To think most people go on holidays they can’t afford?

[vacaaytion]

I’m hearing more and more of folk putting hols on their credit cards as school holiday prices are crazy. It’s not something we’ve done, we usually pay monthly through a travel agent and sometimes cut back in other areas to afford it but I can’t imagine paying for something years after you’ve been on it - it would suck the joy from it for me - I think! Unless this is more normal now and anything else is the unusual way?

I have never, ever, booked a holiday where I didn’t have the full amount in my savings account before I book.
I still put it on my credit card for the protection and then pay it off in full when the bill comes.

Sometimes it's the smarter way though. I had some big purchases on cc because I had 0% for xx months while the money in saving account were making pounds.

I'm surprised at the consensus here! We did this for DH and my 30th birthdays, combination of a year of saving in advance then a further 2 years to pay the rest off our credit cards. It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life and we wanted to do something amazing before settling down to start our family. We already had a mortgage, earned average but secure wages in the public sector and lived fairly frugally everyday so wanted one big adventure while we were young! Well managed debt (we shuffled it on 0% cards) isn't always a bad thing.

Surely unless they go bankrupt they can afford it. They might overpay through high interest rates, they might not. They might carry a balance long term, they might not. But if it's getting paid for (even if they pay a lot more than someone else) they can afford it. You might not agree with their priorities, but that's not a question of affordability.

Very good way of putting it!

I do often wonder how much debt people are comfortable carrying around l. My DH and I don't use any type of credit, except our mortgage and I often wonder how people cope with having a few grand on a credit card.

Well you have ££££ on a mortgage, and if you can’t pay your mortgage potentially you’ll lose your home. We have £7k on a credit card, we don’t have a mortgage (own outright) so we don’t worry about our cc at all. It’s affordable to us, we just move the debt around to 0% offers every so often and chip away at it.

Unless you have 0% on new purchases on cc, interest on your credit card is much higher than a savings account so that is costing you money.

We pay for absolutely everything on the credit card because get money back and it offers some protection. We pay the bill in full each month so not charged interest or getting in to debt.

Unless you have 0% on new purchases on cc, interest on your credit card is much higher than a savings account so that is costing you money.

What they mean is you may as well benefit from the interest free period, so rather than paying my card off immediately I let it sit in a savings account until the day I have to pay when my balance is due up to 56 days later, I get £10 a month for doing nothing this way, and that's not factoring in the Avios points I get. You don't start accruing interest on CC payments until after the statement balance payment deadline.

Just shuffle round the 0% cc on balance transfers then u can stick money in high inferest rate savings account on a 1 or 2yr fix and make money. Ill make £1500 on my amount which pays for a holiday in itself.

Ontop of that I've built up enough airmiles for free return flights to Europe just for using my credit card instead of my debit card.

My cc debt it at a level that I know I can clear within 3 paychecks (money left over after bills).

Might aswell take a small risk and take advantage of whats available.

So whilst OP looks down on this and frowns upon it, people are being smart and getting free flights for more holidays.

I have- friends and people I work with that make me think this. I think it’s because despite a supposed cost of living crisis everyone seems to be going on these expensive holidays. There’s even a few people I know going away 5-6 times a year who don’t have good paying jobs and I always wonder how the hell they are affording it! Equally I notice more and more people driving around in huge expensive cars everywhere and it just doesn’t tally with the crisis we are supposedly in. Maybe it’s the media exaggerating (as usual) but its definitely true everything is much more expensive now and pay isn’t reflecting this! So my thought too was they are carrying a lot of debt-credit cards or finance plans etc- 🤷🏼‍♀️

I earn a good salary, my husband's salary is half that but still ok. Yet, we can't afford to go on holiday so I will put a week's trip in my home country on our 0% credit card and chip away at it. Even if it's just camping (which isn't even cheap anymore!) I can't bear the thought of the kids not being able to experience even a little holiday.

I saved a ton of money over covid lockdowns as did many other people so not surprising now things have opened up for past year or two there is money to spend despite the increase.

It can easily be simply priorities. Even on below average salaries we managed multiple trips abroad a year. Some people spend more on clothes, some on travel, some on going out, some on hobbies etc. Everyone was always surprised when I said how little the holidays costed us compared to what they though. I like a good disount or offer...
Re big cars. You can get quite good offers on pcp etc. It often includes extra stuff like service or insurance and so on.

