the more i find out the more i want to know!

de1amo

İ have just checked my credit record thanks to help from a thread i threw out--it took 5 minutes and all was well--i did notice that i had an excessive credit card credit limit and i am now wondering if this is a good or bad attribute in these days-

GeorgeUK

Having too much credit available may hinder you from getting further credit in the future. It may be worthwhile either using some of the cards you have with a nil balance to get a balance transfer deal (which as an existing customer usually doesn't require a credit check) or close some of the cards so you don't have too much available. If you have more credit available than your annual salary then it might be worth looking into.

de1amo

i never use credit cards and rely on a debit card for things i have to use a card for--in fact i think that card wouldnt work the last time i dusted it off due to i thought its non use-i spend most of my time abroad and things go cold back in the uk---i have no credit to be able to do a transfer!! am i missing a trick??

GeorgeUK

Possibly.

You said you had an excessive credit card limit but if your credit report says the account is still open and you are unable to use it, it really isn't doing you much good.

I use my credit cards to transfer from one to another so the current APR i pay is 6.9%, 4.9% and 0%
This is alot better than paying the standard APR with a creditcard or an overdraft.

If you are paying interest on any of your debts right now it may be possible to use a 0% deal to reduce the amount of interest and therefore pay off the debt quicker.

Even if you don't intend to use a creditcard much, it is better to show some activity so that there is a history of regular payments for any potential creditor to look at rather than just seeing that you have made no payments at all as you don't use credit. Some people spend on their card and just pay off the full balance at the end of the month so they don't pay any interest.

I guess it depends on what debts you have, whether using a 0% card would be beneficial or not. It would probably be beneficial to your credit score to show regular payments though - it doesn't matter if you aren't paying interest. That isn't recorded or of interest to them.

Poosmate

Yay for you having no credit! Wish I was in that situation!

You ask if you are missing a trick, well yes maybe. As George says, it's good have some activity on credit cards and in fact they can be your friend if you are diciplined enough to be able to payoff the full amount before any interest is charged.

I am talking about cards which you can get cash back from or other bonuses. I haven't really looked into this because I'm trying to reduce my debt/credit but now I know how not to use a credit card, I'm not afraid to make use of them at some time in the future.

One perk of using a credit card is booking flights/holidays (or other purchases over £50 I think) are all guaranteed, should your travel agent or airline go bust. You'll get your money back! Yay!

Hope that helps

Poo

de1amo

thanks--both very useful--i am currently away from the uk as i mite have said--i use the wifes credit cards and they automatically give 12 months interest on all purchases--you just have to keep paying the reqst amount--it gets unweidly and i can imagine to the undisciplined soon leads to problems-i watch and calculate things as every user of this site should-credit cards like this is a new thing to me--i have always had credit cards but always had a dd to clear them within the standard period-boring i know!!