Poll: How many of your non-essential purchases are bought on credit?
- Thread starter SideWinder
- Start date
Soldato
It depends on how much the product is. If it’s an item of clothing under £50 - debit card or something like shoes, coats - credit card. Don’t have much on credit card as pay it off when get paid.
Man of Honour
It's not "reason and logic" to claim that you're entitled to decide what money I care about. You'd have a point if anyone was claiming that it cost the same amount, but nobody is. The argument is that I (and apparently Rroff and apparently some other people) don't care enough about wasting 10p per day to do anything about it.
While I can understand people not wanting to get into debt, I don't understand people who don't use a credit card at all when the cashback cards basically give you free money and you never get charged interest if you have it setup to pay off in full each month. Always nice when you get a couple of hundred quid of free money arrive on your cashback anniversary
Circumstances can change, so some people prefer to not have any non-essential debt that would incur a high rate of interest if they became unable to pay the debt off one month. Just in case. Other people consider that excessively cautious. Each to their own.
Man of Honour
You have to ensure that at the end of every billing period you have enough spare money to pay off whatever you spent on your credit card during that billing period. You also have to ensure that you never lose your existing level of income and you never have any essential payments (due to emergencies) that you can't cover from spare money. It's not entirely automatic.
I'm fine with each individual assessing the risks and benefits for themself and making their own decision for themself about their own life.
The fact people don't agree with an argument doesn't make it illogical. You can have two sides of an argument that are both logical and reasoned. As you say, some people don't care enough about it to change their behaviour which is why I am telling the people on the other side of the argument that it isn't worth trying to persuade them.
It's difficult at first because there are people with a mindset that you should not pay more money for the same product. They feel compelled to tell others that they should pay less and find it hard to get their head round the idea that others will consciously choose to pay more money. But it isn't worth chasing down the argument, if people want to spend more money as a deliberate choice then you just have to leave them alone, even if the reasons they put forward don't always stack up, as it is their perogative. But we are still entitled to put forward the argument that you should care about some money, even if you don't.
It does make you wonder though when people say they might not have enough money to pay one off / annual bills and yet they are wasting money on insurance - it kind of becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy - if they weren't wasting money on interest then maybe the annual bills wouldn't 'catch them out'.
It's difficult at first because there are people with a mindset that you should not pay more money for the same product. They feel compelled to tell others that they should pay less and find it hard to get their head round the idea that others will consciously choose to pay more money. But it isn't worth chasing down the argument, if people want to spend more money as a deliberate choice then you just have to leave them alone, even if the reasons they put forward don't always stack up, as it is their perogative. But we are still entitled to put forward the argument that you should care about some money, even if you don't.
It does make you wonder though when people say they might not have enough money to pay one off / annual bills and yet they are wasting money on insurance - it kind of becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy - if they weren't wasting money on interest then maybe the annual bills wouldn't 'catch them out'.
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Well yes, the concept of not spending more than you have still applies. I don’t see how that is any different to a debit card.
Bought my TV on credit a few years back, it was just after I'd applied for a new credit card with my new bank and I had 0% for 12 months so I made use of that as it was about a grand. Could have bought it outright but the option just happened to be there. I would never, ever buy anything with the intention of paying interest on it though. Anything I can pay up front to avoid interest e.g. insurance, I will.
I have my credit card linked to frequently-used online shopping accounts mostly just to keep it active, but it gets paid via DD every month. Unless your income varies wildly from one month to the next, I'm not sure why people find the concept of "don't spend more than you'll earn" a challenge.
I have my credit card linked to frequently-used online shopping accounts mostly just to keep it active, but it gets paid via DD every month. Unless your income varies wildly from one month to the next, I'm not sure why people find the concept of "don't spend more than you'll earn" a challenge.
Same. Rewards too.
Last thing I bought on credit was a laptop, but only because signing up to their buy now pay later gave a 20% discount. Paid it off the next day.
Soldato
If people are struggling to pay insurances in one lump sum. If they had a credit card, could they pay off the sum on there? As some insurances APR rates are higher than credit cards.
Always pay car and contents (live in flat so buildings is part of service charge) insurance in one payment. It is helped by the no council tax DD in Feb and March. Though people’s insurances start dates are throughout the year.
Always pay car and contents (live in flat so buildings is part of service charge) insurance in one payment. It is helped by the no council tax DD in Feb and March. Though people’s insurances start dates are throughout the year.
At least for myself it isn't struggling it just means I can pay minimal attention to my finances while living well within my means. I could as someone suggested just pay the monthly amount into another account and have that used to pay the insurance but then as how many vehicles I'm insuring can vary it means extra work and time spent on it so...
One of the problems is I always somehow end up with all the big bills coming out in the same month one way or another and it makes my life far easier if there aren't large variations month to month on expected outgoings so I know roughly how much I have to play with after that without having to spend time on my finances or moving money out of savings, etc. to cover it if something unexpected came up like car repairs which for some reason almost inevitably seem to happen around this time of year as well :s
Associate
Has anyone blocked their credit card so they can keep the account, but not use the card for a while? just wondering how long the bank lets you do that? seems like a good way to keep a CC if you don't want to use it regularly and keep it only for emergencies. I can do it via my online app easily.
Associate
Just a more secure way of managing it, a physical effort to use it acts as a barrier to say using it on amazon for a small item if you haven't got the cash in the bank. I am interested to know, the banks don't advertise the block for that purpose, but reading between the lines I think it could be sued that way, if you don't want to close the account, and keep it purely for real emergencies.
Soldato
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- 29 Sep 2010
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All you need for that is self control...
Associate
I have self control, I am just curious if it is a viable approach the banks will allow, I like belt and braces to every risk.
Soldato
Only buy stuff I can afford and always pay for stuff up front. Only thing I owe money for is the house.
Soldato
This.
Well, I make money off paying my car and house insurance by instalments
I have multiple bank current accounts and all the ones that give you rewards, and most of those need 2 D/D's and X amount to be paid in. So I need to use those with others that don't attract interest (like C.Tax, Electric etc) and I can earn more in the bank rewards than I pay in instalment interest.
It was much easier when Tesco did a D/D on their savings account!
Worst cope for wasting money everWell, I make money off paying my car and house insurance by instalments
I have multiple bank current accounts and all the ones that give you rewards, and most of those need 2 D/D's and X amount to be paid in. So I need to use those with others that don't attract interest (like C.Tax, Electric etc) and I can earn more in the bank rewards than I pay in instalment interest.
It was much easier when Tesco did a D/D on their savings account!
use a service like below, or donate a quid a month to charity.
https://smalldirectdebit.co.uk/cheap-direct-debits/
Always used debit. Never needed a credit card but I did take an ASDA one I had for a few years before it was discontinued. I do my big shop there and get my petrol too and earned cashback. I paid it all off monthly to avoid interest. So because it was discontinued I'm purely debit again, though with the news about Amazon stopping VISA in the UK, although I don't think it includes debit, I thought about getting the Amazon CC to have another MasterCard option, the ASDA one was MasterCard too.