Stoozing newbie- help

Khaderbhai

Hi

Looking at starting stoozing but I am not sure if the sums add up at the moment.

Looks like I would be eligible for 0% credit cards for approx £3-5k limit for 18-24 months. Plugged those figures into the stoozing calculator and looks the profit would be similar to earning cash back with say a Chase debit card over a year. Not sure if I am doing something wrong as the balance transfer part confuses me (no balance to transfer at present).

Would be handy to get a second opinion on this and if I am missing something.

thanks

PloughmansLunch

You'll need at least two cards - either a money transfer card i.e. Halifax Clarity to put funds into savings, then quickly pay off with a separate balance transfer card to keep the MT interest as low as possible, or have been using a 0% purchase card for a while (offsetting what you would have paid for the purchases from your income/current account into savings) to build up a balance in the first place.

You can also do multiple money transfers and keep transferring the balance within the BT 0% promotional time period if you have a fairly low limit on the Halifax card.

NorwichMan

Around about August/September I was able to stooze and put a lot of the pot into an ISA fixed at 5.75% AER for a year (can still withdraw in an emergency, but lose the interest). The rest is in the best easy access accounts I can find. I am expecting a profit of over £1k, maybe up to £1.5k depending on what happens to rates in 2024. But my total stooze pot is about £23k.

If I was starting right now, with a pot of £3-5k and the ISA rates (and savings interest rates in general) lower than they were, I don't think I would bother. You might make a few hundred pounds over 18-24 months (watch out for fees and minimum payments), but there is uncertainty with interest rates. If you just wanted to try it for the experience then that could make sense.

Khaderbhai

Thanks thats helpful. Seems like a bit of snowball effect if you build the pot up but takes time

grumbler

'Slow' stoozing -  one card with 0% on shopping can have about the same (relative) profitabliliyty because there are no fees inolved (unlike with most BT cards).
With easy-access savings and with 24-month 0% on spending the profit  you can get is about 5% of the total amount spent - against 1% Chase cashback. This assumes that the savings rates remain at about 5%, that admittedly is a too optimistic assumption, but there are regular savings account that pay currently up to 8% and are ideal for slow stoozing

daivid

The faster way is with a money transfer card and a balance transfer card. Use the MT card (one that charges no fee) to release funds into a decent savings account (keeping enough in instant access to service minimum payments) then immediately BT ideally with a no fee 0% card to minimise any interest charged by the MT card. Profit of just over 5% is doable with access to best buy cards and providing no tax is incurred on interest. If you are new to all this though, you may not get offered the cards and limits needed to make a big profit - no harm in trying eligibility checkers though.