My stoozing bought me a free car!

| Author: Stooz | Created: 28/09/2006 |

Introduction

We all have our different reasons for stoozing. Some people just enjoy the challenge of it - like a game of chess. Others use the money for holidays or treats. However, one of our stoozers had a very specific objective - he wanted to buy a brand new car. He kindly agreed to tell us how he did it. We shall call him Mr C

The interview

stooz: Mr C, is it true that you bought a brand new car from your stoozing profits?
Mr C: Yes, it is absolutely true. I bought a brand new Ford Focus C-Max using only my stoozing profits.

Stooz: That's fantastic. May I ask how much that cost you?
Mr C: Well it cost me nothing, but I paid just under £12,500 for the car.

Stooz: Can you tell us how long it took you and how you managed to earn that much?
Mr C: Certainly. I saved all my profits from 4 years of stoozing, during which I normally had a dozen credit cards on the go. My average stoozing earnings were in excess of £3,000 per year and my Stooz Pot must have been around £75,000 on average.

Stooz: How did you manage to build such a large Stooz Pot?
Mr C: Well, First Direct lent me an average of £22,000 for 3 years as I switched from classic to gold and to-and-fro six times, getting £25,000 for 6 months at 0% for no fees. No wonder they may start charging £10 a month for having a current account with them! I must have earned £3k from that company alone. The rest of the stooz pot came from my other cards from many different lenders. [Editor's note. See the Facts and Figures table below for a complete list of Mr C's cards and earnings]

Stooz: So which savings account did you use for your large Stooz Pot?
Mr C: I used my wife's (non taxpayer) savings accounts with Cahoot: especially the generous 5.3% AER account, which only had its rate slashed around April 2006.

Stooz: And how did you move money into the Cahoot account?
Mr C: I mainly used egg cards for SBTs (Super Balance Transfers). Initially I used the Egg green Visa card when it was out of the anniversary period, but then started using Egg Money (formerly "Egg Blue") when it became available.

Stooz: How did you manage to keep track of all these cards and their associated minimum payments?
Mr C: The stoozing money was always held separately from my own money, but I did monitor the profits and interest earned using an Excel spreadsheet. The spreadsheet's forecast was within 99% of the actual interest paid out. The difference was due to some small rounding errors presumably.

Stooz: After this fantastic stoozing success, what are you saving for now?
Mr C: Well, I am not stoozing at the moment because I am looking to buy a bigger property. Getting the stooz pot down to zero will do my credit rating a lot of good in anticipation of mortgage applications.

Stooz: Very wise words. May I take this opportunity of congratulating you on your excellent stoozing success and wish you all the best in the future. I am sure that your story will be an inspiration to others. Thanks.

Facts and figures

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