Need advice - is a 0% credit card right for me?

NormW

Hi,

I'm not sure if this is in the right place or anything so you'll have to bear with me...

My situation is as follows:-

Wedding is March 2010.
Saving like mad till then.
Estimated cost is more than we can save before then - oh £$%^!

Basically there will be a shortfall between our savings and expenditure somewhere around the tune of £1500 - 2000 at my current budget.

Myself and my partner already have loans out for our cars, mortgage is in my name but other than that we no other debts. I've got a good credit history.

My question is :- is a 0% credit card the right way to make up this shortfall? I can definitely pay it off within the first 12 months (more likely it'll be less).

If not how else (other than scrimping and saving as we already are) should I do it?

All advice greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Norman.

CannyJock

No reason why not. Get a 0% purchase card, set up a direct debit to repay the minimum, use the card for the purchases, make overpayments to the card to clear the balance before the 0% period expires. Nice and simple.

Just work out when you need to spend and apply for the card a month or so before you need it. Full list of purchase cards on the stoozing site (http://www.stoozing.com/purchases.php) - keep a note of the page and check back when you want to apply for the card.

dfh

First Direct offer zero percent on purchases for 12 months.Halifax does it for 9 months.As the other poster said,set up a DD for the minimum.One slip and they can take the zero percent away and hit you with a higher rate of interest.

Dinah93

The 0% purchase cards will expire only around 4 months after your wedding, this does concern me if you can pay off this debt by the end of the 0% period, but I know most wedding expenses are well in advance, so hopefully you will be able to pay a lot of this off before the wedding even occurs?

splatt30

We had a 0% interest card for our wedding. Luckily got a big limit and used it for all the wedding spending. It really helped bridge gaps, like when parents said they pay for X but took 3 months to do so!! We took it out in the March and got married in the December. It was for 12 months and by the following March we'd put enough aside to pay it all off. Plus ours was an M&S card and we got loads of M&S vouchers for using it which we used to buy things for the wedding too.

NormW

Thanks everyone, I think I'll wait until we next need to make a big spend (somewhere around xmas) before I get the card so the 0% will last as long as possible after the wedding.

dfh - I don't where I'll stand wth first direct as they're part of HSBC who I already bank with and my existing credit card is with them. I noticed when I logged into my internet banking the other day that HSBC were offering 0% for 12 months but I assume it's only for new customers.

Does anyone know how they work out your card limit?