What do stoozers do with the money they gain?

smartsaver

Hi nh

To be honest I don't know how quickly these searches show up. Nationwide were very cautious (£1700) with our credit limit and turned down my husband
It is rumoured that First Direct don't credir search everyone. I'd hold fire on any more applications for a month or two or it may smack of desperation

nh

I agree, we won't be applying for any more for a bit! I think you are right about FD, because I have an account with them but it is not my main account although there is £4k stoozing money in there. When I applied they said they would give me £10k but I had to send them my bank statements.... so I did, but that was only yesterday. I assume they don't do a credit search then.

Smitty

problem is, this stoozing game is addictive. I went to log on to my online accounts tonight and realised I was not waiting for any payments to land in any accounts, everything is up to date, so now I want to apply for another CC ;D. However I need to remortgage in Aug 05, so I should really wind down my stoozing operations. Getting turned down for your choice mortgage deal can wipe out stoozed profit instantly . Why is life so hard!

deemy2004

Its 72 hours since I last replied, having withdrawl symptoms  ;D

Like others, Ive applied for too many recently so need to give it some months, also need to spend on the 12mth 0% spending ones too.

The ones I have in my sights for addition stoozing in a couple of months time are -

HSBC card - apparently offer a large limit
Virgin card - -0% and some gifts
Egg blue card - for expenditure
I'll also now make a note of First Direct

8)

Pricy147

I have been reading through these forum's for quite q while, and have picked up some nice tips.

I have always up until now kept stoozing quiet as obviously the more people that find out about it, the more chance CC companies will pull the plug.

I have been stoozing since early 2000, and have built up quite a lot of knowledge in the area, and saved/made a reasonable amount of money.

I am on a conervative salary (less than 30k) and have currently available credit on cards amounting to 67k, and growing. So the theory of 1.5 x your salary for total credit limit is not a top threshold. I would say you can definately go up to and possibly over 3 times your salary.

There are also many ways to maximise your savings/profit. Firstly if you have a mortgage, or loans - then offsetting is the way to go. I use Intelligent Finance for ease of use. I havent got my mortgage there, (wish I could - won't lend me the money!) but I have a 15k loan which has been offset with CC funds, and I have payed probably about 200 pounds interest in over three years. Mostly at the start when I wa transferring CC funds across. I have therefore saved £000s of interest purely on the loan. IF alo pay a reasonable 4.75% intrest gross on surplu funds. I currently have approx 62k on zero percent, so am receiving a monthly interest of around £150 p/m net.

From my experience, there are a number of key aspects to stoozing;

1) Do not do it if you require a mortgage or loan desperately. If you apply for many credit cards in a short space of time, it can have an adverse effect on you credit worthiness, and could impact you getting a loan.

2) The art to stoozing, is not applying for cards, taking advantage of the 0%, closing the card and re-applying. Doing this means A) you only take advantage of the card for 6/9 months (whatever the interest free period is) and you lose you credit limit, and are not guaranteed to get the card when you re-apply - if you can re-apply straight away! The key is to not close your card, but re-new the interest free period. This can be done in a number of ways from upgrading cards like LTSB Advance to Platinum, etc, or conversion of cards between Master and Visa. The others keys are to ALWAYS ask for a credit limit increase AFTER you pay off you balance BEFORE you renew the card. This way, you dont get re-applications on your credit file for cards, you keep and increase in some cases your credit limit, and renew your card that much quicker.

3) Maximise your interest - I have recently applied for the Egg Savers account @ 5.5% gross for 6 months.

What I would be interested to here from you guys is way in which you can increase your credit limits, and which cards offer the highest limits. I have now found I have almost hit a top threshold - i.e I have 11 cards, and most new applications are being turned down. I have gone banana's in the last few months with applications mind as I dont need any credit for a good few years.

I would also be interested to here any cards you have successfully merged (i.e. LTSB Advance + Create Cards can merge credit limits, etc)!

The cards I have found offer the highest limits are: LTSB (16k), Halifax (11k), Egg (13k) and MBNA (10k).

MBNA are very stern on increasing their limit further, however, HFAX, Egg and LTSB are still upping.

BTW - Does anyone know ways in which you can renew the Mint Card. My 8 month was up last week, and ave tried upgrades (they wont do it - you have to close first), merges with Royal Bank of Scotland (wont do it - seperate depts and cant merge limits - this works for some cards), and nicely asking or a new offer (none available at the moment). Anyone had any luck. I only got a 3k limit - but hate to see available credit going to waste!!!!

Hope this info i useful.......

Reaper

Loads of useful info there Pricy147, thanks. You have been stoozing for much longer than me so I hesitate to give any advice at all.

I agree it's worth trying to renew your card but if all else fails (as in the case of your Mint card) why not cancel it and apply for something else? In 6 months time you can try re-applying for the Mint. 6 months seems to be the period of time for most companies after which you are considered a new applicant again.

Another reason for doing this is that you have 11 cards. My friend hit real problems when she reached 10 and that seems to be the experience of others too. So maybe it is time to lose some of the smaller ones if they won't renew. Or if you have a partner get them to take out cards as well (not joint ones).

You can postpone the card limit by checking which credit reference agency the companies use. Look for the thread started by Gal on this board as he was putting together a list. Also HSBC, First Direct and LTSB apparently do not tell any credit reference agencies that you have a credit card unless you miss payments.

I don't think I can really say much else as I'm sure you know more about the subject than me!

mary

2) The art to stoozing, is not applying for cards, taking advantage of the 0%, closing the card and re-applying.  Doing this means A) you only take advantage of the card for 6/9 months (whatever the interest free period is) and you lose you credit limit, and are not guaranteed to get the card when you re-apply - if you can re-apply straight away!  The key is to not close your card, but re-new the interest free period.  This can be done in a number of ways from upgrading cards like LTSB Advance to Platinum, etc, or conversion of cards between Master and Visa.   The others keys are to ALWAYS ask for a credit limit increase AFTER you pay off you balance BEFORE you renew the card. [/b] This way, you dont get re-applications on your credit file for cards, you keep and increase in some cases your credit limit, and renew your card that much quicker.

I'm a mere newcomer compared to your years of experience.

Do you ask for a credit limit increase a few days both (1)after you have transferred the debt to another card and (2) when you simply make a straight repayment to the credit card company?

Pricy147

The best time to ask for a credit limit increase is straight after your intoductory offer has ended and you have payed off the card in full. This means you have a zero balance - therefore the card issuer can see you can/have repayed the debt, and is more likely to increase your limit rather than when you card is maxed!

mary

I'll put it in my notebook. Thanks

smartsaver

I am on a conervative salary (less than 30k) and have currently available credit on cards amounting to 67k, and growing.  
There are also many ways to maximise your savings/profit.  Firstly if you have a mortgage, or loans - then offsetting is the way to go.  

Wow that is a huge stooze pot compared to salary! I feel I am lagging behind with a joint income of 55k and only 87k stoozed :-[ Mybe I'll apply for some more.

We are thinking of changing to a flexible mortgage with Brittania - will throw the stooze pot into that. Is there a margin that has to be left between mortgage and savings?