Is stoozing really worth it?

Stoozing: it's a word that sounds like it belongs in a smoky backroom, whispered between 1920s gangsters plotting their next big score. 

In reality, it's a perfectly legal – if occasionally confusing – way to make money from 0% borrowing.

For years, stoozing has attracted a dedicated band of UK fans, buoyed by the promise of pocketing extra interest from money that isn’t even yours, and given mainstream attention by Martin Lewis and his army of personal finance enthusiasts.

We'll break down the different stoozing techniques, who they suit, and what the real returns look like. More importantly, we'll ask: do the risks outweigh the rewards?

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The key ingredients

Here're the things you'd need, depending on your chosen method:

• A 0% interest purchase credit card
• A 0% interest money transfer card
• A 0% interest balance transfer card
• A savings account or cash ISA with a top interest rate.

Beginners' club: 0% purchase stoozing

This method involves taking out a 0% purchase credit card and using it for all your normal spending, while making the minimum monthly repayments and not going over your credit limit. 

You then spend using your 0% card – shopping, fuel, buying an air fryer you'll never use – while putting the money you would otherwise have spent into a savings account or ISA that pays a high rate of interest (and one that lets you withdraw without penalties).

Then, you pay your credit card off at the end using the money you've saved, while you walk away into the sunset with your excess interest. 

The maths

Let’s say you get a 0% purchase card lasting 12 months. You spend £800 a month on it, and each time, you move that £800 into an easy access savings account or ISA paying 4.5% interest.

After a year, you’ll have around £9,600 saved, earning about £230 in interest – all while owing the same £9,600 on your credit card.

Your minimum card repayments – assuming a rate of 1% – would be around £600 per year. This is the amount you'd need to keep on hand not to incur any penalties or fees.

Amount spent/saved	Interest rate	Total amount	Interest gained
£9,600	4.5%	£9,832	£232

Intermediate level: 0% money transfer stoozing

Unlike a standard credit card, a money transfer card is specifically designed to let you move cash from your card directly into another account – usually for a one-off fee of up to 5% of the amount transferred.

The idea is that you either put that cash in a savings account and hope to earn more in interest than the fee costs, or you use it to pay off more expensive debts.

Again, you have to pay at least the minimum amount each month, and you'll need to make sure you have enough spare cash to keep up with those payments, and to pay off the card in full before the 0% period ends. 

The maths

We won't tell you how to manage your debts – that really can get complicated, and in some cases, it's worth speaking to a specialist if you’re unsure.

But let's look at how the maths stacks up when using a money transfer card to take advantage of higher savings rates as they stand right now.

To keep things simple, let's imagine you have £2,000 for one year at 0% interest.

To squeeze the absolute maximum out of your money, you might:

• Drip-feed your money into a top-paying regular saver (we'll imagine it allows up to £300 per month, as the best rates always come with limits), with any leftover funds parked in the next best high-interest easy-access account. Importantly, you'd need to make sure your money isn't locked away past the point you need it to pay off your card
• Put the whole £2,000 into an easy access ISA, or even just a regular easy-access account – both of which currently pay around 4.5% interest at the top end. 
  

	Interest	Fee deducted (3%)	Total gained
Regular saver at 7% plus easy access at 4.5%	£128	£60	£68
4.5% savings account or ISA	£90	£60	£30

The final boss: 0% balance transfer stoozing

Here, instead of simply spending on a 0% purchase card or shifting cash with a money transfer card, you're deliberately rolling over your existing 0% debt onto a brand new 0% balance transfer credit card when the first deal runs out.

When your original 0% offer is about to expire, you apply for a new balance transfer credit card with another long 0% period. 

If you're approved, you move your outstanding debt across to the new card. This usually involves a one-off fee – again typically up to 5% of the balance you're transferring – but it buys you extra months (or years) of breathing space with no interest charges.

The maths

Let’s say you've already used a money transfer card to stooze £2,000 for a year, as in our previous example.

You roll the leftover £2,000 debt onto a new balance transfer card offering another 12 months at 0%, but again with a balance transfer fee of 3%.

After two years of careful stoozing and never missing a payment:

	Interest	Total fee deducted (3%)	Total gained
Regular saver at 7% plus easy access at 4.5%	£256	£120	£136
4.5% savings account or ISA	£180	£120	£60

Talking taxes

The next big question is: where should you choose to stooze?

Saving into a regular savings account means any interest you earn above your Personal Savings Allowance (PSA) could be taxed. 

In contrast, all the interest you earn in a cash ISA is completely tax-free.

