How to cope with no credit card

7roland8

But I have to ask, and this is intended in pleasantly jokey way..'cesspit emptying??!!

Yep - has to be sucked out - we live in country and the sucker lorry comes - but cost £130 I think and when its needed its needed immediately as it gets you can't flush loo or let water out of bath (yuck!).

Musky Pea - like the idea of your little jars.

Think its a vicious circle with cards - as you end up paying so much a month on them you then have to use a card to pay for stuff before the end of the month - not criticising others - more about me!

PixieNOTalot

I find it hard but always seem to scrape by somehow... so far......:o I think so long as you allow yourself enough in your budget for most things even if things do go wrong you have a bit of a slush fund! Have been on DMP for just over a year now and have to say its the best thing I could have done but it isnt easy and like this month - several emergencies have left me broke (blocked drain £100 - Vet Bill £215 :eek:) until 21st when I will have to wait to get paid to do our Christmas shopping (presents included) but I know that is doable and probably for some normal anyway I have no money until then and I mean NO money. Have food in fridge and petrol in the car and heat for the house but if anything happens between now and 21st I will have to go figure!

I dont know how but you do always seem to find it from somewhere, somehow - I dont know how I would cope if something really major happened though like car going bang or heating breaking down - I guess I would just have to save and wait or grab lifts .

It destroys your budget in so far as wiping out your other savings for other things but I just have no other way of covering this as every time I seem to start to build up my budget pots something else happens - I guess thats life though

7roland8

It destroys your budget in so far as wiping out your other savings for other things but I just have no other way of covering this as every time I seem to start to build up my budget pots something else happens - I guess thats life though

Yes know what you mean - as soon as you think things are going well a big bill turns up - we had £400+ for car in summer with oil delivery then the cesspit - all within a week - and I thought I was doing so good!!!

tallyhoh

We managed perfectly well in the 60's/70's & early 80's, only rich people had credit cards. We didnt expect so much. I have relatives who look like they think you are an alien if you suggest they do without or save for something but they still want stuff that they really cant afford.

I do have a credit card however, I use it for my groceries & clear it at the end of each month, I never purchase anything on it that I dont have money in the bank to cover it.

The credit card company dont like it, especially as I get cash back on my purchases, its costing them money. hehe

quantic

Me and my partner have no credit cards and no overdrafts, we make sure that we have positive balances of over a set amount, this way we have credit available in a crisis situation and make sure it gets topped up. I call it a positive overdraft. We do not buy anything we cannot afford to pay for in cash so save up for things instead. By the time we have the money to pay for it, we have generally got a much better idea of if we actually need it so we waste much less on crap.

Probably quite sad for a 26 year old...

quintwins

we got our first creditcard last month, before that we had the attitude of if you don't have the money you do without, now i'm struggling to acually use it because it feels wrong i'm only using it to build up my credit rating for things like food and desil, and our limit is way below how much we have in the bank so we can always pay it

we also would have saved for stuff and we got married at 18/19 and always have done looking round my house everything we have was either given to us, gifted bought 2nd hand or shopped around for the best offer going, i do think this is better because you really do have to think about if you acually need it before you buy it rather than impulse buy, i guess it's a mind set just like spending on credit is a mindset, for us we make sure all our bills are paid before we buy anything non essential, our surplus each month can cover heating oil and as we rent we don't really need to cover anymore than oil or a new washing machine ect (we pay cover on these anyway)

ariba10

We are lucky in that there were no CC when married.

You only bought what you could pay for. --- Knew no different.

Have a cash back CC card now, but only use it when there is enough money in current account to cover purchases.

The cash back is paid out each January.

andrew-the-cat

Is this a serious thread?? I have coped so far without a credit card, I have one now but I don't see it as a loan, I will not spend more than I can afford. I don't have an overdraft on my main current account (I have one on my backup account but haven't been overdrawn since I was a student - over 2 years ago) and I even manage to put a decent amount of my wages in an ISA each month.

LetThereBeCupcakes

What do people do about internet shopping? I'd love to give up the credit card once and for all, but I'm reluctant to give out my bank details online. I only buy what I can afford (these days!), and pay it back each month. You also have some protection from fraud - my credit card was once cloned, and I was not liable for the purchases the culprit made. But what if they'd hacked into my bank account? They could wipe me out before I knew what was happening.
Some hotels abroad won't let you check in without a credit card, either.

oliviarosejackson

I have not been able to obtain credit since 2007, when I stupidly got into that much debt that I ended up in an IVA. Well it was one of the best things to happen to me (not the IVA, but the being able to understand the value of money). I have been in credit ever since.

I am so much more careful now with my money and only spend what I have got. Once I am clear of this IVA I can't wait to start saving.

Never again will I have an OD or a CC. OH had an £800 OD on his account from his student days and I have finally budgeted so that we have cleared that. OH credit rating is great, but we now have not OD or CC. We only spend what we have in the bank.