$toozing
Stoozing is turning a buck by loading zero-APR-low-transfer-fee credit cards and tucking the money into a good savings account. So you get free credit, use it to earn some interest and then pay the card when introductory period is about to expire. I am about to try this out.
The idea has been around for a while, and a couple years ago you could get really good deals with hefty credit limits and no transfer fees at all. I was then still in debt and nobody wanted to give me good limits anyways. Now I got out, and have this card that actually makes it possible.
Is stoozing cheating? Well, in finance lingo this is called arbitrage, and financial institutions do this day in and day out to each other, whenever they can. Arbitrage implies that certain actions can be taken to make profit without risk at all, and signifies an imbalance in the economy. When such conditions arise, scavenging on them restores the balance, and so this is essentially a healthy process.
The idea has been around for a while, and a couple years ago you could get really good deals with hefty credit limits and no transfer fees at all. I was then still in debt and nobody wanted to give me good limits anyways. Now I got out, and have this card that actually makes it possible.
Is stoozing cheating? Well, in finance lingo this is called arbitrage, and financial institutions do this day in and day out to each other, whenever they can. Arbitrage implies that certain actions can be taken to make profit without risk at all, and signifies an imbalance in the economy. When such conditions arise, scavenging on them restores the balance, and so this is essentially a healthy process.
Cheap credit card balance transfers from the days when the federal interest rate was non-existent and higher savings interest rates reflecting on new conditions in the economy are precisely in this sort of profit-promising imbalance. People are abusing these transfers en masse, and I actually have a friend who earned over half a grand on this last year alone. The result is that the cards are now coming with a much higher transfer fees.
It used to be that the transfer fee is something like 3% of the balance, capped at hundred dollars of so. These caps are now going up quite quickly, and often there's none at all. Sometimes the percentage for the fee is as high as 5%. But if you get an offer with the transfer fee capped at a good level, you can still play the game!
That's exactly what I got, an HSBC MasterCard with 3% of transfer fee, but no more then $100. Minimum payments are just 1% of the balance. The person at the activation really wanted me to transfer some stuff to them, even if to my checking account. So there, they got it.
I have a low limit - $3600, and I am taking nearly all of it to my Emigrant Direct account, making about 5% a year. This means at my best I will net $75 or so, but hey, I got to start with something!
It used to be that the transfer fee is something like 3% of the balance, capped at hundred dollars of so. These caps are now going up quite quickly, and often there's none at all. Sometimes the percentage for the fee is as high as 5%. But if you get an offer with the transfer fee capped at a good level, you can still play the game!
That's exactly what I got, an HSBC MasterCard with 3% of transfer fee, but no more then $100. Minimum payments are just 1% of the balance. The person at the activation really wanted me to transfer some stuff to them, even if to my checking account. So there, they got it.
I have a low limit - $3600, and I am taking nearly all of it to my Emigrant Direct account, making about 5% a year. This means at my best I will net $75 or so, but hey, I got to start with something!
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