Death of Stoozing ?

johnllew

However, I too have told loads of people about the benefits and so far not one has been converted.

Some can be - my 75 year old mum has been doing it under my guidance for a while now.

I can't remember seeing a 0% card a few years back.  Out of interest, Can anyone remember who and when the first 0% card arrived?

The first extended 0% deal that I took out, if my records are correct, was with Egg in February 2001. That was quickly followed by ones with Providian, Associates & MBNA.

westernpromise

Apologies if posted elsewhere, but the front page of the Express today is about a proposal - commented on by our own Martin - to limit us to 6 cards apiece:-

http://www.express.co.uk/

My initial reaction was that this was bad news for the likes of us but on reflection I think it is possibly good.

If creditworthy customers like us really are to be limited to 6 cards, then the providers are going to have to try a lot harder to persuade us to make their card one of the 6.

Robert_Sterling_3

I think this might eventually happen but not  in the next million years.
If it does happen then for starters many of us will have six of our own and our partner will have a further six.

It is somewhat facile to limit the number of cards rather than the Total Amount of Credit per Household as a ratio of the Total Amount of Income of a Household.

Why not make the max number of cards TWO and max credit per card £200?


Better still BAN all Credit Cards and allow Debit Cards Only.

Ban all loans except property purchase loans.
Set a maximum interest rate allowable on loans [ E.G. Base Rate + 3% ] to deter Loan Sharks.

cafenervosa_2

I think as long as there is plenty of competition then the 0% offers will stick around. I would like to think so because its a good way for pulling in the cutomers.

Robert_Sterling_3

Free beer might well pull customers into the MSA Arms what you need is something to keep them there.

cafenervosa_2

Free beer might well pull customers into the MSA Arms what you need is something to keep them there.

I said pulling in the customers, not the pints! ;D

Talos_2

I cant see 0% deals ending soon.
When I took out my first credit card some 20 years ago, people didnt swap cards, as the only advantage was maybe a slightly lower rate and if i remember there were not too many cards available then.

With the amount of competition in the CC market, I think they still make enough money from the uninitiated to worry about the few.

Maybe they will target individuals with the largest stooze pot, just like the record industry is targeting free downloaders, except of course one is legal and the other is not

smartsaver

Maybe they will target individuals with the largest stooze pot, just like the record industry is targeting free downloaders, except of course one is legal and the other is not

Not sure how they'll know who has the biggest stooze pot

Martinslovechild

"Piling in"?

I'm not sure about that, I have personally tried to convince many people of the benefits but so far I have not managed to convince one person to actually do anything about it.

Galstonian - you are SOOOO right!!  I've been trying (and mainly failing) in this respect for about 3 years now, although I did have some minor successes initially - getting my Dad to sign up for an Egg card and change his gas & electricity supplier, but as for others - I may as well have said that I wanted to rob them of their cash and spit in their face!!

I even cited an example to my Mother-In-Law (who still isn't convinced after 3 years by the way!!) of how she would feel if she lost her purse containing £100 in the centre of her town.  Naturally, she said that she would feel very unhappy.  I then explained to her that she is effectively 'giving' this amount away year-on-year to British Gas rather than changing to a cheaper provider.  Asked how she felt about that, she commented "I'm happy with British Gas".

Happy?  I would be livid if somebody told me this!!! >:(

This site gave me my stoozer cruiser badge and I certainly won't be looking back.  Like others here, I can't see the offers disappearing overnight and I think we'd know about it pretty quickly if they did, but presently, the offers are improving rather than disappearing (12 months Barclaycard, 12 months Lloyds Advance, 18 months Capital One).  Yes - they may be charging 2% or asking us to make a purchase, but we're always there finding a loophole.

I say - the party's not over yet!!

wuly78

I think as long as there is plenty of competition then the 0% offers will stick around.  I would like to think so because its a good way for pulling in the cutomers.

I totally agree with Col. I have been getting so called pre-approved 0% BT letters from a number of banks every week. I cannot see it will come to an end so if they are still pushing so hard.