What is Stoozing?
A UK personal finance strategy where you spend on a 0% interest credit card instead of your debit card, keeping the cash in a savings account to earn interest. Before the 0% period ends, you pay off the card and keep the profit. The term originated on the MoneySavingExpert forum.
Stoozing is the practice of borrowing at 0% and saving the equivalent cash at a positive rate. In its modern form: everyday spending goes on a 0% purchase credit card, the money that would have been spent stays in a high-interest savings account, minimum payments keep the card in good standing, and shortly before the promotional period ends the card is cleared in full from the savings pot. The interest earned in between is the profit — effectively interest on the bank's money.
The word comes from the MoneySavingExpert forum in the early 2000s, named after a forum user known as Stooz. The strategy faded when savings rates were near zero and returned once rates rose, since the profit is simply the average card balance multiplied by the savings rate and the time the money sits earning.
The mechanics reward tidiness. A missed minimum payment can void the 0% deal and revert the balance to the card's standard APR, and the pot has to remain intact to clear the card at the end — which is why stoozers keep the stooze cash separate from spending money. A balance transfer to a new 0% card can extend the run beyond the first card's promotional period.