The Biggest Stoozer: meet the MoneySavers who've made £1,000s manipulating 0% credit cards

From our Money Tips email sent on Tuesday 14 July: Stoozing is the art of creating an unneeded debt to make money. In a nutshell, you take out a 0% credit card, then save the money it gives you at high interest. And with savings rates far higher than a few years ago, and 0% cards getting longer again, it's now possible to make £100s, or even £1,000s a year doing this.

Martin won't let us mention this without what he calls the MoneySaving poetry from the early days – when former card firm Egg was lending him money at 0%, which he then put in Egg's own high-interest savings account paying 6%! Back then, some even had £80,000+ in their 'stooze pot', making gains of £5,000+ a year. And we're creeping close to those times (do let us know if you've a big stooze pot). As for how to do it, we've a full Stoozing guide, but here's a quick summary...

• Warning. This takes discipline – it's ONLY for the debt-free, financially savvy. If in doubt, don't! If you're not very financially organised, unsure of how it works, have a poor credit history, don't have financial self-discipline, or have other credit card, overdraft or loan debt, this ISN'T for you. If in doubt, DON'T.
  

• Step 1. Get a long 0% spending card. The key to stoozing is how you get the debt off the credit card into your savings account. There used to be a couple of different ways, but a change in credit card offers now means the most lucrative route by far is via a card you can do new spending on without paying interest. The longer the better. Best is to use our 0% Spending Eligibility Calc which shows which top cards you're most likely to get.
  

• Step 2. Do ALL normal spending on the card. Do all your normal spending (and possibly your family's too) on it up to the credit limit – but this isn't a reason to spend more. All you're effectively doing is using the card instead of money in your bank account, so you build up the 0% debt. You still need to make the minimum monthly repayments, and this is a rare occasion where the right tactic is to just pay the minimum.
  

• Step 3. Put the unspent money from your bank account in top savings. As you've spent on your credit, not debit, card this should build up a mirror amount of unspent income in your current account. So each month sweep that into the top easy-access savings, which can pay up to 5%. Do it as easy access, as while we've never heard of it happening to a stoozer, technically the card debt can be called in at any time, so you always want the money handy.
  

• Step 4. You could stop there or prolong or even increase the stooze... In the MONTH BEFORE THE 0% ENDS, either use the money in savings to clear the 0% debt before any interest is charged, or shift it to a 0% balance transfer (a fee-free one's best to maximise the gains).
  
  Of course, with a decent credit score and careful management, you can do this with more than one card and build your stooze pot, so you're earning more. As Leigh emailed: "I started using MSE in 2009, I've been reading the weekly email every week since. Over the years I've done virtually everything that is suggested on the website. My personal favourite is credit card stoozing, which has saved us £1,000s over the time we've been doing it by persistently holding five-figure sums at 0%. We currently save over £600 every year with just two cards. A massive thank you to Martin and the team!"
  

• Stoozing golden safety rules. Full info in the Stoozing guide, but in brief:

  1. Pay the monthly minimum (for safety, by Direct Debit) and don't bust the credit limit, or you can lose the 0%.

  2. Don't use these cards for anything else, such as cash withdrawals or shifting debt.

  3. Clear the card or balance-transfer before the 0% ends, or the interest jumps to 25%ish rep APR, killing any gain.

  4. Do not take risks with the stooze pot, or you could find the manufactured deliberate debt becomes real debt.

  5. In credit-score terms, stoozing debt is still a debt, so it impacts your creditworthiness while you have it. The magnitude depends on the size of the debt. If you've an important application such as a mortgage due, bear that in mind.

Most lenders' scoring systems aren't sophisticated enough to detect that you're playing this free cash gain. Yet multiple, clustered applications, and high outstanding debts, even at 0%, will diminish your ability to get competitive credit, so always spread card applications out.

Stoozing can work well for years, but repeatedly taking out new 0% cards may eventually make it harder to get accepted for new credit. Lenders will look at how much available credit you already have and how often you apply for new credit.

If you're making interest stoozing, check if you need to pay tax on these earnings. Most savers won't pay anything due to a combination of tax-free allowances. But the latest HMRC statistics (obtained by investment platform AJ Bell) show that around 2.6 million people were expected to pay some tax on their savings interest in the 2025/26 tax year. Our How savings tax works guide contains full info.