Experian and my large 0% balance

derek99b

I suspect someone is blocking my activities, probably Experian.  I have about £40,000 credit on about 7 cards all at 0%.  
I have £42,000 cash in the bank to service that debt.  
I am disciplined and making about £110 per month in interest on my 0% balances.  I have never missed a payment, though did make one minor slip up and went over my credit limit on Halifax One Card by about £120.  I paid off the excess within 10 days, and Halifax have refunded the £25 fee, so they seem happy. I have about 10 other inactive cards. I have impecable credit history, with 30 years house owner, job and never moved. I'm so simple and secure it's unbelievable.
Over the past 6 weeks, I have been refused cards by Abbey, Lloyds TSB and Asda.  I have written to Abbey and Lloyds for an explanation, as yet no reply.  Asda sent me a form to fill in that they would submit to Experian, so that I could see the reasons for refusal.  Three weeks on and there has been no response.
I have used experian's web site twice to try to get an online report, both times the resultant reply was that they could not provide a report at the moment.  Two days ago ,I have phoned their telephone service, which turned out to be an automated response system, paid the £2.50 fee and the system says it takes 2 days to process then they send the reply by 2nd Class post.
I have tried to create an internet account with telecom Plus, but their 2 hour set up time is now at some 130 hours, and I suspect they have credit checked me and come up with a negative.

Joe_Bloggs

@Derek99b
You may have overloaded the abilities of experian for them to display your report via the web. This has happened before but I cannot remember the forum member concerned.
Is there any way that you can close the unused credit cards to your advantage. Perhaps you can get the credit limits transfered to active cards on the agreement that the old card is closed. This does require researching the organisations behind the brand names.
J_B.
The Macs card looks a winner.

Tr@cker

Im not a stoozer, i wouldn't consider it worth all the bother for what £27.50 a week ? Though i suppose some people 'get off' on beating the system, even for a small amount.
I have taken advantage of numerous 0% deals though in the past couple of year's and just by doing this. One company (MBNA) wanted to charge me for a BT.
This is the way they're going i reckon. If they think you're shifting money around regularly.

cloud_dog

Im not a stoozer, i wouldn't consider it worth all the bother for what £27.50 a week ?

An extra £1430 (net) or £2000 (gross) per annum is quite a useful thing (wish I had your life)

You are right though, stoozing's not for everyone, suppose it depends on your effort / reward threshold.

Sounds like you are sort-of stoozing as you utilise 0% offers and I assume you do ordinary BT as one offer expires onto the next.

Enjoy spending their money, cloud_dog ;D

Shinds

Im not a stoozer, i wouldn't consider it worth all the bother for what £27.50 .

I'm sorry but money is money - If u were getting charged and something was costing you £27.50 a week, I bet you'd feel that..! 8)

deemy2004

Im not a stoozer, i wouldn't consider it worth all the bother for what £27.50 a week ?  Though i suppose some people 'get off' on beating the system, even for a small amount.

Small amount ? £27 a week ? £117 per month ? £1403 per year ?. You need savings of at least £28k to generate £27 per week. What's more is that 28k would lose value due to inflation, whereas your gaining value because the debt your repaying at the end of the stoozed period has been devalued because of inflation !

Anyway, as you progress through the stoozing ranks, you will get more and more sophisticated in your stoozing,

My long-term plan is to buy a house, part cash, and part a mortgage entirely offset against stoozed cash, so I pay no interest on the mortgage - Now that's what I call saving more than a few pennies

i.e.
50k stoozed cash = a saving of £3000 in interest per year on mortgage. Where also the value of the stoozed balance outstanding at the end of each year is being eroded by inflation.

Tr@cker

Fair enough if your'e doing well out of it. But i reckon it can become a bit of an obsession-and they're on your case. Once they start sharing data the game could be up. Im only here temporary, got myself into a bit of debt and this place has some very useful tips.
It must be comforting and helpful to some of the desparate cases ive seen on here.
As soon as im out of debt, i'll shred the cards forever-i actually HATE them.

Tim_L

They already do share data via the credit reference agencies. But since I have the money to cover the debt I'm not really bothered when the lenders stop giving me credit. I'll just pay off the balance and stop.

Stoozing is no hassle at all. It takes me about 20 minutes a month to make minimum payments (manually) and to check my list of account closure dates. The money I make (indeed have made) will more than pay for my endowment shortfall when compounded over the rest of my mortgage term, and it's all free. So it's well worth the very small amount of work involved.

Talos_2

I have used experian's web site twice to try to get an online report, both times the resultant reply was that they could not provide a report at the moment.

Had the same problem recently with Experian. Applied on line for a full report, but it would not complete it, just said contact the office. When i phoned, the good lady on the other end refunded my money and said they would post a report.
When i recieved it, i wasn't surprised it crashed online.
It was rather long!

MarkyMarkD

Same happened with my online report so I got a printed one for free - and that was quite long

hopefulfooluk

Ditto. 48 pages!!! It came in two envelopes!