Stoozing end of the line - Some Advice Please

sciennes

Hi

I have been stoozing for around 10 years, my current pot is £38K spread over 8 cards.

 I'm now finding new offers on my existing cards drying up. In the past I would empty a balance transfer card when it came to the end of its offer period, leave if for a few months and then a new attractive offer would pop up. I’ve an offer in from M&S bank today, but only for 9 months with a 3.9% fee, which does not seem worthwhile.

I’ve taken every offer I could have on 0% balance transfer cards on the market so there are no new ones I can see I can have - so if I was to continue it would be just a case of keeping existing cards and seeing if new offers arise. 

Interested to see what everyone else is finding.

 Also wondered if anyone knew if keeping hold of cards with a zero balance on them negatively affects your credit score - so maybe better to cancel some of the cards with nothing on them?

 

Thanks

 

 

MorningcoffeeIV

sciennes said:

Also wondered if anyone knew if keeping hold of cards with a zero balance on them negatively affects your credit score - so maybe better to cancel some of the cards with nothing on them?

Your score generally declines with any change, good or bad, but no one will ever know. Lenders will make up their own minds as to your risk.

Whether you should keep cards depends on the wider picture. Indebtedness, income, available credit, credit history etc.

A better reason for closing some accounts may be to take advantage of new customer offers further down the line but you need to look at your whole situation.

born_again

sciennes said:

Hi

I have been stoozing for around 10 years, my current pot is £38K spread over 8 cards.

 I'm now finding new offers on my existing cards drying up. In the past I would empty a balance transfer card when it came to the end of its offer period, leave if for a few months and then a new attractive offer would pop up. I’ve an offer in from M&S bank today, but only for 9 months with a 3.9% fee, which does not seem worthwhile.

I’ve taken every offer I could have on 0% balance transfer cards on the market so there are no new ones I can see I can have - so if I was to continue it would be just a case of keeping existing cards and seeing if new offers arise. 

Interested to see what everyone else is finding.

 Also wondered if anyone knew if keeping hold of cards with a zero balance on them negatively affects your credit score - so maybe better to cancel some of the cards with nothing on them?

 

Thanks

 

 

So you have a £38k debt?

I think you need to hit the debt board, unless you have the funds to pay them off.

While stoozing worked well in the past, the idea is still to pay off the debt on the card in the time frame of the 0% offer. Even ML advises this.

Many people found during covid that this gravy train had well & truly hit the buffers. Given high interest rates now. It's only getting worse.

sciennes

born_again said:

sciennes said:

Hi

I have been stoozing for around 10 years, my current pot is £38K spread over 8 cards.

 I'm now finding new offers on my existing cards drying up. In the past I would empty a balance transfer card when it came to the end of its offer period, leave if for a few months and then a new attractive offer would pop up. I’ve an offer in from M&S bank today, but only for 9 months with a 3.9% fee, which does not seem worthwhile.

I’ve taken every offer I could have on 0% balance transfer cards on the market so there are no new ones I can see I can have - so if I was to continue it would be just a case of keeping existing cards and seeing if new offers arise. 

Interested to see what everyone else is finding.

 Also wondered if anyone knew if keeping hold of cards with a zero balance on them negatively affects your credit score - so maybe better to cancel some of the cards with nothing on them?

 

Thanks

 

 

So you have a £38k debt?

I think you need to hit the debt board, unless you have the funds to pay them off.

While stoozing worked well in the past, the idea is still to pay off the debt on the card in the time frame of the 0% offer. Even ML advises this.

Many people found during covid that this gravy train had well & truly hit the buffers. Given high interest rates now. It's only getting worse.

I wouldnt be doing this unless I had the funds (plus a lot more) to pay these off.

SuperAllyB

sciennes said:

born_again said:

sciennes said:

Hi

I have been stoozing for around 10 years, my current pot is £38K spread over 8 cards.

 I'm now finding new offers on my existing cards drying up. In the past I would empty a balance transfer card when it came to the end of its offer period, leave if for a few months and then a new attractive offer would pop up. I’ve an offer in from M&S bank today, but only for 9 months with a 3.9% fee, which does not seem worthwhile.

I’ve taken every offer I could have on 0% balance transfer cards on the market so there are no new ones I can see I can have - so if I was to continue it would be just a case of keeping existing cards and seeing if new offers arise. 

Interested to see what everyone else is finding.

 Also wondered if anyone knew if keeping hold of cards with a zero balance on them negatively affects your credit score - so maybe better to cancel some of the cards with nothing on them?

 

Thanks

 

 

So you have a £38k debt?

I think you need to hit the debt board, unless you have the funds to pay them off.

