Paying for housekeeping on credit card.

Limana68

Hi there,
We are trying to budget better, and have been reading all the posts re cashback cards.
I have noticed that alot of people use their credit card to pay for all their household stuff/ food etc throughout the month then pay off in full at end of month.
I have never done this and just use my normal current acct debit card, but we are useless at working out how much we have left and end up overdrawn.
We are thinking of applying for a cashback card and and using it to pay for all the monthly shopping etc, then paying it off at end of mth, as I feel it will be easier for us to budget this way.
How do all you get on with this system, sorry if I am a bit behind the times here! Do you find it helps with your budgetting??
Which cashback card would you recommend, I have heard the Morgan Stanley card is good for cashback rates at the mo.

Many thanks for your help!!

L

nearlyrich

I use my Egg card at the moment, it has a DD to pay off the balance and with housekeeping and work expenditure ( hotels and diesel mainly) I usually rack up about £1200 to £2000 pm.

I class my expenses as savings, I get it bank transferred into my current account and i transfer it into my savings account, my DH also does a BT for half the home balance each time I get the CC bill. If I need to transfer some to the current account to cover the bill I do but as all my accounts are online it's really easy to manage and my money is earning interest most of the month.

jonesMUFCforever

Generally I use 2 credit cards.
First Egg money - this is used for all monthly outgoings such as petrol, supermarket shopping, most utility bills etc and is paid off in full using DD.
Second card is used for none essential use eg a meal out or some bill that crops up that you have not budgeted for and this is normally paid off in full or at least paid off in a max of 2-3 months if money is tight. This ensures that interest paid is minimal.

magentadreamer

If you have online banking for your current account and for a savings account it's pretty easy to get into the swing of using a CC for household stuff.

I'm currently using a 0% purchases card so every time I spend on the card I "save" it by putting it in my savings account. As the card is 0% I'm only making the min payments so all I then do is transfer the min back to my current account in plenty of time for the DD to go out. With a cashback card all you'd do is make sure all the money was there. A&L have an excellent online savings account at 5.1% which I'm currently using. I've found it does help me to budget better

Dora_the_Explorer_5

I use my debit card for most purchases and treat it as a cash machine - which it is. I know exactly what money will got into my current account and when, and as I get a receipt each time I use my debit card I know exactly what I've spent and when. Then I subtract spent from available and that's how much money I've got left. I learned this mathematical wizardry when I was 7 years old - it's foolproof.
Before anyone jumps up and down on this post - if I used a credit card for everyday spending I would buy stuff just because I could, and end up on the Debt Free- Help Please thread.

magentadreamer

I quite agree with you Dora learning to budget is the key. I just like to stretch my £'s a little bit further and if you are not going to pay the card off in full each month either by paying money to the card or your savings account I would definetly suggest you stick to hard cash.

sicker

I preload my Egg Money Card each month from my salary. It then used for all purchases making me 1% cash back whilst also gaining 4% on the positive balance. Also drawing cash from an A.T.M. whilst the card is in credit carries no charges. I also pay in £100 per month by direct debit.

John

Limana68

Thanks for your replies so far, me and hubby have never been great with budgetting, and have both had good jobs in past, its just that now I am the main earner, and we dont have as much coming in as he is mainly house hubby and looks after our two children, so we are looking at ways to cut back and budget properly.
A friend of mine has a cashback card and it seems a good way to go and earn some too.
Thanks again

Penny-Pincher!!

Although I have a few cards, I basically use 2. 1 for BT's and paying off as much as possible each month and the other for monthly expenses, food, groceries, petrol etc and this is paid in full each month.

PP
x

Juni_3

The only place I use my Debit card now is in Lidls as they won't take a credit card.

As I hate having money in any account that isn't paying me max interest the credit card is great as I can just move on lump of money at the end of the month to pay it off. Getting cashback on it only adds to the simplicity.

jonesMUFCforever

sicker wrote:

I preload my Egg Money Card each month from my salary. It then used for all purchases making me 1% cash back whilst also gaining 4% on the positive balance. Also drawing cash from an A.T.M. whilst the card is in credit carries no charges. I also pay in £100 per month by direct debit.

John

If you put your salary into a decent paying savings account you could get 1% cashback AND get 4% interest.
All you are doing is using your own money and the interest declines with every transaction that you make.