Need clarification on first credit card issues...

protector

First of all hello - love the site and hoping the forum will prove equally insightful.

Now down to it.
I’m going to post the plans I have, then a few details I think could make a difference and then what I need to know.
It may be a long post but I’ll try to keep it fairly concise.



I have a chance to travel with a friend this summer. The plan is to buy a classic VW camper van and head into Europe for a month or so.
As yet I’m not sure if I’ll be buying the camper privately or from a dealer.
There’s a good chance it will be private.

I want a credit card that will allow me to buy the camper now, use the cash I will have saved by the time we go away to travel with and then pay off the card after I return to the UK.
I expect to be able to pay off the balance within a two or three months of getting back.



So far I have never had a credit card. I have avoided getting one thus far for many reasons - mainly due to the old "credit cards are bad" chestnut.
In essence I want this card to advance the money I’ll be earning once I get back to be able to spend it before leaving thus leaving my savings for use on the road.




At the moment I have a store card (Jessops) from a purchase a while ago - that debt is about one payment away from being cleared.
The card payments are made to Clydesdale Financial Services.
The card currently has a credit limit of around £2000.
I have little intention of using this card again (any time soon at least - quite possibly never)
I also have an HSBC account with a £1500 overdraft facility on it.
I have no CCJs, made payments on time and have never been refused credit.



I’ve read through a fair few of the articles on the main site and I have a general idea of the different types of card (purchase, BT and SBT cards) Since I don’t have a credit card already that pretty much rules out BT cards. That leave Purchases and SBT. If I was going to go for a camper bought from a dealer then I’d be set for making a credit card purchase, but realistically I think it’s more likely that I’ll be making a private purchase which would need cash. In that instance really I think an SBT would be the way to go.




Ideally I’m looking for a credit limit of £2000 to £3000 (more would be better giving me a bit of leeway on the road)
Now I already have a credit limit in the region of £2000 on the Jessops store card, so am I right in thinking that if that is available to me on that, I should be able to get a similar limit on a credit card?
I seem to remember reading that having credit available to you can be problematic when trying to achieve more so I’d be happy to close the store card if it would help.


Really I need to know how realistic the plans I've outlined here are considering what I have said about store cards and overdrafts, and if it's likely that I'd be able to get the kind of credit limit I'm talking about here.

I could also do with suggestions as to what particular cards are best to go for.


Finally if there are any suggestions as to approaches that would be more suitable than the method I have outlined above - feel free to say so.


If there's anything else you'd need to know to answer this then let me know and I'll supply whatever info I can (within reason of course )

Thanks for reading through this and thanks in advance for any replies.

richgirl

You could try the bank your banking with, but without a credit history its going to be hard to get a good credit card.

Also an overdraft, even a small unused one counts as credit, so if you don't have one, you could help your credit history by getting one.

protector

protector wrote:

At the moment I have a store card (Jessops) from a purchase a while ago - that debt is about one payment away from being cleared.
The card payments are made to Clydesdale Financial Services.
The card currently has a credit limit of around £2000.
I have little intention of using this card again (any time soon at least - quite possibly never)
I also have an HSBC account with a £1500 overdraft facility on it.
I have no CCJs, made payments on time and have never been refused credit.

Take a read through the whole post.
Yes I'm after my first credit card, but I do already have credit available to me (total of about £3500) as detailed above.

Considering that - what would anyone say to the rest of my post?

grumbler

protector wrote:

...Yes I'm after my first credit card, but I do already have credit available to me (total of about £3500) as detailed above.

I'd orderded £2 credit files to make sure that these credits have been reported.

protector wrote:

I want a credit card that will allow me to buy the camper now, use the cash I will have saved by the time we go away to travel with and then pay off the card after I return to the UK. ... I’ve read through a fair few of the articles on the main site and I have a general idea of the different types of card (purchase, BT and SBT cards) Since I don’t have a credit card already that pretty much rules out BT cards. That leave Purchases and SBT.

If you rule out BT cards, you should rule out SBT cards too.

Ideally I’m looking for a credit limit of £2000 to £3000 (more would be better giving me a bit of leeway on the road)

It is not a big credit limit

I seem to remember reading that having credit available to you can be problematic when trying to achieve more so I’d be happy to close the store card if it would help.

£3.5K available is not a lot. I don't think that closing would help unless your annual income is much less than £10K.

I expect to be able to pay off the balance within a two or three months of getting back.... I want this card to advance the money I’ll be earning once I get back to be able to spend it before leaving thus leaving my savings for use on the road.

Many regulars of Debt-Free Wannabe board started their 'career' with spending on a holiday that they were not able to save for ...

Options:

1. Apply for '0% on purchases' card and use it for purchases abroad. Use your savings to buy a camper. The best CC for overseas spending is Nationwide (Spending Overseas: Cut the cost by over 6%). It comes with 9 months 0% on purchases too. However, Nationwide are known to be 'choosy'. There are other 0% cards that will charge you 2.75% abroad though. Your bank (HSBC) offer 6 months on purchases (and BTs).

2. Apply for a SBT card. AFAIK all of them will charge you at least 2% for SBT. The only way to avoid the fee is to get two cards: a BT card without fee and and Egg Money card as a mule.

protector

I know there's info about how to apply for credit files so I will find them now and then look into that.



When I rule out a BT, I mean purely because I can't see how a regular BT would be any use when I'm going to be making a cash purchase with the loan amount. I'd need an SBT over a BT because that would allow me to get the cash for the purchases I need to make.

I'll look into what you say about paying for camper with savings and paying for travels on a credit card - the only problem with that is that the price of these classic campers goes up getting closer to summer - a bit of a pain but that's a big part of why I'm looking for the card to get a camper.
Having said that with a 6-week lead time on credit cards (from what I remember reading on the main site) There's a fair chance I'd be able to buy a camper in cash then anyway.


Good point about the spending on a holiday one can't afford.
It's not that I won't be able to afford it - my outgoings are really quite low and I'd be able to pay it off within a short amount of time - the reason I'm after it on credit is the only chance I'll have to travel with this person for a LONG time will be before I could save enough with my current means. This is simply to advance my income by a couple of months. Thanks for pointing that out though - this issue is something I've given a fair bit of thought to.


I don't have a problem with paying a charge for SBT - if my thinking is right it will be about £50 - and though it's not in the tradition of screwing a credit-company back - it's a price I'm happy to pay for the ability to travel this summer if the need be.


If I do have a rethink and go for a purchases card, how "choosy" are there. What kind of hoops would I need to jump through (or what criteria would I need to meet) to get a Nationwide card with the kind of limits I've described?


Thanks both for your replies so far.

If anyone else has something to add then please do chip in.

protector

Just bumping this up to see if anyone else can add to it now the bank holiday is over and more people are online at work.
Ta.