Carry on stoozing or cash out?

Bossworld · 1 August 2018 at 10:55PM

Looking for some advice although this might be one no one can definitively answer.

I had a three year sharesave scheme from work, which has just returned around a 2k profit. Around two years ago, shortly after moving house, I took advantage of a Virgin Money money transfer offer (believe it cost me about £110 to ‘borrow’ £5.5k). We won a couple of £25s on the Premium Bonds, and having the money up front meant we were able to replace the boiler without taking out a loan, so I’m not worried about the other £60 of the ‘fee’.

My original plan was always to settle the c/c balance with the Sharesave money, but I’m wondering if I should look to the 27 month 0% balance transfer deal with Santander, instead?

The risk being this time, I don’t necessarily have a full balance repayment vehicle set up for 27 months time, so I’d be partially reliant on finding another balance transfer deal at that point.

I have one other C/C with a balance, which is a 31 month 0 fee on purchases card, contra-ing another sharesave I have that matures in two years’ time. On this scheme, my only return will be the profit on the shares - the base money will need to clear the C/C accrued balance.

Tl;dr - it takes a long time to build up a stoozed balance - should I look to keep it rolling or clear it completely?

We still have a lot of house renovation work to do.

Vortigern · 1 August 2018 at 11:14PM

Did you really pay a fee to borrow money to buy Premium Bonds?

If you can get another BT deal you can extend your stooze, but maybe use regular savers to accumulate sufficient cash to pay off the cards when there is no more 0%

Two points to note:
1. Sharesaves do not always return a profit
2. You may reach an affordability limit, with no more 0% offers

Bossworld · 1 August 2018 at 11:29PM

Hi there

Thanks for the quick reply. I paid a 1.69% fee for the original money transfer, which I researched and seemed a quick-access into the world of stoozing. The intention wasn’t to use it to buy premium bonds, rather they were a means of holding the cash until we needed it for the house renovation task came up (in this case the boiler). The point I intended to make was that after the couple of PB ‘wins’, the fee is negligible.

With the sharesaves, if the price plummeted before the end of the scheme you can choose to just have your savings returned. So on the other 0% spend snooze, I’m disciplined to only spend what I’m paying out into the sharesave, so there is effectively no risk.

It’s this 0% transfer that’s got me a bit spooked as it’s a step into the unknown, but as it stands, the money to repay it will go into PBs as a holding pen. This would be with the intention that I’ve gained another 27 months to see if we want to spend it or not.

Bossworld · 8 August 2018 at 1:47PM

Didn't quite go to plan. Was accepted but didn't see any info about the credit limit. Rang up yesterday as the card hadn't come through yet, and I only got a limit of about 75% of what I needed.

It's not the end of the world as I've used the cash from the Sharesave that's just matured, to cover the difference but just means I don't have as much cash in hand as thought. Still, we'll see if a few bond 'wins' come in from the holding pot.

What is has been useful for is to act as a warning that my 3 year stoozing plan for another Sharesave, that relied on a transfer for the final 5 months, may not work out. May look to close a couple of dormant cards down nearer the time, if that'll help with limits, although that would obviously affect any ratio calculation.

Carry on stoozing or cash out?

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