Credit Card Help - totally newbie!!

fanatabulous87

Please respond on the basis that I have no idea about credit cards!

My issue is this - I need to pay off my holiday by 3rd February and don't have enough to do it and therefore am considering a credit card which I will pay off within the 12 months interest free. The only thing is, I have NO IDEA what credit card would be best for me and would be ever so grateful if anyone could let me know what credit card you think would be best for me. I would only be spending approx. £1400 on it.

Thank you in advance x

YorkshireBoy

If you've never had a credit card ask your bank (the one that sees your salary each month) for one.

If they won't play ball then your only option is a credit-builder card...but you don't want to be running a revolving balance on one of those with their circa 34.9% APR interest rates!

izools

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

.but you don't want to be running a revolving balance on one of those with their circa 34.9% APR interest rates!

Nor will you be offered a high enough initial limit for a #1,400 spend if you've not had a CC before.

Good luck getting one from your bank

ironlady2022

Hi
If you've never had credit before, you may not get the £1400 but a lower limit, in which case you could still put part of your holiday on.
Now you need to look for a 0% on purchases. And depending on which one you choose, it will give you X no of months to pay it off.

EG You get a 0% purchases credit card for 6 months and let's assume you can put the whole £1400 on there. Then it is up to you to pay up before the 6 month period ends. It's a simple sum. £1400 divide by 6 months = £233.33 is the minimum you should be paying if you do not want to incurr interest at the end of the promotional period. You also need to make sure you do not have a late payment, as the company may withdraw the 0% immediately (should be written in the terms and conditions). The longer the 0% period, the harder it is to obtain and is usually only for people with a good credit score.

Any

fanatabulous87 wrote: »

Please respond on the basis that I have no idea about credit cards!

My issue is this - I need to pay off my holiday by 3rd February and don't have enough to do it and therefore am considering a credit card which I will pay off within the 12 months interest free. The only thing is, I have NO IDEA what credit card would be best for me and would be ever so grateful if anyone could let me know what credit card you think would be best for me. I would only be spending approx. £1400 on it.

Thank you in advance x

Ok, the issue is this - you've never had a card before, you have no credit history on which the banks will judge you on. How responsible you are with your money.

So they will not want to take a risk with you.

Your best option really is to go to your bank first. Your credit limit will most likely be lowish to start with as well.

It is not as easy as to think - oooh, I need money I know what, I get credit card. Credit card is not a right, they are picky. Especially since the financial crises begun.

However your bank can see also your current account - which the other banks can't and as an existing customer you have more chances of getting them to give you proper decision.

fanatabulous87

Thank you all so much for your responses. I have applied online for a Halifax credit card as I also bank with them. The website did say an instant decision but when I finished it said they will contact me within ten days which is pretty frustrating as I need to pay for my holiday by 3rd Feb!!
Does anyone know how long Halifax usually take to let you know?

Thanks again everyone x

ironlady2022

When my Brother got his, it was about 10 days, you have to sign the paperwork they send through before they send you card and pin!

geoffky

A holiday on a credit card? oh dear!! what next?

izools

fanatabulous87 wrote: »

Thank you all so much for your responses. I have applied online for a Halifax credit card as I also bank with them. The website did say an instant decision but when I finished it said they will contact me within ten days which is pretty frustrating as I need to pay for my holiday by 3rd Feb!!
Does anyone know how long Halifax usually take to let you know?

Thanks again everyone x

They have referred your application to an underwriter to make a manual decision - basically your application wasn't good enough to automatically pass, and wasn't bad enough to automatically fail, so someone will have a look and review it manually.

They will write to you with their decision in a week or so

Geenie

geoffky wrote: »

A holiday on a credit card? oh dear!! what next?

I do wonder about the advice on here being as it's about money saving. The OP has booked a holiday they can't afford and is now scrambling about for credit to pay a bill by the 3rd Feb. Surely the best advice is not to book a holiday you cant pay for, but budget to have a break you can afford, ie the garden with a bottle of Lambrusco. Loading up debt on a CC is surely not a good thing if you end up paying even more through interest and minimum payments. Interest free is surely quite hard to get in these times, let alone at such notice.

I truly wish the OP well and hope they get a good holiday.

fanatabulous87

geoffky wrote: »

A holiday on a credit card? oh dear!! what next?
I do wonder about the advice on here being as it's about money saving. The OP has booked a holiday they can't afford and is now scrambling about for credit to pay a bill by the 3rd Feb. Surely the best advice is not to book a holiday you cant pay for, but budget to have a break you can afford, ie the garden with a bottle of Lambrusco. Loading up debt on a CC is surely not a good thing if you end up paying even more through interest and minimum payments. Interest free is surely quite hard to get in these times, let alone at such notice.

Can I please say thank you to those of you who have been helpful.
To those quoted above, I will tell you the circumstances - We booked the holiday 8 months ago when my fiance was also in full time employment, we had some money saved up but not the full amount and he got made redundant just before Christmas therefore we are now struggling to pay for the holiday without getting cash from elsewhere. I appreciate you are trying to help but we haven't decided to just leave it until the last minute out of choice and if I had up until we went on holiday to pay for it we wouldn't actually need to lend but on the basis that it needs paying in February, this is the reason we need to - and as that is the case you can see that we have the money each month to pay back a credit card anyway. Once the holiday is paid and we have paid our credit card off (which would be done within 6 months) we will scrap the card. So please don't make out that I decided to book my holiday last minute, (probably whilst sat in the garden drinking my cheap wine) and then "scramble around" for cash - the holiday was a well thought out thing and we weren't to know what would happen later in the year.