Credit cards are a sensible way to protect your money. Providing they are set to be paid off in full each month. Every single spend can be diverted to a CC when it’s setup like this.

Benefits are you get rewarded for spending money you’d be spending on your debit card. Fraud protection, credit rating boost, removing risk of your own money.

Never paid interest on a CC and benefited massively from air miles, vouchers.

Yes I know people who do this.

My cousin is a single mum and has no money, and used finance the other day to pay for new carpets throughout her house (which she didn't need - she had perfectly good carpets but 'fancied a change'). She put pics of it all over facebook/ instagram. It's like she has these big plans for interior design which she can't afford - it's also in her rented property which she could be asked to move out of at some point!

It's unbelievable really. People want things now and there's just no long term planning.

I don't mean to be sanctimonious but I've never bought anything I couldn't afford and just can't understand this mentality.

Have only read page one and should say I don't use credit cards - except when prompted by my credit checker service that having one would improve my credit rating and at that time taking out the amazon one and using it only for amazon purchases and selecting for the full balance to be paid off each month.

My question is how does it concern or bother you? People make their choices as to what matters and they pay for and deal with the consequences of those choices. They might determine they want their kids to have holidays now and they'll deal with ending up paying way over the cost over x amount of years. People might also value holidays over eg. fancy cars so have a credit card debt whilst others drive around in an aldi they're paying a fortune per month for.

I don't do debt and have a relatively low income and don't own property in the UK but I really do value getting away to my second home (as in the place I feel most at home and have the most friends and support despite having to be here for my son's education). I'm sure family members and colleagues and whoever else decides to stick their nose in other people's business might say why she is paying for flights etc when she doesn't even run a car or wear fancy new clothes or rent a house with a garden? (guessing at people's priorities here). They're likely to be utterly clueless as to the fact that I work in a stressful professional job alongside having a really challenging mental health condition and that those trips to my second home and some sunshine and socialising and swimming in the sea are actually what stop me topping myself.

@rocknrollaa do you have any idea how you sound?
Is your cousin supposed to sit in single mother servitude in her rented house with no enjoyment?

Perhaps she knows she will never be in a position to buy her own home and she is living for today.

If she is able to get a credit card with a large enough credit limit to buy new carpets then she must be paying her debts off correctly.

We can afford our holidays, and have occasionally put the cost on credit cards. Never paid a penny in interest.

No, I always book a holiday I know I can afford and pay it off monthly through the travel company with no interest.

if I’m booking flight and accommodation separately then I’d save the money first, book on a credit card for protection and then pay it straight off. haven’t done this since pre covid though as holidays have actually been cheaper through on the beach than they were booked separately.

We decided last minute that we wanted to take DS to see his grandparents in Florida last July. I will finish paying off the flights on my credit card at the end of this month.

I have more than enough in savings but I am not disciplined enough to reimburse my savings account.

There are a lot of sensible reasons to put holidays on a credit card- consumer protection but also being able to stagger payments.

I booked my holiday for summer 24 in 2022. I had to pay a £200 deposit and the rest is effectively interest free credit until March. Each month we’re saving up but putting the money in a high interest account. We’ll probably pay the balance on an interest free credit card and keep the money in savings. If that sort of arrangement is available, I don’t see what’s so bad about taking advantage.

Buying new carpets when you already have perfectly good ones and putting it on finance is stupid.

'Living for today' is completely irresponsible when you are piling up debt. You have to think about the future. She is in thousands of pounds of debt from doing things like this over the years.

I didn't say it was a credit card, I said it was finance. Irresponsible lenders give money to people who can't afford to pay it back, it's not difficult to get.

I don't do package holidays but always pay flights hotels generally shopping in fact everything I can on the credit card. Firstly for the protection it offers and secondly it gets avoid and companion vouchers from British Airways

It is however paid off every month and I never pay a penny in interest

My last holiday was a week in Hobart in 2007. Since then my mother's had a stroke, I have had to become her full time carer, and I'm living on the carer pension (which isn't a lot worse than my wage was). So holidays aren't a thing, and when they were - I've been to Britain and the US twice each - I wouldn't have dreamed of going into debt for them.