Stoozing: Make Free Cash from Credit Cards article discussion

JimmyTheWig

Paul2010 wrote: »

I have read through the Stoozing Info page and it seems I can do this by using the ‘Simply Spend’ method, but I thought I would run it by the more experienced posters on here

There's two options, basically.

1. The fast stooz. You get a 0% balance transfer for £3600 into your current account and pay that off the mortgage. Then repay the credit card as you suggested.
This will save you maximum interest on your mortgage but will cost you a 3% or 4% handling fee. Whether this is worth it or not depends mainly on the interest rate on your mortgage.

2. The slow stooz. You get a card that offers 0% on purchases. Use this to buy stuff that you would have done anyway (e.g. supermarket shopping, petrol). Pay this money, along with the £300 a month that you would have done anyway, off your mortgage until you reach a total of £3600 overpayment for the year. Then use the future £300 a month to repay the credit card as you suggested.
E.g. if you spend £900 a month on the credit card, after 3 months you will have overpaid 3 x £300 + 3 x £900 = £3600 off your mortgage (3 lots of of £300 that you would have paid anyway and 3 lots of £900 that you spent on credit card) and would have a credit card balance of 3 x £900 = £2700. £300 a month for the remaining 9 months would leave you with 9 x £300 = £2700 to repay the credit card.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that you will need to make the minimum repayments on the credit card each month!


Does this fit with your plans?

[Deleted User]

Thank you for the detailed reply.

With regard to option 1, I will need to check my current mortgage interest rate and try and work out if it would be viable. I think the rate is slightly above the bank base rate but I will need to double check.

Option 2 sounds workable but I need to read through it a couple of times to make sure it all sinks in ;o) As you point out, there will be the added complication of the minimum monthly repayments.

I’ll sit down and work through the above options and report back.

alexberger753

very nice!

slush

Hi all,

We are after some advice from experienced stoozers please.

We have been slowly getting into a position to begin stoozing. As margins are very tight we want to try to get it right from the outset. Our current situation is:-
My OH has maxed her existing 0% CC and has the required balance to clear earning a reasonable 5% (with instant access) elsewhere.

She is waiting for a new 0% balance transfer CC to arrive. The plan is to balance transfer her existing CC balance across to her new CC (tranfer fee at 2.9%) for a further 15 months 0%. This will free her existing 0% CC to be maxed out gain for the remaining 7 months of its interest free spending period.

I have just recieved a new CC which will allow me to balance transer within the next 2 months at 0% interest for 15 months (2.9% tranfer fee). Unfortunately I don't have that much to transfer, and I don't intend to spend wrecklessly just to get it. However, if we spend just on my existing cards within 2 months and add that to that which is already available to transfer, it will hopefully allow me to use at least half of my available credit limit of the new CC. The amount spent can then be earning interest for us elsewhere.

Does all this seem the correct way to play the stoozing game?

And, we have each just been approved for new current accounts which bring a £250 interest free overdraft for 12 months. Having no experience of having used overdrafts before, can we use this free £500 to add to stoozepot in some way?

Thanking you in advance.

[Deleted User]

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

There's two options, basically.

1. The fast stooz. You get a 0% balance transfer for £3600 into your current account and pay that off the mortgage. Then repay the credit card as you suggested.
This will save you maximum interest on your mortgage but will cost you a 3% or 4% handling fee. Whether this is worth it or not depends mainly on the interest rate on your mortgage.

2. The slow stooz. You get a card that offers 0% on purchases. Use this to buy stuff that you would have done anyway (e.g. supermarket shopping, petrol). Pay this money, along with the £300 a month that you would have done anyway, off your mortgage until you reach a total of £3600 overpayment for the year. Then use the future £300 a month to repay the credit card as you suggested.
E.g. if you spend £900 a month on the credit card, after 3 months you will have overpaid 3 x £300 + 3 x £900 = £3600 off your mortgage (3 lots of of £300 that you would have paid anyway and 3 lots of £900 that you spent on credit card) and would have a credit card balance of 3 x £900 = £2700. £300 a month for the remaining 9 months would leave you with 9 x £300 = £2700 to repay the credit card.