That's why it isn't always as simple as just picking the account with the highest headline interest rate. Plus, getting the maximum from savings accounts can come with a bit of complicated juggling as we've seen above. 

Your personal savings allowance depends on your tax band:

• Basic-rate (20%) taxpayers: can earn up to £1,000 in interest each year tax-free 
• Higher-rate (40%) taxpayers: get a £500 allowance
• Additional-rate (45%) taxpayers: get nothing (sorry)

For most people, £1,000 is a lot to earn in interest. That's £20,000 per year saved at a 5% rate. In fact, 85% of savers don't pay tax at all on their savings at all.  

But if you're stoozing for the long haul, presumably you're all about maximising those gains, so you might eat through your allowance sooner than you'd think.

The table below shows how much interest you'd actually keep at a 5% rate once tax is taken into account, comparing a normal savings account with a cash ISA, across different savings balances and tax bands:

Savings balance	Interest earned at 5%	Basic-rate taxpayer (20%)	Higher-rate taxpayer (40%)	Additional-rate taxpayer (45%)	Cash ISA (everyone)
£5,000	£250	£250	£250	£138	£250
£10,000	£500	£500	£500	£275	£500
£20,000	£1,000	£1,000	£800	£550	£1,000
£25,000	£1,250	£1,200	£950	£688	£1,250

As you can see, the more money you save – and the lower your personal allowance – the more useful a cash ISA becomes.

Can I stooze and invest?

Technically, yes – no one's stopping you.

But this is seriously risky territory, because you need to be able to pay off the debt in full when the 0% period ends. If your investments lose value just when you need to sell, you could be left with a shortfall (and potentially a hefty interest bill on top).

Stooze you lose? What to consider

We'll lay our cards on the table: we're not huge fans of how stoozing is hyped up online. We'll mention no names in particular.

That's because real life can get messy and complicated, and lenders can be ruthless.

It can work if you're relentlessly organised, always pay off your credit cards in full, and never miss a deadline. 

But, there're plenty more things you'll need to think about:

Credit scores: the gatekeeper

To bag a 0% deal, you'll almost always need a strong credit history. If your score's only average, you might still get accepted, but the lender could offer you a shorter interest-free period, a lower credit limit, or even turn you down altogether. 

Future borrowing: watch your timing

Not all debt is created equal in the eyes of lenders. 

Having some well-managed credit can actually help your score because it shows you can borrow responsibly and pay it back, but stacking up a lot of new debt just before applying for a mortgage, remortgage, or big loan is risky. 

Lenders assess your "affordability" by looking at all your outstanding credit commitments. If you've just taken out a large 0% card, or your total debt suddenly jumps, it could limit how much you're allowed to borrow, or even affect the rate you’re offered. 

Balance transfers can be tricky

Some of the longest 0% interest periods will come with the highest balance transfer fees, which will eat into your gains right from the start.

You also normally have to make the transfer in a set number of days, so if you miss that window, you could lose the 0% offer altogether and end up paying interest much sooner than planned.

You also often can't transfer between two cards from the same provider or banking group. This can really limit your options and make it harder to find the best deals – especially if you're stoozing for the long haul. 

Temptation, unpredictability, and plain old real-life drama

Our financial futures can be about as predictable as a Southern Rail timetable.

Maybe you'll be tempted to dip into your savings "just this once," fully intending to top it back up before the interest-free period ends. Or maybe something genuinely unavoidable happens – a job loss, a big bill, or simply an oversight – and you miss a minimum payment. 

The moment you do, the 0% deal usually vanishes, and your balance starts accruing interest at the card’s standard (and much higher) rate. What began as a smart money move is now a very expensive headache. 

Is stoozing still worth it in 2026?

Stoozing took off in the 2000s and reached its heyday before the 2008 crash, when credit was freely available and interest rates were higher.

Fast forward to today, and a lot has changed.

Unless you're stoozing to manage or shift debt, the whole strategy relies on finding the very best savings or ISA rates – which is getting tougher by the month.

Since the beginning of 2025, the Bank of England base rate has been cut four times, and could well fall further. When this happens, most savings accounts and cash ISAs will follow suit and offer lower rates too.

0% purchase stoozing can still make sense – after all, earning any interest on borrowed money is a win – but the margins are shrinking fast. 

But the line gets even thinner with money and balance transfer cards, where fees can reach up to 5% of the amount you transfer, often wiping out much of the potential profit before you've even started. Look at all the effort we went to just to make £30 in one year. 

Unfortunately, the days of easy, risk-free gains are behind us. Now, the rewards are slimmer, the risks are higher, and only the most organised (and cautious) stoozers are likely to come out ahead.

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