Not happy with stoozong experiance.

Clariman

I am surprised that nobody else seemed to advocate fighting this issue with the issuer. If you are going to stooze, you need to be melodramatic, frankly! You need to jump on anything that even hints at affecting your credit rating

I don't think you need to be "melodramatic" to stooze. Far from it. You need to be measured. Steps for a new stoozer should be
* Research (the concept, the cards available, Ts & Cs etc)
* Plan (select your cards & your savings account, write out steps, diary dates etc)
* Get feedback on plan (from stoozing discussion boards)
* Execute Plan
* Constantly have a meticulous attention to detail

If you do that, you won't go far wrong. Melodrama has no place in stoozing - planning does.

Clariman

stevemcol

Though magicdogsbrain hasn't picked a good card for stoozing (it would be ideal for slow stoozing), I think the level of general criticism is a bit harsh. It is reasonable that the CS correctly calculate the amount of balance transfer available. I've done dozens of cards and never yet found the need to second guess the initial BT amount.
MgcDgsBrn, assuming you haven't spent on this card (never do that unless you plan to slow stooze) and have made your repayments on time, you should raise a fuss until they have apologised and corrected THEIR mistake.

Then do a bit more careful research on how to make a profit from Stoozing.

midnite

Have read this thread with interest particularaly as I'm a new stoozer. As I think has been pointed out the key to getting it right is alot upfront research, effort, patience and planning so that you fully understand what is required and what to avoid. A brief summary of my experience:-

• Spent a couple of weeks reading this board and the guide's in MSE as well as looking at stoozing.com
• Decided on my first card (Virgin) and prepared a set of questions
• Rang the CS dept and got my questions answered.
• Applied for the card on-line and obtained my credit limit and calculated how much BT I could obtain.
• Decided on the high interest accounts I would use
• used the calculators to work out my profit.
• Researched interest rate calculations and produced my own spreadsheet and calculated profit again and the breakeven point (just in case the money had to be paid back in a rush)
• Set up the BT to my current account along with the direct debit for the minimum payments
• Set up my high interest accounts (this took longer than expected)
• Moved the money into my savings accounts
• Have a year planner for this year and next clearly highlighting when my BT period ends and also highlighting 6 weeks before hand so I have time to move money. Also set up reminders in outlook.
• All details of cards and accounts I have in paper filing systems which I have been through with my wife so she undertstands it all and can run things or get things paid back if necessary. Have also set it all up in my home accounts package so I can keep an electronic record of it all.
• My first DD has now been paid as expected and am now waiting for my first lot of interest to come through to validate my calculations.

Now yes you can see I put a lot of effort and time in, however I see this as my learning curve and my initial investment into fully learning stoozing to make sure I get it right. Probably not really any more effort than you may put in if you are making a reasaonably large purchase on items for your house or a car, i.e. you want to make sure you get it right.

Now that I have done this and I proove everything works then it is simply a case of ramping things up with more cards which will take much less effort, it will then become a maintenance task in my mind which should take only a fraction of the time to keep things going on a monthly basis.

A long post I know but helpful for some people I hope.

magicdogsbrain

midnite wrote: »

Have read this thread with interest particularaly as I'm a new stoozer. As I think has been pointed out the key to getting it right is alot upfront research, effort, patience and planning so that you fully understand what is required and what to avoid. A brief summary of my experience:-

• Spent a couple of weeks reading this board and the guide's in MSE as well as looking at stoozing.com
• Decided on my first card (Virgin) and prepared a set of questions
• Rang the CS dept and got my questions answered.
• Applied for the card on-line and obtained my credit limit and calculated how much BT I could obtain.
• Decided on the high interest accounts I would use
• used the calculators to work out my profit.
• Researched interest rate calculations and produced my own spreadsheet and calculated profit again and the breakeven point (just in case the money had to be paid back in a rush)
• Set up the BT to my current account along with the direct debit for the minimum payments
• Set up my high interest accounts (this took longer than expected)
• Moved the money into my savings accounts
• Have a year planner for this year and next clearly highlighting when my BT period ends and also highlighting 6 weeks before hand so I have time to move money. Also set up reminders in outlook.
• All details of cards and accounts I have in paper filing systems which I have been through with my wife so she undertstands it all and can run things or get things paid back if necessary. Have also set it all up in my home accounts package so I can keep an electronic record of it all.
• My first DD has now been paid as expected and am now waiting for my first lot of interest to come through to validate my calculations.

Now yes you can see I put a lot of effort and time in, however I see this as my learning curve and my initial investment into fully learning stoozing to make sure I get it right. Probably not really any more effort than you may put in if you are making a reasaonably large purchase on items for your house or a car, i.e. you want to make sure you get it right.

Now that I have done this and I proove everything works then it is simply a case of ramping things up with more cards which will take much less effort, it will then become a maintenance task in my mind which should take only a fraction of the time to keep things going on a monthly basis.

A long post I know but helpful for some people I hope.

Very informative post midnite. I think I do most of these steps – maybe not to the same level of detail – but in essence at least.

As people have said before the card that caused me to rant a little at the beginning of this thread is not great for stoozing – but it was part of three cards (HSBC, Virgin and Halifax). I had slow stoozed from a saisburys card and wanted to LOB instead of pay it off – then use Virgin and Halifax as my initial stooze cards ( Virgin for fast and Halifax for slow). I will get an egg money card so that I can fast stooze with other cards in three months when my credit file has settled.

FTW as a follow up – I received a letter – they are crediting me with £25 to my account for the “inconvenience”.