No wonder the UK has such debt........

Rasta Pickles wrote in news:40e5597e-4cac-468c- snipped-for-privacy@g26g2000vbi.googlegroups.com:

The only credit cards I have every possessed are those issued by my employer for use covering out of pocket expenses.

There's no need to be sniffy about credit cards. It's an incredibly useful way to pay even if you don't want the official "credit" beyond the bill date. Mind you, the debit card is almost as good.

JNugent wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net:

Yup, use a debit card all the time indeed since they first came out but never a credit card. The only thing I've ever bought on tick is the house and that gets paid off (very early!) in a few months.

I find mine very useful - and very profitable.

Apart from very minor purchases I buy almost everything using my Tesco credit card - and pay it off in full every month. This means that I am a 'month ahead' in terms of interest being earned on the money I have spent.

Tesco credit cards give Tesco points on every purchase, no matter where the card is used. It also acts as a Tesco loyalty card and so, when used in store (and for Tesco fuel), you get the credit card points on top of the normal loyalty card points, - and this means that every quarter I receive a hefty bundle of vouchers that I can either just spend in store - or use for three times their face value for 'Deals'. I am currently on my second year of RAC membership paid for with Tesco vouchers. My wife has 12- month subscriptions to three magazines, and I have similar subscriptions to two car magazines - all paid for with vouchers. Our two main shopping trips to Tesco for Christmas and New Year food and entertaining has been paid for entirely with the vouchers.

And all this simply for buying goods and services with a Tesco credit card. The RAC membership, five magazine subscriptions, all our Christmas/New Year food and drink have been effectively free!

The only time I don't use the Tesco card is when I'm abroad - I have an alternative credit card for foreign spending which doesn't charge extra for foreign use.

Just over 30% pa sounds a expensive rate for cards; I thought they were mostly under 20% now.

You need to find a friend who's got a spare £887 in a savings account earning 1% pa if he's lucky.

Borrow the money off him to pay off the statement, and pay him £5 a month for the trouble.

He'll be getting 6.7% interest instead of 1%, and you'll only be paying 6.7% interest instead of 31%, and everyone will be happy. Except the banks.

Nice one and succintly put:-)

The months interest you have saved is worthless at the moment. However the insurance that you get for some purchases by using a credit card makes it worthwhile.

I use an egg cash back card at 1 per cent, so would have got paid nearly 9 quid

Yes - I get about £100 pa back on Amex.

If you lend money to a friend there's a high risk that some or all of the money won't be returned. Is an extra £50 profit worth the risk that a friend who obviously has money troubles might not be able to return it?

On Thu, 30 Dec 2010 21:56:31 +0000, Jak boggled us with:

Indeed. This is why I never lend money to friends. I'll *give* them the money, and they can pay it back if/when they can. It's clearly nonsensical lending money to someone who has none, and probably won't be able to pay it back. More often than not, I get it back in the end, which I just see as a bonus. (i'm not talking vast sums here. I think £100 is the max I've ever "lent" anyone)

so...its the banks fault that you spent too much money ;-))

I agree with all of that, I treat helping friends out the same way. Never lend, but actually "give" a reasonable amount. It's always awkward "lending" with friends.

...this is getting embarrasing! :)

I always pay off my credit card in full each month by Direct Debit, but even if you do that it seems the interest lingers on for months.

I forgot to take my debit card out with me a few months ago and on September 17th 2010, for the first time ever, I withdrew £100 in cash from an ATM using my Santander credit card. I knew I'd have to pay interest on it and sure enough I was charged £0.98 on October 1st. Then on October 29th they charged me another £1.42. I thought that was the end of it, but my last statement shows yet another £0.02 charged on November 11th. So even 3 months after taking the cash advance I'm still not quite sure that the debt has been completely repaid.

Chris

If you pay off the whole thing every month (and therefore don't incur any interest or charges) I don't see that debit cards are any better than credit cards, and for the former you have to make sure that your bank account has the money in it in advance and the latter gives you protection in case you buy a faulty appliance and the suppliers go bust.

Credit cards rule (unless you are feckless).

I lent £25000 once, although reluctantly. Fortunately I got paid back a few months later (this more business though than personal).

With the figures I gave, 6 or 7% return, the lender would actually be better off, the longer it took to repay the loan (perhaps never), provided he never needed use of his capital. And he can always ask for security.

At which point I would just state, Mike, that although delayed by Christmas, I have now read your book and will be getting it in the post back to you asap!

Cheers

Kev

Since my current account came with Visa Debit card, I've hardly used credit cards anymore.

There are always these hidden charges they hit you with every month or two. Forgetting to pay a statement is a big one; on one card I used rarely, a £25 shopping bill become £37 after the late payment was added; nearly a 50% surcharge on the shopping!

There are loads of these underhand charges, but just one example: I had a card where I'd already spent £700, but it was still some weeks from the statement.

I used it to withdraw £100 cash abroad (already attracting an ATM fee plus a weighted exchange rate). To minimise interest, I paid off £105 as soon as I got back.

However, it doesn't work that way! This £105 was instead used to reduce the £700 balance on purchases which still had an interest free period of several weeks to go. The cash was withdrawal still accruing interest, as I found out weeks later. No way to stop it without immediately paying the entire £800 balance.

The thing is, I had another card with the same bank, with a £0 balance; I could have used this for the cash withdrawal, and could have paid it off exactly as I expected. So I was penalised for simply choosing one card over another.

Actually I've got loads more examples of unexpected charges, but I'll stop there. Needless to say, with the debit card, I've had no such troubles, and a lot less of my money goes to the credit card companies for no good reason.

It's not a surcharge on the shopping; it's a penalty for not paying your bill in time.

You *can* arrange for a (free) DD which automatically clears your credit card every month - to the penny - on payday (or the day after). That would prevent penalty charges.

It's better to use a Cirrus (debit) card when abroad.

You used the wrong card...

The *wrong* one. It's not a secret that credit card cash withdrawals attract interest immediately. You would expect them to. And the rules about account attribution are not a secret either.

If it works best for you, that's great. It is, OTOH, possible to gain extra benefit from the use of a credit card as compared to a debit card - effectively free money (seriously). For a start, some credit cards pay you back a lump sum every year (typically 1% of what you've spent that year). No debit card does that AFAIK.