The situation is further complicated by the fact that you will need to make the minimum repayments on the credit card each month!


Does this fit with your plans?

Hello again,

Sorry for my late reply.

Ok, my current mortgage interest rate is 0.67% and I owe £30,000 on the mortgage. If I go with option 1 as above, and say the handling fee is 4.00%, how would I go about working out if this would be a beneficial option? Sorry, I'm hopeless at maths!

Also, couldn't I just get a 0% credit card (on purchases) and just call my mortgage company and ask them to take a payment (£3,600) from that credit card?

Regards, Paul

Newtoallthis_2

I might be wrong but...

option 1 -
The mortgage company would charge you 0.67% on the £3600 you'd pay off.
The cc company would charge you 4% on the £3600 you'd borrow.
So it doesn't sound like a quick stooze would be worth it..

Option 2 sound more complicated, but does sound like a way to get money out of this.

As to paying off the mortgage straight from the cc I'd check with your mortgage company first, as some companies won't take payment from a debt (cc) to cover this essential payment.

JimmyTheWig

Paul2010 wrote: »

Ok, my current mortgage interest rate is 0.67% and I owe £30,000 on the mortgage. If I go with option 1 as above, and say the handling fee is 4.00%, how would I go about working out if this would be a beneficial option? Sorry, I'm hopeless at maths!

Newtoallthis is spot on.
You'd lose out big time if you did this.
With this low mortgage rate, the last thing you want to be thinking about is physically paying it off.
I would be looking, in your situation, at moving to interest only and stoozing the repayment money.
PLEASE NOTE: While I say don't physically pay it off all I mean is don't pay money into the account unless you have to. Pay the money into a savings account instead with the intention of using the savings to pay off the mortgage when necessary.

Also, couldn't I just get a 0% credit card (on purchases) and just call my mortgage company and ask them to take a payment (£3,600) from that credit card?

This would be ideal, but most mortgage companies wouldn't let you.

hyl991

Credit cards enable their holders to obtain goods and services on credit. They are issued by retail stores, Banks, credit card companies to approved clients.

CannyJock

hyl991 wrote: »

Credit cards enable their holders to obtain goods and services on credit. They are issued by retail stores, Banks, credit card companies to approved clients.

Thanks for sharing. Look forward to more pearls of wisdom.

rakesh_2

Hey,

In the past, the Royal Mint used to do free P&P when buying £5 coins for £5. When using a cashback credit card some healthy profits could be made.

In the past few weeks I have been going on the Royal Mint website to see if they have the same offer...but so far nothing on the free P&P.

I rang the Customer Service department to find out if there were any offers on their delivery charges for the £5 coins. The Sales Rep did say that for every £4000 worth of £5 coins (thats 800 £5 coins) the delivery charge would be a fixed £10. So in my head, I was thinking If I used a MBNA Rewards card - "spending" £4000 equates to £20 cashback in Sainsbury's vouchers for example. So in effect you can make a profit of £10 (£20 Sainsbury's Voucher minus the fixed £10 delivery charge. Doing this on a daily basis could equate in making £70 profit per week in Sainsbury's Vouchers.....

So I asked the Rep on how I could proceed - I was then put forward to a Royal Mint Trade Rep who later said that if I wanted to purchase the coins on a regular basis I would have to set up a business account with themselves and that VAT would be charged every time!!! She did say however that I can reclaim the VAT back but @ that point I got a bit puzzled and said I would think about it....

So the question is: Is it possible to reclaim the VAT back? Would the Inland Revenue/HMRC accept this as a legitimate business when your really not selling anything - as you are essentially buying legal £5 and depositing them in a current account and then recycling the money again to buy more £5 coins? Or is it too complicated lol???