the richest man in atherstone

I experimented with the strategy of Stoozing at the back end of last year. Here's my report of the experience.

What is Stoozing?
In a nutshell, Stoozing is a method of making a bit of extra cash from credit cards. A number of credit card companies offer interest-free introductory periods, whereby you can borrow money and not pay any interest on it for a limited time. The idea is to bung the money from the free loan into a savings account and earn interest on it, remembering to pay the minimum payment each month and the whole of the remaining capital when the introductory period ends.

My original Stoozing article goes into a bit more detail and explains how I got started.

Did it Work?
After transferring the £2000 to my A+L Premier Direct Account at the beginning of October, I started to earn interest on the cash. Each month, the capital reduced by about £50-£60 as I paid the minimum payments, however this was offset by my bank account bumping up it's rates by 2% about halfway through the experiment. The interest I earned was:

Nov...£3.04
Dec...£8.56
Jan...£7.60
Feb...£7.79
Mar...£7.98
Apr...£7.93

Total...£42.90

So that's a £42.90 profit for about half an hours work.

Summary
I was pleased with the result and eager to transfer the balance to another 'free money' credit card at the end of the first's introductory period. Unfortunately, I couldn't get another card for a number of reasons; 1) I tried another experiment at the beginning of the year (I'll write about it soon) that involved a large number of credit searches, which probably reduced my credit rating, 2) There aren't a lot of suitable Stoozing credit cards on the market and 3) The credit crunch is making lenders more fussy about who they accept.

So towards the end of the term, I simply paid the balance off on the card.

I enjoyed this money-making experiment and will probably use this strategy again sometime in the future (perhaps in a milder economic climate). If you want to find out more, visit Stoozing.com to get all the info and if you're unsure about anything, don't be afraid to ask on their friendly forum.