While stoozing worked well in the past, the idea is still to pay off the debt on the card in the time frame of the 0% offer. Even ML advises this.

Many people found during covid that this gravy train had well & truly hit the buffers. Given high interest rates now. It's only getting worse.

I wouldnt be doing this unless I had the funds (plus a lot more) to pay these off.

Surely if the OP doesn't have the funds to pay this off then it is simply debt and not stoozing?

[Deleted User]

I would agree with that.

daivid

Currently I'm finding all is good - I'm getting the best limits I ever have and saving rates have made MTs appealing again. Whether I'll be able to continue when my 0% end in between 12 and 18 months time no-one knows. I have £26k across 5 cards - 2 0% no fee cards show good chance of acceptance currently and I need to shut a cleared Sainsbury's card to see if they will offer again.

daivid

sciennes said:

 Also wondered if anyone knew if keeping hold of cards with a zero balance on them negatively affects your credit score - so maybe better to cancel some of the cards with nothing on them? 

 

I had a clear-out and closed 4 such cards about 6 months ago as I wondered if my available credit may have been a negative. I kept a card I thought may have been of future use and one high limit card in order to keep overall utilisation below 25%. This approach is based on hunches and tips as opposed to any solid evidence but doesn’t seem to have done any harm at least. I also always close cards I expect to be of use when I become a 'new' customer - Sainsbury's for example have given me 0% no fee cards 4 times over the years.

Altior

Definitely with stoozing you need an exit strategy at all times, ie if no more BT's existed, hypothetically how would I unwind my position. There is the not completely impossible scenario of the credit system collapsing again. 

I touched on this on another thread, I also like to leave few card options open at all times. Fall back options. 

I don't know if this is the OPs situation, but as part of my stoozing portfolio I have opened some fixed interest cash bonds, which would not be debt technically, but if you can't access them, you can't pay a card off with that asset. A bond ladder is useful for such a scenario.

The OP could do provisional enquiries on banks and BS they have a relationship with already. Nationwide never showed up in an eligibility search for me, but I do my main banking with them currently. I got an 18mnt BT transfer with 1.5% fee, £10K, applying through my existing account. It was a soft search as well during the application.  

sciennes

daivid said:

sciennes said:

 Also wondered if anyone knew if keeping hold of cards with a zero balance on them negatively affects your credit score - so maybe better to cancel some of the cards with nothing on them? 

 

I had a clear-out and closed 4 such cards about 6 months ago as I wondered if my available credit may have been a negative. I kept a card I thought may have been of future use and one high limit card in order to keep overall utilisation below 25%. This approach is based on hunches and tips as opposed to any solid evidence but doesn’t seem to have done any harm at least. I also always close cards I expect to be of use when I become a 'new' customer - Sainsbury's for example have given me 0% no fee cards 4 times over the years.

Thanks for your interesting reply. Ironically the Sainsbury's card is one I was never accepted for, despite working for Sainsbury's Bank as a contractor for a time. Believe they have very tight lending criteria. Think I'm going to close pretty much all of my existing Balance Transfer cards down and give it a rest for a bit and then maybe take up the stooze in another few years time. 

daivid

sciennes said:

daivid said:

sciennes said:

 Also wondered if anyone knew if keeping hold of cards with a zero balance on them negatively affects your credit score - so maybe better to cancel some of the cards with nothing on them? 

 

I had a clear-out and closed 4 such cards about 6 months ago as I wondered if my available credit may have been a negative. I kept a card I thought may have been of future use and one high limit card in order to keep overall utilisation below 25%. This approach is based on hunches and tips as opposed to any solid evidence but doesn’t seem to have done any harm at least. I also always close cards I expect to be of use when I become a 'new' customer - Sainsbury's for example have given me 0% no fee cards 4 times over the years.

Thanks for your interesting reply. Ironically the Sainsbury's card is one I was never accepted for, despite working for Sainsbury's Bank as a contractor for a time. Believe they have very tight lending criteria. Think I'm going to close pretty much all of my existing Balance Transfer cards down and give it a rest for a bit and then maybe take up the stooze in another few years time. 

Forgot to give the context of how many cards, I think I have more than most: I keep 3 regular use cards (1 Amex, 1 Visa, 1 MC), will typically have 3-5 0% cards (mix of BT & Spending) with balances, then 2 cards I've hung onto as useful as mule cards (and in keeping utilisation % down) and finally whatever I've cleared but not yet closed. Currently I have 10 cards in total, when I went through my cards last I had 11. I can see myself struggling to recycle the stooze when my deals end but as my mortgage will be up for renewal 7months from then it will be a good time to shut down until after the new mortgage starts.