Are you hot (financially)?

Former_MSE_Faye

Test whether mortgage, credit card, energy and other firms want you enough to give you the best deals...

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'Are you hot (financially)?'

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Pincher

999 out of 999.

Is that good? :A

jamesd

No, 999 means that you're not exploiting the potential of your credit record to maximise your gains.

To be hot financially would mean things like using your credit record to make money via such things as stoozing. And those things reduce the potential credit score.

My scores for the last few years are typically in the poor to fair borderline range, with which I'm making around £5-6,000 a year via associated cards and P2P and other stoozing, after allowing for potential bad debts and costs.

I could have higher scores but that would just mean that I'm throwing potential money away.

There are times when that sort of things is not appropriate, like if someone just isn't inclined to do it or when about to get a new long term mortgage, where higher scores can save money.

Pincher

jamesd wrote: »

To be hot financially would mean things like using your credit record to make money via such things as stoozing. And those things reduce the potential credit score.

I usually have around £15k 0% deals in play.

In fact, I was beginning to get rejections because I had too many credit cards. Dipped from 999 for a couple of months, but it's back to 999 now.

Roughly speaking, the four Regular Savers and the Nationwide FlexDirect is funded by 0% money.

The most hilarious was the TESCO 0% BT money making 3% in a TESCO current account.

MallyGirl

jamesd wrote: »

My scores for the last few years are typically in the poor to fair borderline range, with which I'm making around £5-6,000 a year via associated cards and P2P and other stoozing, after allowing for potential bad debts and costs.

I could have higher scores but that would just mean that I'm throwing potential money away.

Just the same here

jamesd

Pincher wrote: »

I usually have around £15k 0% deals in play. ... In fact, I was beginning to get rejections because I had too many credit cards. Dipped from 999 for a couple of months, but it's back to 999 now.

Maybe I'm pushing harder than you on the money making, since I have used limits currently that are higher than my gross base salary.* Though not higher than my total income, if pension contributions that I can stop at any time are disregarded. Even without using the investment money I could just cut down the pension contributions and clear the cards in a year.

Card counts is interesting. The cards that I have outside their initial deal term are giving me interesting enough repeat deals to keep me around. Not as good as new card deals might be, but nicely profitable.

Pincher wrote: »

The most hilarious was the TESCO 0% BT money making 3% in a TESCO current account.

That's a fun one. Always amusing to have a bank paying you interest on money they are providing to you at no charge.

*For others: don't do this unless you have lots of money available, it's high enough for a person to get into serious trouble if they couldn't repay quickly from savings and investments or income! What I can safely do now after years of saving a lot and accumulating money is very different from what I could safely do when getting started.

EssexHebridean

jamesd wrote: »

No, 999 means that you're not exploiting the potential of your credit record to maximise your gains.

To be hot financially would mean things like using your credit record to make money via such things as stoozing. And those things reduce the potential credit score.

My scores for the last few years are typically in the poor to fair borderline range, with which I'm making around £5-6,000 a year via associated cards and P2P and other stoozing, after allowing for potential bad debts and costs.

I could have higher scores but that would just mean that I'm throwing potential money away.

There are times when that sort of things is not appropriate, like if someone just isn't inclined to do it or when about to get a new long term mortgage, where higher scores can save money.

You've not read the article, have you?

I suspect this thread was posted to provoke discussion on/raise awareness of the article which MSE Faye has linked to, rather than for people to parade how good their rating is, or how much money they are making from this, that or the other stoozing game.

Martin has always said of stoozing - it is not for everyone - and so for one person, a "score" of 999, with a high (95% plus) likehood of acceptance for a range of products, may be of more value to them. For someone planning on using a 0% interest card to finance a big ticket purchase, while the money to cover the cost of said purchase sits in a high interest savings account, a lower score as a result of lots of activity through stoozing, for example, wouldn't be helpful to them.

If people have not yet signed up to the credit club it is well worth doing so as an easy way to get a "snapshot" of how they appear to financial institutions.

Anthorn

On Aqua Advance the article fails to recognise that the APR reduces by 5% a year and is better for those who cannot get a Prime credit card and are rebuilding or building credit over the medium term.

Overall, the article fails to ask and answer the question, "Why do we need credit?" The article basically substitutes "want" for "need" so that we are encouraged to get credit just for the sake of getting credit!

Lastly the artice fails to elaborate on why we need to pay off the full balance on credit cards every month. That originated on MSE related to high APR cards and the balance was paid off every month to avoid high interest. But now we are told that we should pay off the full balance every month in order to build a decent credit history. But all paying off the full balance every month does is to tell lenders that we are avoiding interest and they are not going to make even a penny in profit if they give us a card.

Overall, a pedantic article which does not provide any proof as to its accuracy whatsoever. I expect more than that from MSE!

TheShape

Pincher wrote: »

The most hilarious was the TESCO 0% BT money making 3% in a TESCO current account.

And you can see 6k earning that 3% on the same internet banking page as their 0% 'loan' that they've given you:beer:

sourcrates

EssexHebridean wrote: »

You've not read the article, have you?

I suspect this thread was posted to provoke discussion on/raise awareness of the article which MSE Faye has linked to, rather than for people to parade how good their rating is, or how much money they are making from this, that or the other stoozing game.

Martin has always said of stoozing - it is not for everyone .

Hell once I got rid of my debt I never wanted, or needed credit again.

I still stand by that philosophy.

Banks, money lenders, credit scores, more crooked than the !!!!!, stay well clear !!!

Pincher

sourcrates wrote: »

Banks, money lenders, credit scores, more crooked than the !!!!!, stay well clear !!!

You need to keep a repayment history active, so they have some credit history to look at when you want a mortgage.

It costs nothing to do your grocery and fuel by card.
And you can get some cashback on top.

Play the game, pretend to be a law abiding citizen by day.
Plot to overthrow western civilisation by night.

When I am emperor, who dares to credit score me? :cool: