FAO Stoozers

vacheron

izools wrote: »

Thanks. And yes, I'd always pay minimum +£1, save the minimum payment marker.



Why do people keep saying that? Am I effeminate in my posts? :rotfl:

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If it's any consolation I always assumed you were a bloke.

While I can understand the logic in paying an extra £1 to avoid a perceived "minimum payment stigma" I haven't seen any detrimental effect in my case where I just pay the minimum by direct debit out of convenience. The result of this was my new card offered me 50% more credit than my last card despite there being no other change in my financial circumstances.

If there was an option to pay "minimum + £1" by direct debit then I'd probably do it anyway, but in my personal experience is it's not worth the trouble (for me).

izools

I suppose 21 months of paying the minimum, then zeroing the balance, and waiting for the balance to reflect as zero before applying elsewhere, would look fine.

But at a guess, spending 21 months just paying the minimum then applying elsewhere when the balance is still 75% of the limit mightn't look as good

Then again we could spend an eternity trying to second guess credit scoring models, it would never be more than mere speculation...

YorkshireBoy

vacheron wrote: »

My plan is always to pay the card off and start again

Perhaps a better approach would be to 'overlap' the cards?

By that, I mean if you have a 15 month 0% card you should stop using it after 9-10 months or so and drop on to another long 0% card.

That way, you've less to pull from the offset savings account when the full balance of the first one requires paying, meaning you ease out the peaks and troughs...and delays whilst you wait for your CRA data to update.

izools

The only thing I can see with that is you would, over time, incur more balance transfer fees than if you'd stretched things as far as they can go.

But in essence I do agree with you, but think that leaving it as close as you dare to the last minute as possible to be the best solution - apply for the next card maybe 28 days before the final interest free statement is due?

YorkshireBoy

izools wrote: »

The only thing I can see with that is you would, over time, incur more balance transfer fees than if you'd stretched things as far as they can go.

You've misunderstood me.

I was offering a suggestion to 'vacheron' on how to better use his slow-stoozing cards. He doesn't make BTs...he pays off his 0% on purchases card (possibly waits a couple of months?) then starts again.

izools

Ahh I see, fair enough

vacheron

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Perhaps a better approach would be to 'overlap' the cards?

By that, I mean if you have a 15 month 0% card you should stop using it after 9-10 months or so and drop on to another long 0% card.

That way, you've less to pull from the offset savings account when the full balance of the first one requires paying, meaning you ease out the peaks and troughs...and delays whilst you wait for your CRA data to update.

That sounds like a good plan. The problem I had in the past was that my second to last card was an Amex cashback card which meant that I had to have a second card on standby for all the places that wouldn't accept the darn thing!

I then moved on to the Capital One MasterCard (Cashback and 0% on purchases for 12 months), and recently cancelled the Amex in preparation for the new Halifax card (17 months @ 0%) so as I now have two MasterCards I can now start doing as you suggest as I won't have any card acceptance issues.

iAMaLONDONER

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Either that or Sterling TCs from M&S and/or Tesco (1% and 1.25% fees respectively), then just 'spend' your minimum payments each month throughout the 15/16 month intro period to keep the card(s) maxed out.

M&S are stopping Sterling TCs from May though!

You're not going to get rich (long gone are the days I was making £240 a month NET on a £70-80K stooz pot!), but at least it's money in your pocket.

That was like 2880 a year!

Was your income that high?! What was your income to debt ratio ?!!?