To think we can do this without a credit card?

[Youmadorwhat]

So long story short we are embarking on building a house, we have the site paid for and cash to fund most of the build but I recently closed my credit card account because I found myself using it unnecessarily and I hate them. But now I’m thinking maybe I should reopen or get s new one?? Thoughts? Do I need a credit card, would it be beneficial??

I used a credit card to fund some recent work - have the money to pay it off but it did help with budgeting. Also got a shed load of Nectar Points as it was a Sainsburys one, plus 3 years interest free. Just use it only for building work and dont be daft with it

yabu as you could use a cashback credit card, pay the balance in full every month and get 0.5% the spend back.

^^ came on to say this about cash back credit cards

Well if you have the money to fund the build you could just pay for everything with your debit card. I spent £6k on a car on mine once.

As others have said, you are losing the potential 0.5% cashback, which would be £100 on a £20k spend, so not nothing, but hardly life changing.

If you want to make a bit of extra money on the money, you could do a lot worse than make Santander 123 your main current account, earn cashback on bills that is likely to exceed the £5 a month fee, keep the balance at just under £20k and earn 1.5% interest on this. Keep any excess money in a Marcus account or similar and move it across to the current account as needed.

The other advantage of a credit card is that it gives you consumer protection. So if you use it to pay for a kitchen, windows, central heating etc (or even just a deposit) and it all goes wrong for some reason, the credit card company is equally liable, so would be another route to get your money back.

However, many sellers of this type of product might not accept credit cards, as the fees are usually higher than debit cards for the sorts of money they deal with.

I forgot to say we are in rep of Ireland now (moved from the U.K. a few years ago) so those uk options don’t apply 😩 don’t know what kind of offers they have here 🤔

I would always use a credit card for big purchases, in case anything goes awry. I always pay my credit card bill in full every month.

@barbaraofseville yes I was thinking obout the consumer protection aspect too I suppose it would be useful

The regulations I referred to are UK regulations, so you would have to look to see if there is an equivalent in Ireland.

If looking for a credit card, I would probably look on Moneysavingexpert or a comparison site, but they would obviously only offer UK products.

I googled ireland credit card comparison and came up with the delightfully named Bonkers site, where I learned that in Ireland, you need to pay a 30 euro annual tax on credit cards although some providers seem to offer cashback to cover this.

Without consumer protection, cashback or other incentive, I would be less minded to use a credit card in your circumstances, especially if there is an annual fee.

Why do you hate credit cards?
They are just a financial tool that you control. They don't make you do anything bad and offer consumer protection.

Notacooldad I just hate having to mage it, I hate thinking about when I need to pay, and seeing how some people lose control over them freaks me out 🙈

Manage*

I just hate having to mage it, I hate thinking about when I need to pay, and seeing how some people lose control over them freaks me out You can set up a DD to pay it in full every month, then it behaves like a debit card, in that you have to have enough in the bank to cover spend, but you get better consumer protection than you do with a debit card. But if having one is going to cause you anxiety, then you're better off without.

Ah, if it gives you anxiety then don't bother.
I have a DD set up so the minimum goes out . I can have a zero balance for months but then will use it for things like car hire or concert tickets and then have it paid off within the month.
The ridiculous thing is that I have limit if £15,000 but the most I've spent was £2.5k on a settle and then did a bank transfer later that day to pay it off!