Should I get a CC?

duncanc

I'm 30 years old and never needed/wanted a credit card before. Now I might need one, should I bother getting one? My situation:
Need to buy webhosting for a large, busy site. My current hosts (UK based) are offering an upgrade deal that'll cost at least £200/month initially. This is on a shared server (if that means anything to you). I can get a better deal by getting a dedicated server (think: better than shared) from the USA for a lot less (about $120 - $160/month, i.e. roughly half the price and for a better package).
But to do this I have to have a Visa/Amex/Mastercard, none of the competitive hosting companies I've looked at will allow for payment by PayPal etc. Unless anyone knows any different...

So my plan is to get a Visa card, and ensure I only use it for this and nothing else, and setup a standing order to always transfer enough into it each month to remain in credit. Does this sound workable? Assume I know almost nothing about how CC's work. Any recommendations, advice etc appreciated.

JonSimmonds

£200 is alot, you sure you found the best deal?

as to credit cards i dont know much about them,, but so long as the minimul (normally 5% of ballance) is paid before the date on the bill , the CC company is happy, and most "decent" cards do a direct debit for the min payment option, leaving you to pay of anyting over that as and when you want to.

If you do get a CC shop around for the one that offers the longest 0% intrest free period for purchases, (mint offer 0% for 9 months i think)

grumbler

With so low monthly spending I think cashback card is better option. To choose one just read this ARTICLE . If it comes without 0% introductory period the best thing is to set up a Direct Debit for full monthly payment.
I also am sure that if they accept Visa credit cards they will also accept Visa debit card.

tetley

just a word of warning,if you allow a company a "continueous credit card authority "YOU as the card holder cannot cancel the payment ,you have to write to the company concerned and ask them to cancel.i would advise that you get as much info about the company as possible before proceeding.

lipidicman

Get a cashback card and set up the direct debit to pay off the monthly bill IN FULL. The advantage here is that your credit history will be built up and will help if you need credit in the future - cheap credit is always handy!

JasonW_2

The only thing I would say about USA sites, is check what kind of speeds you and your customers would get, and if they do their maintenance (ie bring the server down for upgrades, repairs) in the middle of the night, what time is that here? You would be better looking at a Europe based server, and I think you could negotiate a nice price if its gonna be £200 a month!

newfoundglory

You need a Nationwide credit card... because if you are gonna be buying a product in US dollars, you don't want to pay the 2.75% foreign loading charges charged by basically all the other credit card companies. $160 everymonth for a year is quite a lot, and you will save a lot in fees by using a Nationwide card (more than what you would get back from using a cashback credit card). This means with Nationwide you get the wholesale exchange rate set by Visa.

Nationwide no longer offer cashback on overseas purchases, but their classic card is free to use in different currencies, and it comes with 0% for 6 months.

The only issue is getting accepted for a Nationwide card, since they don't use Risk Based pricing for applications... in other words, one size fits all. They won't up the card interest rate, they will just reject the application if they consider your risk as a potential customer too high.

duncanc

thanks for the various bits of advice. I might need to start another thread in the Technical forum about my hosting requirements.

Grumbler, I don't know much about Visa Debit cards, any recommendations?

Looking at the cashback cards, I don't see anything that's really going to be worthwhile getting, the cash to be made from the amount I expect to put through the card will be minimal. I'm thinking I'll probably just get an Egg card.

grumbler

duncanc wrote:

...Visa Debit cards, any recommendations?

For foreign transactions Nationwide debit card (Visa-Delta; comes with flexaccount) is the best as it does not have currency exchange charge and the rate is pure Visa exchange rate - very close to interbank rate.

deemy2004

duncanc wrote:

I'm 30 years old and never needed/wanted a credit card before. Now I might need one, should I bother getting one? My situation:
Need to buy webhosting for a large, busy site. My current hosts (UK based) are offering an upgrade deal that'll cost at least £200/month initially. This is on a shared server (if that means anything to you). I can get a better deal by getting a dedicated server (think: better than shared) from the USA for a lot less (about $120 - $160/month, i.e. roughly half the price and for a better package).
But to do this I have to have a Visa/Amex/Mastercard, none of the competitive hosting companies I've looked at will allow for payment by PayPal etc. Unless anyone knows any different...

So my plan is to get a Visa card, and ensure I only use it for this and nothing else, and setup a standing order to always transfer enough into it each month to remain in credit. Does this sound workable? Assume I know almost nothing about how CC's work. Any recommendations, advice etc appreciated.

Paypal is 100 times riskier than credit cards.....

Yeh any card will do, since your spending aim for the cashback cards such as amex

duncanc

today I spent 20 minutes with a nice lady in the Nationwide filling in her forms on the computer, until at the end it told me I had been declined, no reason given. Apparently I get a letter confirming why in about a week's time.

So, while I wait for that, are there any other credit cards which don't charge on foreign transactions? As I expect to use this almost exclusively for payment to a company in the US, this would be handy.