Stoozing......What should I do next?

nearlyrich

I have just been approved for a Virgin 0% for 9 months card with an £8k limit, last week I exchanged my GM card which I haven't used in 5 years for a Marbles card with the £10k limit transferred, they will give me a free BT in the first month of the card and it's 5 months 0%. I am currently building a balance on my Blue Egg Card and its up to about £5k on a £7k limit,0% on purchases offer ends in September. My Green Egg anniversary is also September and that has £7k too. I have around £4500 on a 12 month 0% BT Barclaycard which will become due in January. I have just cancelled my First Direct Gold card which had £5k as I know they will reinstate it at anytime if I need it and I have a RBS Tesco card which has a limit of £6500.(I am hoping they will make me an offer to keep me as I used to spend £1000-1500 each month till I started stoozing).I will close this if they won't and apply again at some point.

My question to all you expert stoozers is this:

What is the best use I can make of the new cards? I have enough savings in my Ing account and a FD Isa to cover what I owe, (about £9K) Barclays balance is reducing by about £100 per month which is not coming out of the stooze pot. If you need more info please ask!

realaledrinker

Best advice is to spend a couple of hours researching the subject -

https://www.stoozing.com

is the best place to start. Then repost.

The key is using your Virgin card as a 'Super Balance Transfer Card' to route your 0% deals into your current account and then onto a savings account. There are so many postings on this here on the board which refer to this - which suggests you are diving in too quickly without researching the subject first.

Wrong approach - anything other than a very methodical and diligent mindset will result in you coming to grief & being stung for charges & interest. In particular, if you miss a payment to Virgin, they will take the 0% deal away, leaving you with a large debit at a penal rate & nowhere to go.

nearlyrich

realaledrinker wrote:

Best advice is to spend a couple of hours researching the subject -

www.stoozing.com

is the best place to start. Then repost.

The key is using your Virgin card as a 'Super Balance Transfer Card' to route your 0% deals into your current account and then onto a savings account. There are so many postings on this here on the board which refer to this - which suggests you are diving in too quickly without researching the subject first.

Thanks for the reply....................................................

I have read and reread the articles on here and on the stoozing site, I think I understand my options but I was hoping someone with a bit more experience would take a look and make some suggestions about the best way to make the most of my new cards. I have been stoozing in a small way (just under £10K total)for about 11 months with no problems.

I need to pay off around £5k to Egg before 25th August...options are
1 transfer savings from ING ( why would I with option 2 available?)
2 BT from either Virgin or Marbles (now both have £10k unused, Virgin allows BT of £95%)

I then have my Green Egg anniversary on my other card which also has £7k, what I believe I can acheive is as follows:

Use £5k from Marbles to pay off Egg Blue and BT £5k into my current account to pay off my "overdraft". SBT £9500 from Virgin into my current account to pay off "loan 1" SBT £7000 from Egg Green into my Current account to pay off "loan 2".

("overdraft" "loan 1" and "loan 2" are figments of my imagination fortunately)

Transfer £21500 into my high interest savings account ASAP to make the most of the interest. I will pay Virgin £5 per month for 9 months, Marbles and Egg are both 5 month deals and I will need to pay around 2.6% of the balance per month, I can manage this without dipping in to the savings account.

In January I will have Marbles, Egg and Barclaycard all ending promo rate so I will need to find some more card offers, the options are First Direct, RBS, Co-Op, HBOS, Lloyds TSB where I currently don't have any useful cards. I will need to transfer about £19k to new cards or pay them off at this point.

I would like another 0% on purchases deal as I can claim my business expenses such as fuel, hotels etc monthly and keep it in savings for a while. Otherwise I will carry on using my Egg Blue for the cashback or my Tesco card for the points and pay it off monthly.(If I keep my Tesco card it will limit my options in January)

What I want to know is how do people with say £60k offsetting their mortgage manage to get such big credit limits? I have never had more than £10k limit on a card myself.

YorkshireBoy

nearlyrich wrote:

Thanks for the reply....................................................

