Credit card loan help

Just one point OP, if you do get another credit card, dont shut the one down you have, leave it open. It's beneficial to your credit report for 2 reasons.

1. Average age of accounts is taken into consideration
2. If you owe nothing on it, your ratio of credit used to your credit limit is lower, which again improves credit rating.
 
Diddums said:
I *think* it was the British Airways one, can't remember. I don't get AMEX anyway, so many places won't even take it. It seems to flourish on prestige more than anything as their fee structure is crazy, everyone who goes near one has to pay fees. I turned it down last year, it offers nothing that my Barclaycard doesn't offer me :confused:
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will be same, theres a £140 fee which really goes towards the "extras" true APR is about 17-18%

I manage to put about 90% of my spend on Amex, don't find many places don't take it
 
robfosters said:
Just one point OP, if you do get another credit card, dont shut the one down you have, leave it open. It's beneficial to your credit report for 2 reasons.

1. Average age of accounts is taken into consideration
2. If you owe nothing on it, your ratio of credit used to your credit limit is lower, which again improves credit rating.
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It can also work against you if a lender considers you have too much available credit.
 
Talking of credit cards, I have a high interest credit builder card from Marbles. My limit was £250. I've paid it off every month for 6 months since I got it.

Checked today and they have whacked my limit up by a grand!

A grand on a credit builder card? They literally just want to get people into trouble I swear it.
 
robfosters said:
Talking of credit cards, I have a high interest credit builder card from Marbles. My limit was £250. I've paid it off every month for 6 months since I got it.

Checked today and they have whacked my limit up by a grand!

A grand on a credit builder card? They literally just want to get people into trouble I swear it.
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My Barclays initial which is their credit builder card started at 1200 and currently has a limit of 3000..
 
Do you think there should be a limit on credit builder cards? I'm OK, but I can imagine the temptation being too strong for some.

However, I also suppose these big limits are a good test for credit building customers. Will show if they are really serious about building it.
 
Gigabit said:
So does that mean if I then use the card for other stuff and I pay it off each month it will leave the other purchases on there, thus generating interest and costing me more?
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Check the terms of the card. They must be made available to customers. The order in which payments are applied must be in accordance with the terms since the terms are part of a contract and that's legally binding.
 
Why not buy it on the credit card, but get a loan in the Credit Union or similar at a much lower rate and just pay off the CC immediately.
 
ok this is how you do it first go to barclays open a current account get your wages paid into that, then open a savers account put £10 a month, now apply for a Barclay card, 99% getting approved. Or you could try M&S credit card they are interested in building the client base, you havent heard that from me. wink:
 
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Shouldn't we be teaching these 18 year old's NOT to live a life of debt? It only creates worry and stress.
The most sensible piece of advice, is to save up your money and buy it with cash.
 
Gigabit said:
My current card is also the Initial one. How long did it take them to increase your limit? I also ready they should drop the APR within 12 months.
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Limit was done within 6 months as far as I can remember.

They drop the APR every year as long as you use the card properly.
 
stopper said:
Shouldn't we be teaching these 18 year old's NOT to live a life of debt? It only creates worry and stress.
The most sensible piece of advice, is to save up your money and buy it with cash.
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no, you should use debt to your advantage. credit ratings are important and the easiest way to improve them is to demonstrate you can manage debt ie, by paying a card off in full each month like the OP does. if you dont, it makes things like borrowing money when you really need it much harder to do.
 
If it's only slightly more expensive to buy it on contract, I'd most likely go down that route instead at that age.

1: So you know exactly what the phone will cost you per month down to the penny (unless you go over the usage)
2: Even if you're paying off a little amount per month, it'll help to build your credit rating as well.

Both of these will help you long term, which is what you need to be thinking about when considering finance and credit ratings.
 
It might be cheaper to use your credit card rather than a contract, but have yo u considered a contract will include minutes texts and data, if you go sim free and payg for example, you'll be paying more for the calls and data as you wont have as much included than what you'd get with a contract, or wont that be an issue?
 
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