Credit Cards - Can I ask?

[StupidUsernameUnavailable]

What's your current balance?

Due to current times I'm trying to get myself in the best possible position to deal with the financial storm we are all in at the moment. I have my own credit card, which in recent years have paid off in full every month.

Reduced overtime on both sides and just basic cost of living increases have meant I have been unable to. My DH asked what my current balance was and went up the wall! I explained I was hardly living the high life with holidays and Louboutins, it's been for the weekly shop, diesel and the odd tin of paint (currently renovating our first time buy).

It's on 0% and will (unless anything unexpected crops up) be paid off in 3 months time.

Can I ask if my DH was being unreasonable? Current balance is £850.

TIA 😊

Always pay in full every month
however I do use PayPal credit to cover big purchases interest free by paying over 4 months

I do think some of you who are clearly very comfortably off need to back off those who post such things who aren't as well off

It's because I've not been very well off in the past, that I am, frankly, scared of debt and won't borrow more money than I have. If OP can pay off £850 in 3 months, she's not exactly hard up.

£0 currently. It's only used for one-offs like holidays/home improvements and I settled it quite recently, original balance was about £6k due to a combo of "big" purchases. I'd say £850 is perfectly fine.

£0 on a credit card but £2700 on a bank loan that was used to cover unexpected costs during a time when I was on maternity leave/DH was retraining for a new job and had a lower income.

It has a fixed interest rate and monthly payments. I know when it ends and as its with my bank it comes straight out of my current account without any issues.

It's not ideal but there's not much I can do.
DH works roughly 30-40 hours overtime during his rota and my job doesn't do overtime.

About £10k, but it's 0% for 23months - I bought the kitchen units, flooring and worktops on it. I have more than that in savings though, and have a DD set up which means at the end of the 23 months it'll be paid off.

Currently £376. I only use it these days when the car goes into the garage. It used to be a cashback card but since that stopped I rarely use it for anything else. It's really just for emergencies. I've always tried not to get into debt, freaks me out tbh!

£850 to me might not to be £850 to you. If I get £1500 a month then it's insurmountably high, if you get £10k per month it's shits and giggles. So asking about others' isn't useful to you.

The important issue is that you're putting joint expenses on your sole credit card and your income can't support your outgoings.

Can I suggest heading over to MSE and getting their budget spreadsheet and do it with your partner. Put everything that you spend together and alone, bills, mortgage etc. Make sure that football goes on there with the priority spends (I'd put it bottom of those so it's kind of not a priority but you're not saying "you can't have this").

Then work out where the shortfalls are and what you can do about them.

In the existing shitstorm you're likely to need to cut back so you need to work together to make the "in" equal the "out - after debt repayment is provided for". Cut back on whatever but if things are dire it'll show why football might either need to go or get less expensive (sharing a season ticket with a mate etc).

And he's unreasonable to think it's ok to get pissed off with you for covering his food bill of he's not grown up enough to manage his own budget.

I put my new 2nd hand car on a credit card. 0% for 34 months, just set up a direct debit for a 34th of the balance on the day. Credit cards aren’t always bad. I wouldn’t be happy in your situation, considering you are using the cc for basic living cost while he pisses money that is obviously needed up the wall at football. I would actually consider half that bill his if it was genuinely spent on groceries. He sounds totally unreasonable and pretty selfish tbh

I am by no means "well off". I'm doing some admin and leaflet posting for my DSis over the next couple of months which was originally going to go towards paying for decorating materials/furniture for our bedroom but will now be added to my (normal in full) payment.

I normally put £200-£250 on and clear off in full (mortgage advisor advice) as a credit history boost as it was shot to pieces due to years off pathetic money mismanagement. I am SOOOO much better now, just the last couple of months have been tight. Also back to work full time in August.

I read that the average outstanding credit balance in the UK is around £1400 and thought, "well, I'm not that bad!" and just wanted to get a feel from the actual credit user.

Thank you all for being so honest and open.

@Fkingfnaaarr

I am actually a regular user of MSE. Debt Free Wannabe was my saviour a few years ago!!

It was £500 but I've just paid it off, my husband does the saving as he pays proportionately less into our bills (to keep the amounts fair) because I'm rubbish and will spend it if I have it whereas he's much better and loves saving but this £500 wiped out the savings I did have.
I've just changed jobs and decided it was better to clear that off rather than trying to clear it by £100 a month and end up spending on it again anyway because I think "well I've just paid £100 off it so I can spent £30 or so" and repeat!

