Possible Stoozing Newbie!

dirtyred619

Hi All

I've been reading the many articles on this site about stoozing and am considering having a go myself, it seems relatively easy to do and I'm quite an organised person so keeping on top of it should be fine, basically why not make some free cash rather then paying it out for a change

No comes my first little problem though, I have never had or used a credit card in my life - I was always warded of them in the past by my dad and I've also had a couple of friends get into bad debt with them so I've just never bothered with one before.

From reading the articles, I understand that to do this I should use either an Egg card or a Virgin card to start with, balance transfer the money into my current account and then move this money to top up my ISA ans then put the rest into a savings account offering the best interest. Thats where it gets a little confusing to me though. The 2 cards mentioned above have a 9 month 0% interest period, so my understanding then is that I would have to pay the minimum payments on the card for these 9 months (Do you have to pay interest on this??) and then when this 9 month period is up I should transfer the debt onto a new card? I would assume that is correct as the interest on the ISA is paid annually.

Basically I'm a little unsure as to how this works but if its not too complicated past where I understand up to then I'm considering giving this a go so any help on clearing this up for me would be greatly appreciated.

Appologies if a question similar to this has been posted before (thinking about it I'm sure one has!) I just couldn't see one when I checked through.

Thanks again.

steveb1967

Dirty, nice to have you here.
You have sumed it up in a nutshell.
1 get a BT free Super Balance Transfer (egg,virgin,mint)
2 Put the money into your current account
3 Transfer it to the best instant access savings (inc mini cash ISA's first direct 6.25% till october then 4.35%)
4 Use the stoozed money to pay the minimum payment(between £5 or 2-3%)
5 Make sure you pay off the full balance before the 0% ends (either use the cash or BT it onto a new 0% CC.) always apply for the new cards 3/4 weeks before the original 0% runs out.

As Martin say's be organised, pay off mins on time and pay off full balance before 0% ends.
all the best and good luck.
steve b.

Reaper

dirtyred619 wrote:

I have never had or used a credit card in my life

This could cause you problems unless you have had other forms of borrowing as without this you have no credit history. That means many companies will reject you or at best give you low credit limits. It is hard to do much about this in the short term except try to get cards with companies you have an existing financial link to (eg your bank). Click on the "Credit Rating" link at the top of the forum for more info on credit histories and scoring.

dirtyred619

Thanks for the replies. I only even considered this today really after reading the info about getting home insurance cheaper, where it mentions using a credit card to pay of in a lump sum to save a bit more money.
I've always seen credit cards as a bit evil and a waste of time, but I think I'm coming around now that you can use them to your advantage!

Just to confirm in doing this, you should use one card at a time and then switch to a new card nearer to the nine month period ending, lets say from Egg to a Virgin card and then cancel the Egg card?
I ask this because it seems that you will run out of cards to use at some point surely? Or can you reapply for a card that you have previously used and then cancelled?

Thanks again for the feedback.

smartsaver

Hi

There are lots of cards out there and new deals appear on the market so it will take a long time until you have used up the supply of cards. You can use the same card again but wait a decent while before reapplying. For most cards at least a year.

Hope this helps

dirtyred619

Thanks, looks like I'll be applying for a card soon, they don't charge annual fees do they to have one of their cards?

dirtyred619

Just another quick thought, apart from my ISA, what savings accounts are recommended for the best returns

Cheers

Clariman

Take a look at https://www.stoozing.com

It should answer most of your general questions about Stoozing. It started its life as a Stoozing FAQ on another discussion board and it now has its own website.

Clariman

lipidicman

Be careful with ISAs - if you have to pay the debt back you lose the ability to redeposit money in your ISA - may be best to use a high interest saver and save your ISA for long term saving, depends on personal circumstances. Since I already fill my ISA from earnings I dont use my ISA - if you cant afford to save in an ISA anyway, then use it by all means.

dirtyred619

I've got to admit I thought it would be easier to put the money into one account rather than 2 or 3, even if I wouldn't be getting the maximum rate of interest, it would just make things easier to manage.
That said, what savings account would be best or do people on here use and reccomend, I 've seen ING Savings account mentioned a couple of times and am just looking now at some others.

dirtyred619

Well I've been accepted for an Egg card so thats the first part done.