Is today the day stoozing died?

Paul_Herring · 9 November 2008 at 6:12AM

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

I think slow stoozing is too dangerous for anyone on a budget. Would be very difficult to keep up with what you had spent.

Budgeting in, and of itself, shouldn't care how the things are paid for.

Presuming you're only buying what you'd normally be buying using other means, the absolute minimum you need to do is ensure your savings balance is at least as big as your CC balance each month.

rodent · 9 November 2008 at 6:08PM

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

A good point. Particularly painful for people who have just started a stooz (i.e. just paid the 3%).

It will depend on what banks do with their savings rates.
I'd bet that there will still be 5.5%+ rates out there for people happy to ditch and switch to keep up with the best deals. And for a stoozer that's not much of a problem.
Banks are still going to want our money. They're still going to have to pay for it.

For non-tax payers (or for Rodent!) there will still be money to be made.

I don't think the credit card companies need to do anything to keep stoozers happy - I mean we can't make them much money, can we? I would imagine that they would be well chuffed if we were priced out of the game.
In terms of non-stoozers, even with today's cut, 3% for 12m+ interest free loan is a very good deal indeed.
I'd love to see a reduction in the fees charged (or go back to the days where there was a cap). Here's hoping they do it. Or maybe they'll start doing longer deals. Or maybe reduce their interest rate so _they_ pay _us_ 1.5% for the first 15 months!

Traditional stoozing has never really offered enough rewards for me !
So biz as usual for me! ...I am actually very happy that rate is downto 3% as I have 14 mortgages on variable trackers so great for me...:beer:

Also dont keep cash "savings" anywhere other than in my offset and then only as a temporary place to park it ...until it gets invested in more prop or resale stock ....

Not "true/traditional stoozing" i know ....but as i have accesss to large "cheap" volumes of cash i use it in the most profitable way i can !!!

Risky ..yes ..to some but then i didn't get caught out with iceland and right now the int rate is saving/making me considerably more profit each month.

Get creative ! (safely and with your financial Axse covered AT ALL TIMES)

The Rodent

LongTermLurker · 9 November 2008 at 8:24PM

Personally I stopped my plans to stooz when banks started to look too slippery - wouldn't like to think my chosen "holder of the golden stoozpot" decided to turn up their toes a month before the term ended... So I have one reasonably-sized 15mth debt that I can manage to fulfil from somewhere should the original provider cause me to claim compo. So I guess now I'll have to concentrate on cashback.

NickX: I am currently slow stoozing everything I can from drinks in the pub to council tax and car services.

Oh what a mess of my finances I could make stoozing beer

- wasn't aware you could pay council tax on card - not sure my council does that.

rodent wrote: »

Traditional stoozing has never really offered enough rewards for me !
So biz as usual for me! ...I am actually very happy that rate is downto 3% as I have 14 mortgages on variable trackers so great for me...:beer:

Maybe Clariman should re-write the definition a little to define three forms of stoozing: slow, fast and Rodent! :rotfl:

firesidemaid · 9 November 2008 at 8:29PM

i am in the process of applying for a mortgage and have had to pay back my stoozepot early (and therefore lost out a bit) to be able to get the rate i applied for (tracker).

i think slow stoozing is still good for mortgage offsetting. again, maybe with a bt fee if the deal is for greater than 12 months.

i too can pay my council tax on the credit card (normally cashback) with no fee/charge online - every little helps;).

NickX · 9 November 2008 at 10:36PM

LongTermLurker wrote: »

Oh what a mess of my finances I could make stoozing beer

Yep it is a bit concerning when I look at my Credit Card statement and see how many purchases are alcohol related. As I reported on the stoozing site, I have even found one pub that will give me cashback on a Credit Card (I know they are not supposed to but they do

)

Stoozing beer is ok for my finances, its more my liver that is worrying :beer:

JimmyTheWig · 10 November 2008 at 9:51AM

Paul_Herring wrote: »

Budgeting in, and of itself, shouldn't care how the things are paid for.

Yes and no.
The way we find most helpful to stick to our budget is have a current account just for spending money. Money gets transfered there every week from our main account and so anything in this account is for spending.
Such a plan would not be easy when spending on credit card.

Back in the days before I had a family and so had [STRIKE]more[/STRIKE] spare cash I would have been perfectly happy with the slow stooz approach.

Paul_Herring · 10 November 2008 at 8:42PM

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Yes and no.
The way we find most helpful to stick to our budget is have a current account just for spending money. Money gets transfered there every week from our main account and so anything in this account is for spending.
Such a plan would not be easy when spending on credit card.

My impression of budgeting is "this week I'll spend £x on groceries. This week, I'll ensure the $ELECTRONIC_EQUIPMENT isn't on standby," "this week, I won't spend more than £x on booze/going out"

Quite how (*relevant*) spending differs between using one bit of plastic and another escapes me.

Unless 'available money' (as opposed to 'my money') on the cards is a factor.

And if it is, you shouldn't be stoozing in any capacity. If you're even slightly tempted to spend what you don't have, stoozing isn't something you should be doing.

JimmyTheWig · 11 November 2008 at 10:17AM

Paul_Herring wrote: »

My impression of budgeting is "this week I'll spend £x on groceries. This week, I'll ensure the $ELECTRONIC_EQUIPMENT isn't on standby," "this week, I won't spend more than £x on booze/going out"

Quite how (*relevant*) spending differs between using one bit of plastic and another escapes me.

Unless 'available money' (as opposed to 'my money') on the cards is a factor.

And if it is, you shouldn't be stoozing in any capacity. If you're even slightly tempted to spend what you don't have, stoozing isn't something you should be doing.

I do take your points, but that's not quite how it works for us.
Taking into account all our DDs, etc, we know how much money we have for spending each week.
That amount gets transfered into a "spending" current account on a weekly basis. That account, then, forms our budget.
It is pretty easy to keep track of (though not always easy to stick to!).
Some weeks we'll find some good bargains shopping and stock up - and so have a bigger groceries bill than normal. Then the next week might be cheaper due to stuff in the freezer bought last week.
Budgetting, to us, is knowing how much money we have to spend.

I agree that it would be possible to keep track of this if spending on credit card, but it wouldn't be easy and, for us, not worth the effort. I'm muhc happier paying the 3% BT fee and being done with it.

There is _no_ temptation whatsoever (for us) to spend money in the stooz pot.

Strapped · 11 November 2008 at 11:37AM

On a fixed rate long-term mortgage so situation normal here.

studentpillock · 13 November 2008 at 12:54PM

I still stooze. I have an Offset mortgage so the more money I have in the bank the less interest I pay, and the quicker I pay off the capital.

I have two credit cards, one for face to face transactions and one for distance purchases (phone or internet.)

I use my cc for every possible purchase, groceries, petrol, beer, lottery tickets etc. The cheapest item I have bought with a credit card was ₤1.

Every couple of days I add up the total spent on my cards and move it from the current account into a savings pot. Both are linked to the mortgage so it doesn't matter where the money is, it's still offsetting the mortgage capital. When the cc bill arrives I pay it off in full with the money from the savings pot.

This means that the money I would normally have spent during the month using debit cards, cash, or cheque has been in my bank account offsetting mortgage interest until the cc bill arrives. Then I get paid and the cycle starts again.

I'm not gaining vast sums by doing this, but both the offset bonus and stooze rewards make it worth doing.

Even without an offset mortgage this will still work because money in the bank will still acrue some interest rather than using debit methods of paying for purchases.

Is today the day stoozing died?

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