Do You Have A Credit Card?

[RabbitsRock]

DH has one - I did for a while but found it too tempting to spend more than I could really afford plus it’s sometimes tricky to keep up with the repayments. I have had credit accounts with catalogues such as Bon Prix & Damart. These days I use Clearpay & Klarna which are really useful although again obviously you have to ensure you can make the repayments.

Yes i have two, one i just use for general spending to get points and pay off each month. The other I use to pay for big purchases and then pay off in chunks (0% so will pay off before that ends).

Of course. It gives you far better protection. I buy everything on it, including a chocolate bar at work. I pay it off every month. Anyone buying big purchases on a debit card are insane

Yes, this is the smart way to do it.

Of course, for all the reasons I'm assuming have already been listed. Flying business class next month with air miles.

I track all spending in a spreadsheet and keep the money set aside in a savings account until it's due to be paid, I earn an extra £20 a month doing that also.

I had my debit card cloned a few years ago and it was a right faff to sort out so I started using a credit card after that for the protection. I put everything on it and it’s paid in full by dd every month. I don’t understand why people think this is “juggling” - I spend the exact same amount of money that I did on my debit card but it comes out of my account in one go instead of dribs and drabs. I find it easier to see what I spend as my credit card app just has a list of transactions and how much my next payment is and the date it will be taken and my bank account statements are simplified by having my normal spending as one transaction instead of maybe 20-30.
I’ve also used a 0% card once when we had a lot of extra expenses all coming at a time when DHs income went through the floor. I spent about £3.5k in a couple of month with 18 months at 0% and set up the dd to pay the min off each month but saved up for the rest and didn’t put any extra on it. It’s an excellent way of borrowing IF you pay it back before the 0% ends. I’m usually a big advocate in not buying things until you’ve saved up enough for them but we had a few months of really shit luck where virtually every appliance we had and my car gave up and died. I put all our car insurances on it and my varifocals which is normally just pay off at the end of the month to give us some breathing space. I wasn’t tempted to buy more expensive versions of anything or buy stuff I wouldn’t normally buy because it was 0%.

I buy everything through credit card and then the direct debit clears it every month. I get a lot of free Amazon vouchers.

I wouldn’t use a CC to buy anything I couldn’t buy immediately. That’s where people go wrong, by spending more than they can afford or without a plan to pay it back quickly.

Yes. Rarely use it, but it's there for emergencies when travelling, and car hire.

I have about 5! I used to have an appalling credit rating due to my ex. I have built it back up my having small amounts of credit and repaying. They're much safer for online shopping etc.

I only buy what I can pay off from my current acc tho.

Yes, we have one each, but hardly ever use them. We do put larger purchases on it for the Section 75 protection but it’s always paid straight off, even before the statement is produced.

I also have a Next account and again, always pay it off straightaway as I only ever spend money I actually have. I occasionally use Klarna too - similar premise. Like I ordered some trainers for my son and we needed to get 2 pairs to check sizes so I did Klarna, then sent the pair back that were unsuitable and paid for what we owed.

I’m lucky that we always have the money for the sort of thing we use these for as I know it can be tempting for some people.

I don't like to order anything purely through debit card now, because of the protection. If it's something where I have to pay before getting the item, I'll use Paypal if there's no credit card option.

At first I thought DD stood as it usually does for “ dear daughter” & wondered why pp’s kids were paying off their card 🤣

I must state for transparency that I am in Ireland and credit cards in Ireland do not offer extra protection on purchases here. Credit and debit are treated the same. We also do not neee to build a credit rating here so imo there are no real benefits of them, other than spreading payments perhaps

@Housebuy1 air miles or other incentives like that?

not really…there’s one that’s affiliated with aer lingus but i couldn’t be bothered for 6.50 a month.