Is it worth the hassle?

Frudd

jamesd wrote: »

Personally I quite like the extra £5,000+ of income a year that I get from stoozing into P2P.

If you dont mind me asking, what kind of 'Stooze pot' do you have to generate that income and how long did it take to get you to this point?

Tell me mto mind my own business if you like.

jamesd

I recon on 10% or more per year in interest from P2P after allowing for possible bad debt but need to allow some margin for card fees. That means a stooze pot of at least £50,000 and it's not as high as £75,000. I started stoozing in around 2008 when I still had a limited time showing in my credit history. I have about £8k of available BT/MT scope on my cards that I'll soon use for VCT buying, which delivers around 9-10% tax exempt in dividends.

I continue to get regular credit limit increases from cards that I've held a while. Highest single card limits are around £17k and £15k from Barclaycard and MBNA which are both known for offering generous limits. Most recent completely new card was Halifax starting at £2.5k about eighteen months ago. All the cards started out at limits way below the highest, a few thousand typically.

In part it's a time game to get higher limits, with pre-requisites that you maintain a perfect on time payment record and use a substantial portion of your available credit.

Eligibility checkers like the one from MSE now generally give me low chances of acceptance, including for cards that use quotation searches. They are probably right. And I've no need to be unhappy about it. For a stoozer credit records are there to make money and having high acceptance chances would mean I'm under-utilising my potential amount of credit.

TheShape

jamesd

Are you making applications for new BT cards or are you just using offers that become available through the cards you already hold? What sort of offers do you receive?

With a stooze pot <£7k I'll be making use of no fee BT offers for some time but I'm already thinking about my long-term stooze strategy.

jamesd

2.5-3.5% for 12-15 months is fairly typical. Life of balance at maybe 4-7%. Mixture of BT and MT. Not profitable with savings accounts but it works for P2P. Most recent Barclaycard offer in Feb was 2.9% until 1 May 2018, BT and MT. A November MBNA offer was 3.5% BT or 4% MT until Jan 2018 statement, or either at 4.9% LOB.

Pondering whether to do a new application before using my available unused limits, haven't decided.

Frudd

[QUOTE=._I_have_about_£8k_of_available_BT/MT_scope_on_my_cards_that_I'll_soon_use_for_VCT_buying,_which_delivers_around_9-10%_tax_exempt_in_dividends..[/QUOTE]


Thanks for that, what is VCT buying?

jamesd

Venture Capital Trusts offer 30% income tax relief capped at tax due for the year on their purchase price. They can also pay tax exempt dividends. The initial tax relief has to be repaid if you sell within five years.