New to CC stoozing: accepted for Nationwide Select

TartanSaver

Logged onto Nationwide today to discover they were punting me the Select card, with:
0% for 15 months on BTs (0.25% fee if transferred in the first three months)
0% for 15 months on purchases
Fee free purchases (but not ATM withdrawals) abroad
0.5% cashback

On a low income: they have given me a £2k limit. I'm new to CC stoozing (currently stoozing the hell out of my student loan and surviving on part time employment.) I have a Santander Zero card (now withdrawn to new customers) which is great for travelling, but otherwise has no competitive edge. I pay it every month, so no balance to transfer.

Here's my plan: all spending in shops/petrol/online on the new CC. Spend only what I would be spending normally, with a DD for minimum payments, and accrue what I would have used for repayments in my 123 account for 3% interest. (Got two TSBs and a Flexdirect maxed out already.)

Am I missing anything? Any big pitfalls, or opportunities I'm missing out on? Thanks in advance.

ricky_v

I'd put the stoozed money into a FD/HSBC/M+S 6% reg saver. The reg saver will mature after 12 months, ready to pay off the card when it ends 3 months later. Some would say to pay the min off +£1, personally I don't bother now and Halifax increased the limit on a 0% card even though I only ever paid the min off.

Other than that it all looks good:). I wasn't aware that Nationwide did that card. With 2 cards maxed out with £4k in total (and another 2 cards paid in full) rejection is more likely at the moment. But with the flex direct account containing £2.5k for the 5% interest I'm hoping to get this card with a lovely large limit (I'm currently resorting to the cap one 0.5% card for most spends) so thanks I'll certainly be applying :beer:

mozzy10

I'm doing exactly the same thing with that credit card and have exactly the same current accounts as you!! Are you my twin ? LOL

I got offered the card when I applied for the Flex Direct account.

I will look into the regular savers accounts as I am also just stoozing it into the 123 account at the moment.

TartanSaver

Ricky: I already have the FD regular saver. I applied for M&S current account yesterday. I've been reticent to apply for HSBC Advance: I earn well below £1750/mo, and while I can easily shuffle cash to meet pay in requirement, I'm not convinced they'll let me open one.

I've always wondered about the +£1 thing. Nothing on noddle indicates minimum payments, even when I delve right into the specifics of monthly payments and balances. How do other lenders see this? Or is it only the lender in question?

Good luck with your application: when I logged into Nationwide online banking it was the offer that popped up. Try looking in "my offers" in your account. If it's there you'll get a ref number for applying - should greatly improve your chances. The T&Cs require that you maintain a current account and pay into it regularly. My Flexdirect is about to "mature" and drop interest, so I'll shed the balance but keep shuffling £1k/mo.

Mozzy: good to know I'm not the only one. For regular savers I'd suggest starting with First Direct as you can also get at least £100 switching bonus. Just create a donor account first. When I did it (about December) it didn't require DDs. I don't think this has changed so it's a really easy £100/£125, plus access to 6% regular saver.

ricky_v

I also earn a few hundered below £1750/month and still got accepted, even after making clear my salary and stating that I'll be using the account for the save together offer and reg saver only.

I'd go for it, there's a free tenner per month for a year too

JimmyTheWig

TartanSaver wrote: »

Here's my plan: all spending in shops/petrol/online on the new CC. Spend only what I would be spending normally, with a DD for minimum payments, and accrue what I would have used for repayments in my 123 account for 3% interest. (Got two TSBs and a Flexdirect maxed out already.)

Am I missing anything? Any big pitfalls, or opportunities I'm missing out on? Thanks in advance.

Sounds good to me [current stooz pot £32k].
Only things to watch out for are...
* Make sure you pay the minimum payment on the CC on time every month. A DD for this helps.
* Don't get tempted to buy stuff for the sake of your stooz pot / just because you've got your credit card on you / etc - you can easily cost yourself more than you earn in interest by doing this.
* Find a way to keep track of how much you've spent / how much money you have left to spend this month / etc

ricky_v

TartanSaver wrote: »

I've always wondered about the +£1 thing. Nothing on noddle indicates minimum payments, even when I delve right into the specifics of monthly payments and balances. How do other lenders see this? Or is it only the lender in question?

It says on my file on noddle on the 0% cards:

Name xxxx


Address xxxxxxx


Date of birth xxxxxx


Account type Credit Card


Account number xxxxxxx


Account start date xxxxxx


Opening balance £69

Payment start date xxxxxxx


Repayment frequency Monthly

Promotionl rate Yes

Minimum payment Yes


So it is reported on mine, but so is the fact that it's on a promotional rate, so you'd think min payments + promotional rate = sensible borrower.

The card wasn't on the "My Offers" section (but something about a 3.6% £7500 loan was!), I got a quote of £2500 max credit limit but when I came to apply properly it took all of 0.5 seconds to carefully consider their rejection decision:rotfl:

LplateSaver

Obviously stoozing works best the bigger the credit limit and being in a similar situation to you OP being at uni/low income I hadn't bothered with it yet. Would there be any drawback to starting now? Eg right now I would get a card with a low limit probably 1k, would using that card to stooz discourage credit limit increases or do people report the same limit increase as on other cards? On the current card I have they have been increasing the limit with responsible use in spite of income. Obviously only asking as I don't think there's much benefit to stoozing 1k.

TartanSaver

I guess it depends on what you think is worth it, and what your options are for getting interest out of it. £1k at 5% (TSB) for 15 months is £62.5 in interest. Plus £5 in cashback makes £67.50. Although at 3% it's only £42.50.

In the short term your utilization ratio would be very high for a while, which might put some lenders off. In the long term, I would hope that using credit cards responsibly would be good for your credit report for future lenders. After all, the ideal customer is one who is loaded with debt (albeit at high interest) but never ever misses a payment. Since I'm also new to this, I'm not clear on whether or not limits are likely to be affected by stoozing.

Down the line it might be possible to BT for free to a new card and build it up to larger values with time. Even if it's not, that's £42.50 you wouldn't otherwise have made. It all adds up. In the last year I've made about £600 between account opening bonuses and interest, which is almost like being paid an extra month's wages.

LplateSaver

TartanSaver wrote: »

Down the line it might be possible to BT for free to a new card and build it up to larger values with time. Even if it's not, that's £42.50 you wouldn't otherwise have made. It all adds up. In the last year I've made about £600 between account opening bonuses and interest, which is almost like being paid an extra month's wages.

I don't get out of bed for less than £10,000 :rotfl: Ha in all seriousness though £600 is two months wages for me so well done! I don't think it's worth it right now at £42.50 (Tsbs are maxed) but I'm going to start paying closer attention to stoozing, hope you'll keep us updated on when you get offered a credit increase/how you get on with things.

shortcrust

My stoozing fun is coming to an end I fear.:( TBS has just slashed the limit on a two month old card and I got rejected for new credit last week. Stoozing makes me a nice bit of money each month but my borrowing must look out of control to lenders.