Stoozing: Make Free Cash from Credit Cards article discussion

voodoo_child_3

Yeah it's a bit annoying isn't it. Fair point on the credit crunch, did think about that too.

Think I'm just annoyed with Barclays at the moment - called in at my local branch the other day to open their 'Tax Haven' ISA but they wouldn't let me have one as I didn't have any photo ID - I don't drive and am in the process of renewing my passport. Rubbish!

Thanks for the Advice anyhow

danielkian

Complete newbie I'm afraid - can anyone tell me whether i can use a 0% balance transfer card in my name (husband as an additional holder) to transfer to egg money card which is in husband's name (with myself as an additional holder)?

Thanks

CannyJock

danielkian wrote: »

Complete newbie I'm afraid - can anyone tell me whether i can use a 0% balance transfer card in my name (husband as an additional holder) to transfer to egg money card which is in husband's name (with myself as an additional holder)?

Thanks

Yup, you can BT to any valid card number regardless of the name the card is registered under.

ivandrago_2

re; stoozing.....
I got a mbna platinum plus card, the one we all know, transferred 5k into my current account (halifax high interest one) and awaited the interest with glee. something mbna failed to mention was the minimum payment each month which is 2.5% of the outstanding balance. ie £125 for the first month and so on. i did enquire about the minimum payment before applying for the card and the well versed mbna employee told me "its £25.00 per month" which was total lies. this mis-information aside i fail to see how stoozing can work as you cant actually keep the money in your account as you have to pay it back each month. So in frustration with the whole concept i decided to buy 5k of premium bonds in the hope i win something that would be more than any of the interest the stoozing idea would have returned. I am ofcourse less educated in money matters than you lot, so any response or alternative ideas of how to become disgustingly rich is very welcome!!

JimmyTheWig

ivandrago wrote: »

re; stoozing.....
I got a mbna platinum plus card, the one we all know, transferred 5k into my current account (halifax high interest one) and awaited the interest with glee. something mbna failed to mention was the minimum payment each month which is 2.5% of the outstanding balance. ie £125 for the first month and so on. i did enquire about the minimum payment before applying for the card and the well versed mbna employee told me "its £25.00 per month" which was total lies. this mis-information aside i fail to see how stoozing can work as you cant actually keep the money in your account as you have to pay it back each month. So in frustration with the whole concept i decided to buy 5k of premium bonds in the hope i win something that would be more than any of the interest the stoozing idea would have returned. I am ofcourse less educated in money matters than you lot, so any response or alternative ideas of how to become disgustingly rich is very welcome!!

Am surprised that the minimum repayments are so high. In the past MBNA have had very low repayments for 0% balance transfers.
Was it just the first month that was this high to pay off the balance transfer fee?

So no, you can't keep all the money in your high interest account for the whole time as you have to pay it back.
But even with those high repayments, you'll still have nearly 75% of the money earning you interest by the end of the year.
So there's plenty of time to make money.
Not tons of money. Won't make you disgustingly rich. But it will make you money unless you miss a repayment, etc.
The returns are best for those who can earn interest without paying tax on it (e.g. put the money into cash ISA, put it in savings of a non-tax paying spouse), but even net interest should easily cover the transfer fee.

With premium bonds, however, you stand the chance of losing money on the deal. Because there is a chance that over the year none of your premium bonds will win, meaning you will have to fund the balance transfer fee out of your own pocket.

hopscotch8

Hi newbie here. I've been reading all of these posts with great interest and think that when I've cleared my current credit card debt (which is on a 0% card I hasten to add) I will give stoozing a go. However there is one thing I'm not clear on which relates to the last post by JimmyTheWig.

If you are pretty good with money, i.e. once you've paid your mortgage, bills etc from your current account and are still in the black, can't you just pay the minimum payment amount off each month from any spare cash you have left over in your current account, surely this way you'd be leaving the stoozed pot alone in the high interest account allowing the total 100% to be earning interest???

Have I got this right? Forgive me if I'm wrong, remember I new to this.

Many thanks

YorkshireBoy

hopscotch8 wrote: »

If you are pretty good with money, i.e. once you've paid your mortgage, bills etc from your current account and are still in the black, can't you just pay the minimum payment amount off each month from any spare cash you have left over in your current account, surely this way you'd be leaving the stoozed pot alone in the high interest account allowing the total 100% to be earning interest???

If you've a disciplined approach to saving each month it doesn't matter whether you make the payments from income or the stooz pot.

However, if you've a tendency to spend whatever's left once you've paid the mortgage and utilities etc, then paying from income is the best approach because it's a kind of enforced savings activity.

Personally, I pay mine from income, but it gets a little difficult some months with £1,000+ to find! :eek:

JimmyTheWig

Yes, I would say paying it from money in your current account is the best approach, as that effectively means you are saving that money each month.
But it only works if you have, or could make yourself have, that amount of money spare each month. Which in turn depends on the monthly repayments.

hopscotch8

Great, thanks for the quick response.

If you decide to make the minimum payments each month by taking the money from the stooz pot right from the off does the stooz calculator work out what your true profit will be at the end of the period?

To be honest I think this is the only way I'm going to be able to do it what with the cost of everything in life now rapidly increasing lately any spare income I have is going to decrease because of extra spending on shopping/petrol etc. Life is just becoming so expensive!

I have a couple of cards that I could use that are offering me:- £6.5k limit and the other a £6k limit. I think the 6k one has minimum payment of 2.5% per month whereas the 6.5k one is with Virgin so I think it's much much lower for the minimum repayments. Think I will definitely have to fund the minimum payments from the stooz pot but before I take the plunge does anyone think it would be worth it? I'm just not sure if I'm using the calculator correctly?!?!

Thanks once again.

YorkshireBoy

hopscotch8,

Which calculator are you using?

The one at http://www.stoozing.com/calc.htm assumes you make the minimum payments from the stooz pot (as described in the accompanying help file at http://www.stoozing.com/calchelp.htm), and not from income.

Key to getting good returns from these deals is the BT fee...or, more accurately, the lack of a BT fee. If these are existing cards there's a chance that you might be able to get the provider to waive/cap the fee. On a £10,000 transfer, that could deliver an additional £300 profit.

Whether it's "worth it" or not is very subjective, and only you can answer that question.