I have read and reread the articles on here and on the stoozing site, I think I understand my options but I was hoping someone with a bit more experience would take a look and make some suggestions about the best way to make the most of my new cards. I have been stoozing in a small way (just under £10K total)for about 11 months with no problems.

I need to pay off around £5k to Egg before 25th August...options are
1 transfer savings from ING ( why would I with option 2 available?)
2 BT from either Virgin or Marbles (now both have £10k unused, Virgin allows BT of £95%)

I then have my Green Egg anniversary on my other card which also has £7k, what I believe I can acheive is as follows:

Use £5k from Marbles to pay off Egg Blue and BT £5k into my current account to pay off my "overdraft". SBT £9500 from Virgin into my current account to pay off "loan 1" SBT £7000 from Egg Green into my Current account to pay off "loan 2".

("overdraft" "loan 1" and "loan 2" are figments of my imagination fortunately)

Transfer £21500 into my high interest savings account ASAP to make the most of the interest. I will pay Virgin £5 per month for 9 months, Marbles and Egg are both 5 month deals and I will need to pay around 2.6% of the balance per month, I can manage this without dipping in to the savings account.

In January I will have Marbles, Egg and Barclaycard all ending promo rate so I will need to find some more card offers, the options are First Direct, RBS, Co-Op, HBOS, Lloyds TSB where I currently don't have any useful cards. I will need to transfer about £19k to new cards or pay them off at this point.

I would like another 0% on purchases deal as I can claim my business expenses such as fuel, hotels etc monthly and keep it in savings for a while. Otherwise I will carry on using my Egg Blue for the cashback or my Tesco card for the points and pay it off monthly.(If I keep my Tesco card it will limit my options in January)

I'm feeling really guilty now that you've had to answer your own post! I've looked at the post several times recently, but could never give it the attention to detail needed to offer you "good" advice. I've only been stoozing since April and, whilst I'm managing 8 stoozing cards at the moment, my situation isn't anywhere near as complicated as yours. Anyway, best of luck with whatever you do.

nearlyrich wrote:

What I want to know is how do people with say £60k offsetting their mortgage manage to get such big credit limits? I have never had more than £10k limit on a card myself.

My limits (excluding day-to-day credit card & overdraft - total £12K) are 182% of salary, but I've had a bit of luck along the way. Mrs YB, having never had her own CC before was up to 115% of salary within 2 months of starting. Jointly, we are around 157% of salary.

I've had to "talk up" 2 limits, and appealed a decline to get where I am. Mrs YB has had to "talk up" one of her cards, and in doing so, went from 100% to 115%. Other than that I must just have been really lucky, or a skilled negotiator! Second round stoozing early next year will see if I can maintain it. If not, then the £240 a month net interest I'm currently enjoying will drastically reduce.

nearlyrich

YorkshireBoy wrote:

Second round stoozing early next year will see if I can maintain it. If not, then the £240 a month net interest I'm currently enjoying will drastically reduce.

It's the second or maybe third round that gets really complicated, my view is it's great to get something for nothing, I hate paying interest and cc charges bank charges etc so to get them to lend you money for no effort is brilliant. My DH has just got into this in a small way too, we have always paid cc bills each month and it is a bit scary to see acc bill with a balance. It's nice to see the balance build up in the savings accounts though, with both of my children off to uni next month every penny counts.;)

Reaper

nearlyrich wrote:

What I want to know is how do people with say £60k offsetting their mortgage manage to get such big credit limits? I have never had more than £10k limit on a card myself.

Here's how. Until now some card providers have not always reported to the CRAs. For example LLoyds, HSBC/First Direct usually did not if you were an existing customer and you never made a payment late. This was great as it meant you had invisible stoozing which other lenders were not aware of, so you could borrow more. Unfortunately this has changed recently. See this thread.

Another way is to look for lenders which just use either Experian or Equifax. If they only get a report from one then again they may not be aware of the extent of your stoozing and will therefore be more willing to give you a card with a large limit. See this thread for info.

Finally - a partner is handy. With two people in the house you can both stooze. Make sure you always apply for individual not joint cards.