All my monthly payments were on direct debit so I couldn't miss them - and pay-off dates are written into my desk diary with weekly reminders starting two weeks before.

I'm looking at getting an offset mortgage but they all seem to want large set-up fees and I'm not sure if it's worth it - even Woolwich/Barclays want £795 and I'm with them already!

For the moment I'm just going to carry on trying to save money and put it all into overpayments. I've got a B2L (more hassle than they're worth!) coming out of a fixed rate next summer & will sell it and use any profit to overpay. Is it worth waiting until then to re-do my mortgage?

Right....I'm off to start reading my new Harry Potter (such a grown-up).

AnW'sMum

freebird it might be worth asking Barclays to forgo the set up fee to keep your business as the paperwork to keep your mtg has to be less than the paperwork to recruit a new mtg holder. The worst they can say is no

comping_cat

freebird65 wrote: »

Right....I'm off to start reading my new Harry Potter (such a grown-up).

We went to Asda (£5, so cheapest around!!) at midnight to get it, and im the sad person who then stayed up all night and read it - took me 6 hours, but i got it read!!!

do_it_today!

not a HP fan not read any of the books but...
who died?