Caporegime
2.8% via Cahoot/Santander for part of our new kitchen last week. Cheapest I could find.
Personal loan £20k <3%
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Associate
Only thing I would consider is 0% credit cards on purchases over two years.
Otherwise save the money first. You can lose your job at any moment.
Otherwise save the money first. You can lose your job at any moment.
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Don’t get sucked into the same mistake a lot of people do when getting credit. While credit is all good it certainly isn’t when you lose your job and you have no income at all.
One of the worse feelings ever knowing time is ticking to have to find a job before they take everything away from you. You get harassed left right and centre as soon as you miss one single payment.
Nobody can make you choose but all my advice is save up don’t get sucked into life debt. It’s horrible. Good luck.
One of the worse feelings ever knowing time is ticking to have to find a job before they take everything away from you. You get harassed left right and centre as soon as you miss one single payment.
Nobody can make you choose but all my advice is save up don’t get sucked into life debt. It’s horrible. Good luck.
Associate
Any Personal credit is bad, but often necessary. Only once u don't financially need credit, do you realise the difference between having money, which makes more money, compared to credit, which has to be repaid. The moment you have money and are debt free, is the moment you really start to make money. difficult to explain to people who have never been there. Any credit is a commitment regardless of the rate.... and stops you flying financially. If you don't have to pay a mortgage, or car loan etc it is financially liberating and you make more because you aren't paying, instead you are hopefully investing and compounding the savings positively, rather than generally spending on the debt and compounding negatively.. Even 0% interest loan isn't free, it costs you interest on the money you could otherwise be saving, about 14% if you had a FTSE tracker fund last year, or 6.5% per annum compounded over 25 years... on 20k that is £2800 lost last year before loan interest payments, or £81,000 over the last 25 years! This is why commercial companies take on commercial debt, they can invest the money and cover the cost of the debt while making money. Different with a car etc... and would you want to cover that risk?
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Soldato
^^ is that secretly Martin Lewis?
Just listen to Dave Ramsey, it's all common sense.
Just listen to Dave Ramsey, it's all common sense.
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Just me... an over simplification, but general principles are right, and experience.
UK law should mandate that banks have to give the often fraudulent headline rates. I have wasted time applying for a loan in the past only to be offered rates higher than a credit card, while other banks offered me 0% for 3 years on a card, madness.
It's that sort of attitude that will bring on the next big recession..
Help the economy borrow borrow borrow, it can go on for ever, what could go wrong?
As mentioned earlier in the thread there is legislation but it only means that 51% of applications must be given the advertised rate.
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Well I won't be getting any credit ever again. I will save up and if I don't have the money I won't buy it. Put that in your pipe and smoke it and bring on the recession.
Spot on, I became debt-free about 10 years ago and never looked back, pay off Credit Card every month and never spend beyond my paycheck. Suddenly I went from being debt-ridden with my ex-wife to having substantial savings to put a large deposit on a decently sized house. Rented out two rooms and that covers the mortgage and council tax.
Old Chinese saying "Money makes money"
Soldato
I got a credit card as soon as i was 18. i was stoozing on my dads accounts before that which i made in his name (he knew about all of this), and earned around £20,000 in interest from 2004-2008 ish
Then of course, the banks went in the toilet and my 6% AER account was gone. RIP
So when i started this, it was simply to make money, after it was to have available cash, which costs me nothing.
Its not frequently but there are always opportunities which you must act on in that same day.
You are confusing credit with irresponsible spending, one might need the other, but its not the entire purpose of it.
It should be 100% unless specifically disclaimed that it is only offered to people who have no debt/past defaults etc.
With no average interest rate enforced either it allows companies to offer "1%" loans to 51% of people and 1,000% loans to the other 49% averaging a 500% interest rate in reality.
If it was 100% then you might well have just been declined one instead of being offered one with a higher rate and/or the average rate could be higher.
Associate
There are always going to be exceptions to every general rule, but they are that, exceptions, and often rare, as per your timing / examples, which is fab if you can do it. The underlying point with interest free credit cards (and loans) is that the companies wouldn't be offering the deals if in the majority of cases they didn't make some money (therefore cost) off the customer. be they setup fees, end of agreement termination fees, or transfer onto a high cost loan etc. you have to be very organised and focussed often to make these work for you.
Soldato
There's nothing wrong with some debt to advance things forward with confidence of low risk. Few people buy their own homes without debt, for example.
Unsecured debt for more immediate purchases too is absolutely fine, if it is affordable. I don't know why some people have such a binary view on debt. There's nothing wrong with buying a £300 white good on a credit card and paying it off after a couple of months if you need that product there and then.
Soldato
ive always tried to avoid debt but easier said than done ,borrowed in 2004 as additional mortgage funds to pay for a new kitchen , windows and central heating but then wacked the mortgage and paid in 9 years and sold for double . so it worked out as i would have found it hard to save back then.
whats very important to me now is a big buffer of immediate savings ,combined with been mortgage free i can have a more relaxed attitude to employment i,e i dont have to take crap from employers,
i like to have an interest free credit card mainly for online protection and its still nice to spread big purchases ,even when you dont need to
whats very important to me now is a big buffer of immediate savings ,combined with been mortgage free i can have a more relaxed attitude to employment i,e i dont have to take crap from employers,
i like to have an interest free credit card mainly for online protection and its still nice to spread big purchases ,even when you dont need to
Soldato
Depends what the debt it for tbh. If you can service the loan no problem, it's really not an issue. Buying things with cash is a stupid thing to do, when rates are low. You can use the money to do more with, rather than on an item.
Someone I know just went out and spent 45k cash on a 2nd hand car. I would use the banks 100% for this. Low rates of paying back and that 45k could have easily gone into an investment to make you a decent return. It's just better money management.
Someone I know just went out and spent 45k cash on a 2nd hand car. I would use the banks 100% for this. Low rates of paying back and that 45k could have easily gone into an investment to make you a decent return. It's just better money management.