credit card as short term loan

[EnlightenedOwl]

My credit card has is zero
i have someone doing some work on the garden for me. This work is not optional. The garden is a mess and letting the house down (on the front). Falling down fences, broken steps you name it. It is £1k to get this work done.

I have £1k in the bank and this was going to pay the work
BUT the boiler needs or is going to need replacing in the very short term and I need to save fast.
What I was thinking is keep my £1k in the bank save another £1k (do-able) and use my credit card to finance the landscaping as a short term option? I can afford the repayments.
good idea or mad?

Fine as long as you can pay for the work on card. If you withdraw cash on a credit card it will cost you an absolute fortune!

See if your card company (or another) will offer you 0% on purchases for a certain number of months and get it repaid in this time.

I've seen a deal through the Martin Lewis site for money transfer 0% for 24 months that looked good and I know I'll be able to pay it in this time. Maybe earlier and it will just cut me a bit of breathing space.

I don't see why not as long as you are confident you can repay. Tesco are doing a great credit card at the moment that has a long interest free on purchases time limit plus you get clubcard points

So long as its 0% and you don't withdraw it as cash...Tesco has a good deal on at moment, the RBS Worldcard too...if not 0% could you get overdraft to cover it?

You can use balance transfer to put another cc in credit and use one in credit for day to day spending - leaving cash in the bank without having to use cc to draw out cash

You need £1000 now. You have £1000 in the bank. So use it. You may need money for a new boiler in the near future. If you haven't earned enough by then to pay for it, THAT is the time to consider using your credit card. With any luck, you won't have to.

Are you about to sell this house? If not, is the appearance of the front THAT important?

I would use the credit card - assuming you can pay the tradespeople directly with the credit card - because it comes with some buyer protection if things go wrong. If you pay out cash, there's no protection unless you sue for compensation.

I agree with exaltedwombat. Use your cash to pay now, the save up for the boiler and if you don't have enough, put the rest on the card then - it's simpler to pay for a boiler on a credit card then for gardening work usually.

Not sure which deal you are looking at on Martin Lewis's site, but if it's the MBNA one, there is a 4% fee - so thats £40 on £1000.