The Lemon Fool

I was going to post this on TMF, but here is even better!


14 Years ago I was Stoozing with the best of them. My Stoozing spreadsheet is now on month 170 !!

At the peak I had around £50K Stoozed, but with the financial crash and my job being terminated, it all came to an end.

For many years I just used a cashback card, but I still kept going a “spare” bank account with 2 direct debits on it.


A year ago, I realised that the TSB Classic Plus account made Stoozing worthwhile again. It had:-
£125 account opening bribe (no longer available)
5% interest on the first £2K in the account, paid monthly (reducing from next year)
5% cashback on the first £100 spent each month via contactless, paid monthly
A linked monthly savings account with a 5% interest rate, paid after 1 year.


To fund it I took out a NationWide credit card (receiving a £25 bribe) which had 0% interest for 1 year, including BTs for 3 months (from memory).

So in a year, I reckon that I have made over £350 which makes it all worthwhile.

As my year’s free interest is nearly up, it is time to look for another card.

Coming to my aid was the newly launched Money Savings Expert Credit Club, which I joined:-

https://clubs.moneysavingexpert.com/creditclub/login

This gives your Credit score for free, but more importantly, lists loads of Credit Cards along with the chance of you being approved. It told me I had a 90% chance of getting a Sainsbury’s BT card 0% for 22 months, so I have applied and been accepted.


In the latest MSE weekly email I noticed that TSB has just brought back an opening bonus of £100, so it could well be worth looking at again for new applicants.


In fact, looking at the MSE newsletter, there are also opening bonuses for Halifax, M&S, First Direct and Co-op bank accounts. Depending on what other features are available, could be worth considering.


Happy Stoozing!

And thanks to Stooz and Clariman for setting up this site.

Mick

I have been stoozing for many years, getting a new card roughly every year looking for balance transfers to pay off other cc's coming to end of their "free" period. My last one was AA that gave 36 months but the credit limit was very low as other cards had racked up the credit for me, but it was enough to allow me to "transfer" to my bank and pay-off my standard card, used savings to pay off all my cards now. Reason, NatWest rewards card came along and pays me 3% for utility bills with DD on account plus .05% on all cc transactions with 1% on contact less, with a few special deals occasionally. My credit rating is looking really good but with these reward cards and interest so low am no longer on the look out for "stoozing" cards.
So far looks pretty good.

Raptor.

http://www.stoozing.com/stoozforum/

There's a dedicated site and forum. I've got a 5 low figure sum stoozed just now and like Mikkko had over £50k at the peak. I too have been into the interest paying current accounts and taking the intro bonuses too. To find high enough returns I have moved into p2p to supplement regular savers and interest paying current accounts (who have slashed their rates) and even stuck a few £k into Bank prefs when the prices were subdued, they look again to be a worthy return for my borrowed gains and there is an opening of £12k at 3% for 21 months with 1.5% refund on my Halifax card.

Hi,

Here is a good link for new cards, that avoid any fee's.

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/credit-cards/no-fee-balance-transfer/

Paul

kempiejon wrote:http://www.stoozing.com/stoozforum/
.

Also hosted by me
I started on motley fool, wrote stoozing and now I'm back with the fools .

The old Egg Money card no longer exists, which was the favoured "Mule " card. Which is the one you guys use these days?

Would this MBNA CC serve as a "Mule" card if your happy to pay 0.5% transfer fee https://www.mbna.co.uk/compare-credit-c ... mbna-five/
I can't get to the T&C to delve deeper.
Anyone use it for that purpose.

caveman38 wrote:Would this MBNA CC serve as a "Mule" card

For some years now any MBNA (well any MBNA card I've had) behave as mule cards, "accidentally" put the account into a positive balance and ask to move the cash to your bank account - they do this for credit (well debit but you know what I mean hopefully) balances. IN fact rofm online servicing it's even a selection from a drop down menu.

Unless of course this has changed recently it's been my preferred method since the end of Egg some 5? or so years ago.

Having been sold this might all change again, but I've used virgin as well. Paying fees sadly, bit worth it for what I've been doing.