He never knew I carried a balance on my credit card and would have been very unhappy had he known so I can understand how you feel!
£500 was always minimal to me and could have cleared it in a month if I needed to, he just hates debt and just about tolerates a mortgage, we don't drive but would never have car finance or anything like that. It's the only thing I think he's stubborn and shortsighted on! But the £500 was me frittering money away on a new laptop etc which I didn't massively need so didn't tell him and he didn't ask! But it's all cleared now and will probably only use to book holidays etc

In which case you know exactly what you're doing but the important bit of my post is the doing it together bit so that communal problems (food, petrol and bills are higher than income) don't have private solutions (your credit card) and that football is seen in context of all the more important stuff.

weekly shop, diesel and the odd tin of paint

That sounds very worrying to me.

It sounds as if you are using credit to cover day to day living expenses. Is that correct?

What is going to change, so that you will be able to afford to pay off living expenses in three months, when you have not been able to cover your basic day to day living expenses

There is no point your DH going up the wall about you using credit for day to day expenses. You need to agree a realistic, affordable budget between you and then do whatever it takes to stick to it.

As a student I messed up and was technically bankrupt for a few months, managed to scrape by with a little help from friends without having to tell my parents. Ever since I have used credit cards just for convenience and paid off the. I'll in full each month.

Once you have a joint account and DC to consider it is of course much more difficult. Ad well as complaining about the level of your spending, It sounds as if 'he' is prioritising his football over day to day household items. That really isn't right. Using credit to make up for his lack of contribution is a really slippery slope. I hope you find your way out.

We average £1k to £2k a month spending on our credits cards. Our current balance is around £2200. However this is all budgeted spending and will be paid off in full at the due date.
We've had financial strife where we'd maxed out cards, loans and O/D and fought to pay back the minimum and then it was a tough slog to clear the balances to be debt free.
Now we are in a better situation and we clear every balance in full and only spend on credit cards to streamline our finances and for rewards and cashback.

I haven't had a credit card for about 15 years. I could probably be trusted with one now but I just don't need it. Do they still have cards that do 0% on balance transfers? That helped me pay off my balance.

Highest balance ever about £120,000

Now about £22,000 on interest free plus this months spend of about £20k on BA Amex.

Yes, and some 0% purchase ones too.

I think credit cards can be great way to manage money, especially those with cashback and rewards however you definitely need to be disciplined about not seeing it as free cash.

I have about 1200 on cc, DH (much higher earner) has 3400. We are paying off 750 per month, and chucking anything extra we can at the larger debt. Mine is 0%.

We do also have savings and emergency fund etc. We were in a worse state financially 2 years ago, it has been a work in progress, but we are getting there now.

We both also have available £10,000 + of credit limit which blows my mind. This is what got us into trouble in the first place. It was so easy to py for big things on the card.

About £3,500. But, it's all on 0% and I have that money readily available in High interest saving accounts and could pay it off today if I needed to. The reason that I don't is that it pays more to keep the money in the savings accounts. It will be paid off before the 0% deal ends.

I funded my new kitchen on a credit card - 0% for 22 months.

The kitchen looks amazing and I can pay off the card easily within 22 months time. In fact I will pay it off long before then.

I think 0% cards are excellent for big purchases like that - for consumer protection and to spread the cost. Amazing to have that flexibility and I feel very lucky that I live in a country where credit is readily available (some countries it just isn't) and that I have a good enough credit score to be able to get that kind of money.

However, this was one big planned spend that I thought through carefully for months and months. I looked at the range of options available for credit and I planned how I would pay it back.

This is a far cry from putting petrol and food on a credit card ad hoc because I don't have enough to cover the basics.

So OP I don't think the £850 is necessarily an issue. The issue is WHY you're putting every day spending on a card that you cannot pay off in full each month.

Yes! It's actually quite crazy how much credit banks will give you!

This just prompted me to check as I didn't know the exact figure as I have set up a fixed amount to be paid so that it is cleared within the 0% period. Ignoring reward cards paid off in full each month, the total sits at just under 4k.

I'm rather blasé about it admittedly as it incurs no interest and we have more than enough in savings to pay it off whenever we wanted.

In your situation, I strongly recommend you revisit your joint account contributions and increase them to cover food and a small 'slush' fund to cover incidentals like paint. This way, those expenses are coming from joint funds and you are not trying to do 50:50 with personal leftover money (which is clearly not working as your DH is not equally contributing!).

It's what my DH and I do. We also have a rewards credit card that is used for joint purchases which is paid off in full from our joint account as we've already accounted for it in our budget.