0% card for doing up 1st house

HoneyAndLemon

Hi everyone, just looking for some opinions.

Me and my OH are currently in the process of buying our first home. We currently rent an apartment which was unfurnished. If everything goes through okay (fingers crossed), we will need to buy furniture for the new house. We have stuff like microwave,kettle, toaster, tv's, etc. It would be sofas, bedroom furniture, living room furniture, fridge, washing machine etc, we would need to get.

It looks like it could be January/February when we move. We'll probably have about £1000 or so saved before then, and probably a few hundred from family,plus we'll be saving an extra £200 a month on the difference between the rent and the mortgage.

What we're wondering, is if it would be worthwhile getting a 0% on purchases card, and paying it off gradually. It would just mean we could save the money instead, gain a bit of interest, and have it there for a rainy day too just incase.

I currently have a halifax clarity card, and a new look store card(which I'm closing this week, it's pants). Pay them both in full every month. And a loan of about £4000 which I've never missed a payment on. Im on the voters roll. Earn about £18000. No other debts.Don't use overdrafts. Pretty good credit report. No missed payments ever etc. I say all this because it would more than likely be me doing the application, as my OH has never had any credit so is unlikely to be accepted.

I reckon I'd probably close my Halifax clarity, and apply for their all in one card (0% on purchases for 13 months), as I'd have more of a chance of getting it being an existing customer (have everything with them).

Should we just use the money we will *hopefully* have saved, or try for the 0% card?

Any advice/tips would be great.

ViolaLass

Do you have an emergency fund?

Are you planning to get any of these items second-hand/from Freecycle?

HoneyAndLemon

Nope no emergency fund. Thats what I think the savings would be for. We do have overdrafts, but we don't use them, but I guess they could be used if necessary but I'd rather not. We've priced up everything, and its looking like we'll spend around £1500-£2000. The house doesn't need decorated straight away or anything, its a 2 year old house, and it's lovely as it is, it'll just be the electronics and some furniture.

We're going to be saving about £700 a month between us. So we'd have the money to pay it off in a few months. And then we'd have the rest of the interest free period as an emergency fund too I guess, as well as savings.

InsertWittyName

HoneyAndLemon wrote: »

I reckon I'd probably close my Halifax clarity, and apply for their all in one card (0% on purchases for 13 months), as I'd have more of a chance of getting it being an existing customer (have everything with them).

Just wanted to say that I've had great experiences with Halifax as an existing customer (I also have everything with them!) as it seems their internal scoring means more than a credit check.

Not sure on any T&Cs they may have regarding closing one card and opening a different one, but it would be probably worth checking.

As to your original question, I would personally go for the 0% purchase card option - you've obviously got a manageable level of debt and are savvy enough to pay things off in a reasonable timeframe.

HoneyAndLemon

I know you can only have 1 credit card at a time with them now so I'll check if I can change my clarity to the one card, or else I'll have to close it, and then apply. I've a good internal score with them so it should be okay.

Thanks for the reply

CLAPTON

make NO credit applications until you have completed on the purchase and the mortgage lender has paid the money over.

HoneyAndLemon

Yeah, won't be applying until we've completed etc. and we have a move in day all sorted.

YorkshireBoy

HoneyAndLemon wrote: »

I know you can only have 1 credit card at a time with them now...

Is that a recent change? Do you have a (reliable) source? I ask because, although you couldn't have two 'mainstream' cards, you could have a Charity card along with a 'mainstream' card.

...else I'll have to close it, and then apply.

I believe the wait is 'zero statement + 30 days' so don't rush in.

skintdad

if your an existing customer you probably won't be eligible for a promotional rate. it's usually at least 6 months (sometimes 12) before closing account and opening new one until you'll get promo rates on credit cards