Cashback/Rewards v Slow Stoozing

Carnival789

With cashback rates being reduced in recent times I'm considering a different approach with my credit card purchases and switching to slow Stoozing (I think that's the correct term - putting purchases on to a 0% card and then paying the minimum until the 0% rate expires).

As well as better financial gains (hopefully) it would also make things simpler all round if everything was to go on the same card.

I'd be interested to hear from other slow stoozers about their experiences of doing this if you don't mind sharing.

Thanks in advance!

Quartermass

I had started to do this but I found the amount of money it was creating was really not large, and I'm more comfortable now with just paying off the full balance on everything every month - it feels neater.

If you're going to do it then you'll get about 9 months interest, on average, from everything you spend - assuming you take a card with 18 months 0%. You could perhaps open a new card every 6 months, and get between 18 and 12 months interest on everything - 15 months on average.

So it depends on the interest rate you can get. If you're able to get tax free interest - and the vast majority of people will be - then all you need to beat the cashback cards is about 1.5% credit interest which is very achievable. You should be able to get £300 a month into a regular saver at way more than this, if you're not already using one.

It will look poor on your credit file, particularly in contrast to using cards for everything and paying off in full every month.

YorkshireBoy

Quartermass wrote: »

You could perhaps open a new card every 6 months...

That's always been my approach with 0% on purchases cards.

It will look poor on your credit file, particularly in contrast to using cards for everything and paying off in full every month.

I wouldn't necessarily say "poor". Taking and repaying (by whatever method/amount) credit helps establish a credit history, and can (certainly in my experience) lead to higher limits in future.

OP, there's a couple of calculators here to help make a comparison...

Purchases: http://stoozing.com/calculator/purchase-calculator.php

Cashback: http://stoozing.com/calculator/cashback-calculator.php