Credit cards

[Gemini]

I expect we all have them, it's part of life nowadays.

I have to confess to not liking them, preferring to use my debit card or PayPal, which comes off my debit card. I know there are certain protections in paying by credit card, and I use it for air fares and a couple of other things. Increasingly they slap an extra charge on for using a credit card, another reason why I prefer the debit card.

I have only one credit card, Barclaycard. I have had it since I was young. I don't seem to get any benefit from it at all. Friends put everything on their credit cards, then pay it all off at the end of the month, and gain a lot by doing this. One friend has Tesco Credit card, and gets Tesco points.
I am thinking of getting an alternative card, but don't know which to choose, although Tesco sounds tempting.
As I have almost no income, (too young for pension yet ) would I be able to get a new card at this stage? !
Any comments please?

[Oma]

I'm the same Gem I mostly use my Debit card but prefer just using money , we have credit cards with Nat West and OH has American express I refused to have one also has PayPal , only time we pay on Credit card is for big stuff like sofas etc and pay it off when bill comes in you have protection on Credit cards . We have been with Nat West for about 40 yrs I never think of changing I must admit

[Mimi]

We generally only use our credit card for on line shopping as it is far safer than using a debit card on line. If you buy something that is £100 and over and the company closes down before you have recived your item you will ( eventually) get your money back , with a debit card it's almost certainly lost. It also applies if the item you brought gets ' lost' in delivery, again your money is safe but with a debit card it isn't. We did use a credit card to buy our sofa ( brought in town ) as it also has an extra 12 month guarantee on items over £100. We always pay off the total amount on our credit card bill every month so we don't incur any interest.
You have to make the credit card work for you and not for the company that has issued you with the card.

[Gemini]

I agree Mimi, it's important to pay the full balance monthly, so we benefit and not them!

I have now applied for a Tesco credit card. I only had to slightly lie You have to have an income of at least £5000 annually. I do have very small income from my reflexology business ,which I have scaled down very much since the arrival of grandchildren and now having an elderly mother very dependant on me. The rent from the house we part own goes into my account, so added together they just about make up the minimum

[Shemadee]

I read an article about the man who dreamed up the idea. His intention was never for people to use them to fund their lifestyle. He thought it was a way to help people fund the occasional unexpected large bill in his local area. I tend to use my pay pal account as it is much easier. Haven't got any store cards but I guess it is best to get one for whichever shop you use and spend the most money in. OH keeps one card for all work related items as it makes it easier when he does his tax return.

[ZIZI]

We have Barclaycard, transferred a balance that was husbands card to one at zero per cent and paying that off in big chunks and will be finished in four months. My BC has nothing on it. I have a Capital One card as well but haven't put anything on it for years. I have a Debenhams Store Card which gets paid off automatically at the end of the month. There are points earned on spend and they are very generous, they send them in voucher form once a quarter. Other than that we have two current accounts with debit cards. Our salaries go into one account and I shift money electronically to the other account and the savings account. I keep an eye on both accounts and transfer money between them if there is a big purchase but I prefer for large items to transfer direct to the account of the person supplying the service as in when we had the Windows done.

I keep the BC for emergency use such as if we need emergency medical treatment abroad and the insurance cannot cover it directly (sometimes you have to pay and reclaim) problem is that I cannot remember the PIN numbers for all the cards so I put them in my phones as friends numbers with the last four digits being the pin. I often wonder how I can remember which name is which card but cannot remember a series of four numbers!

[Nanto2girls]

I must be the only one here, to say we don't have any credit cards. Cash,debit card and paypal used here.
We have had them twice for when we have been to America, but they never got used.
Like Shemadee, we don't have any store cards either.

[Daisy]

We have one joint credit card and one joint debit card, but we always use the CC and pay it off at the end of the month. We don't get any points for anything, but then we're not the sort of customers banks want these days, because we don't borrow from them. OH has a PayPal account for his flea bay sales and purchases. I used to have a Debenhams card, but I cancelled it when they changed it to a charge card rather than a store card. Oh - and we do have a Nectar card so we do get some points. It's usually enough to pay for our Christmas supermarket shop each year. Keeping it simple works for us.

[Libra Gran]

Neither of us has a credit card,we both have debit and I use paypal.

[Qwerty]

Like Daisy we have one credit card and one debit card well a card each for same account we pay everything on the credit card apart from household bills we are with Nat West we only spend what we can pay off each month so never pay interest the banks don't like folks like us, we also pay big items on credit card holidays, furniture etc but always have the money in a Building Society to pay for it when the bill comes, but we get points on what we spend which turns into vouchers for M&S or Boots and various other stores and it pays for all Xmas presents 🤗
Our debit card if we pay all our utilities by direct debit we get 3 % cash back each month and it's a tidy sum 🤗
I do have an account into which my state and works pension goes into and each month a set amount comes out and goes into an ISA I have for what it's worth and I can use it as a debit card but don't like too many different bills coming in 🙄

[Enfys]

We have a joint CC and Debit Card. Use the credit card and pay the balance off every month. We get a cash reward at the end of the year, not much but enough for a meal out . We use paypal or CC for online shopping. Oh and a nectar card which gives us point.

[Glammanana]

We have used Barclaycard for many a year it was a godsend when DCs where little and emergency new shoes where needed but always paid off at end of month,only really used for online deposits etc now and used it for the first time in quite a while whist we where in LV to pay their stupid visitors tax which was $32 a day per person but will be paid off next week in full and card put away.I get good useage of my nectar card as DS1 is Sainsbury manager and I get a lot of offers via him if I am doing a big shop or buying textiles or kitchen bits and bobs he does have his use every now and then.

[ZIZI]

32 dollars a day visitors tax??? That is a place I will not be going!

[Gemini]

I now use my new Tesco credit card whenever I would have used my debit card. I get Tesco points whenever I use it, and extra points when I use it in Tesco.
Paid up every month, so no charges