Stoozing: Make Free Cash from Credit Cards article discussion

caveman38

I asked this question on a previous thread without any response.


Would this MBNA CC serve as a "Mule" card if your happy to pay 0.5% transfer fee https://www.mbna.co.uk/compare-credit-cards/balance-transfer-credit-cards/mbna-five/
I can't get to the T&C to delve deeper.
Anyone use it for that purpose.


I cannot see another that states that it is happy to transfer money although it doesn't state positive balances, I assume that it would.

buyhighselllow

Hi
Need to check here. I have 15 k over 3 cards at 0% with a minimum monthly payment totaling c £225 / month. I'm running out of decent savings options over the next few months. I'm finding the £225/month minimum payment a bit of hit of late, and with a return that is going to dwindle below 4% I struggling to see this is a worthwhile venture any more. About half of this 15k is from deliberate stoozing on a Sainsbury credit card, the other half was accrued to ease the strain of several large purchases,

I could now pay these down over the next few months and am struggling to see I'm really making anything out of this anymore..any advice ?

TheShape

buyhighselllow wrote: »

Hi
Need to check here. I have 15 k over 3 cards at 0% with a minimum monthly payment totaling c £225 / month. I'm running out of decent savings options over the next few months. I'm finding the £225/month minimum payment a bit of hit of late, and with a return that is going to dwindle below 4% I struggling to see this is a worthwhile venture any more. About half of this 15k is from deliberate stoozing on a Sainsbury credit card, the other half was accrued to ease the strain of several large purchases,

I could now pay these down over the next few months and am struggling to see I'm really making anything out of this anymore..any advice ?

Where have you put the stoozed funds? If you've got £15k of stoozed funds in cash you could be paying the £225 from this if you can't pay it from income, or have you invested/otherwise tied-up the funds? Of course, if some of the spending was for larger purchases not budgeted for you may not have the full £15k but you should still have approx half of this from your 'deliberate' stooze.

As to the return, I put your numbers (£225 flat monthly payment for simplicity) into the calculator below. Your return at a savings rate of 3% should be in excess of £400 for the next 12 months.

http://stoozing.com/calculator/stoozcalc.php

asc1991

So, I'm coming to the end of my card 0% purchase period after which I will transfer the balance to a card with 0% on transfers for 28 months and 0% transfer fee.

However I'm still £500 short of my credit limit. Sadly withdrawing cash isn't cost efficient on a credit card, however buying Amazon vouchers is. Amazon vouchers last a long time and I probably spend a couple of hundred there a year.

I just wondered what other tactics people use to fully utilise their credit limit when nearing the end of the offer period?

TheShape

asc1991 wrote: »

So, I'm coming to the end of my card 0% purchase period after which I will transfer the balance to a card with 0% on transfers for 28 months and 0% transfer fee.

However I'm still £500 short of my credit limit. Sadly withdrawing cash isn't cost efficient on a credit card, however buying Amazon vouchers is. Amazon vouchers last a long time and I probably spend a couple of hundred there a year.

I just wondered what other tactics people use to fully utilise their credit limit when nearing the end of the offer period?

I made some extra spending to get the full monthly cashback on my TSB 0% purchase card recently. I won't be needing to buy any more cat food for a while.

ironagedave

OK I just wanted to check this is stoozing before trying this out:

Step one: apply for BT interest free say 4k to transfer assuming you get the card
Step two: credit a currently held credit card which has a 0 balance.
Step three: credit card now in credit so transfers to current account and then put money in ISA,
Step four: set up to DD plan to repay credit card within twelve months.

Effectively giving you a years advance on ISAs each financial year. Just coming out of debt so looking to save again. Is it worth it?

MallyGirl

make sure you are putting a card in credit that is happy to be a mule - such as MBNA. otherwise you risk having the transfer bounced back but still costing you the fee (if there is one)

YorkshireBoy

ironagedave wrote: »

OK I just wanted to check this is stoozing before trying this out:

Step one: apply for BT interest free say 4k to transfer assuming you get the card
Step two: credit a currently held credit card which has a 0 balance.
Step three: credit card now in credit so transfers to current account and then put money in ISA,
Step four: set up to DD plan to repay credit card within twelve months.

Effectively giving you a years advance on ISAs each financial year. Just coming out of debt so looking to save again. Is it worth it?

Why an ISA? You'd probably get 4-5 times the return using Nationwide products.

And why repay in 12 months when you should have 28 months 0%?

ironagedave

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Why an ISA? You'd probably get 4-5 times the return using Nationwide products.

And why repay in 12 months when you should have 28 months 0%?

A) the other rates will only give you net and all offers are variable with interest rates consistently dropping and although ISAs are equally variable, they are less likely to get a hit should rates drop further, I prefer reliability.
12 months so it is affordable and I can do the same next financial year as well rather than risk getting behind on repayments every year because in 4 to 5 years time you will have overlapped 5 times a month on repayments. Doesn't mean I couldn't go for a 28 month one, just my intention is to clear it by the end of the financial year.

MallyGirl

I don't think you are going to make much money this way